bambed launches the “bridging the gap” series

Editorial

BAMBED Launches the ‘‘Bridging the Gap’’ Series

Received for publication, October 9, 2007

Judith G. Voet‡

From the Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania 19081

In this issue of Biochemistry and Molecular BiologyEducation (BAMBED), we begin a new feature section,‘‘Bridging the Gap’’ between science education researchand its application in teaching practice. There is muchresearch being done on how students learn science, andhow we can best incorporate innovative education tech-niques into our classes to better address student learn-ing. This research, unfortunately, is published in scienceeducation research journals such as the Journal ofResearch in Science Teaching, while most instructorsread more practical education journals such as Biochem-istry and Molecular Biology Education. As a result, thisimportant research is not reaching the very people it isdesigned to help: college and university science facultyand their students. At the same time, science instructorsare experimenting with innovative education techniqueswithout doing the research necessary to determine ifthey are actually better at helping students learn. Thisnew ‘‘Bridging the Gap’’ column has as its purpose tohelp instructors better understand the work being donein the science education research community as well asto provide better tools for evaluating the effectivenessof the innovations they attempt in their classrooms andlaboratories.

This section is edited by Prof. Trevor R. Anderson,Head of the Science Education Research Group (SERG)and Associate Professor in Biochemistry, Science Educa-tion and Ethics at the School of Biochemistry, Genetics,Microbiology and Plant Pathology, University of KwaZulu-Natal (Pietermaritzburg), South Africa. Over the past 15years, Prof. Anderson has built up one of the world’s firstscience education research groups (SERG) that is specif-

ically located within a Biochemistry and Genetics Depart-ment and which graduates students with the same Doc-toral and Masters’ Degrees as other research areaswithin the discipline. His graduate students focus on theassessment of student conceptual understanding andvisual literacy in science, including the identification andremediation of conceptual and visualization difficultiesamong students studying biochemistry, molecular bio-logy, genetics, biology, chemistry, and mathematics. Heis particularly interested in symbolic language and howone can improve the design and use of models such asdiagrams, computer images, and animations, so thatthey can enhance the development of the conceptualknowledge and visualization skills that are so essentialfor all bioscientists. He has designed and developed aresource of student’s conceptual and reasoning difficul-ties (CARD) in science (see http://www.card.unp.ac.za),which is aimed at developing research capacity in thearea of student difficulties and teacher competence attertiary and secondary levels. This resource has a strongfocus on chemistry but is currently being expanded intobiology and molecular science.

The first two articles on bridging the educationalresearch-teaching practice gap, which are written byProfessor Anderson and appear in this issue, are ‘‘TheImportance of Bridging the Gap Between Science Edu-cation Research and Its Application in BiochemistryTeaching and Learning: Barriers and Strategies’’ and‘‘The Power of Assessment.’’ We are very happy thatProf. Anderson has agreed to edit this new feature sec-tion. We welcome your comments and suggestionson this new section and all other aspects of BAMBED.

‡ To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel.: 610-328-8520; Fax: 610-328-7355. E-mail: jvoet1@swarthmore.edu.

This paper is available on line at http://www.bambed.org DOI 10.1002/bambed.20148391

Q 2007 by The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology BIOCHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY EDUCATION

Vol. 35, No. 6, pp. 391, 2007