Promoting inquiry-based teaching in laboratory courses: are we meeting the grade?

ABSTRACT: Over the past decade, repeated calls have been made to incorporate more active teaching and learning in undergraduate biology courses. The emphasis on inquiry-based teaching is especially important in laboratory courses, as these are the courses in which students are applying the process of science. To determine the current state of research on inquiry-based teaching in undergraduate biology laboratory courses, we reviewed the recent published literature on inquiry-based exercises. The majority of studies in our data set were in the subdisciplines of biochemistry, cell biology, developmental biology, genetics, and molecular biology. In addition, most exercises were guided inquiry, rather than open ended or research based. Almost 75% of the studies included assessment data, with two-thirds

SUBMITTER: Beck C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4152206 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature