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1 The principles behind
secondary biology teaching

Michael J. Reiss and Mark Winterbottom
Introduction
In this book, our aim is to help biology to be taught so that students at
secondary school (we have in mind particularly the 11–16 age range) build an
excellent understanding of the subject, enhance their interest in it and learn
to connect ideas from disparate areas of biology. There are twelve chapters,
this one and then eleven that look at particular areas within biology – such as
‘cells’ or ‘evolution’ – and discuss how each might be taught.
This book is one of a series of three Association for Science Education
handbooks, the others being parallel volumes in chemistry and physics. The
first edition of this book was published in 1999, over 20 years ago; the second
edition in 2011, a decade ago. This third edition retains the basic structure of
the previous editions but includes a number of new authors and all chapters
have been substantially revised and brought up to date.
The author team has kept in mind a secondary teacher confronted with the
task of teaching a specific topic, such as respiration or ecosystems, and the
preparation they would need to undertake. What does such a teacher need
to produce a series of effective lessons, that will also engage learners and
enhance or sustain their curiosity? Some teachers will approach this task
with an excellent understanding of the topic. However, we have kept in mind
that not all teachers of secondary biology have a degree in the subject and
that, even if they do, very few degrees cover all of secondary school biology.
We hope that all teachers of secondary school biology, even if they have been
teaching the subject for some time, will find much of value in here.
This chapter examines the discipline of biology and discusses approaches
to teaching which enable students to engage in the discipline, to build their
identity as biologists and to learn conceptual ideas in the subject.
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1 The principles behind secondary biology teaching
1.1 What is biology?

It is standard for biology textbooks to assert that biology is the study of life
– and this is indeed the case if we avoid a narrow interpretation that might
exclude the inorganic building blocks of life, important non-living features
of the environment (temperature, salinity and so on) and the fate of dead
organisms (decay and/or fossilisation).
Key concepts in biology

There are a number of key concepts within biology, perhaps more than in
chemistry or physics. There is no particular order that has been shown to be best
for introducing these to students; indeed, many of them are specific to particular
areas of biology. For example, a crucial realisation in cell and organism biology
was that the cell is a fundamental unit. This insight is usually attributed to Rudolf
Virchow who, in 1858, coined the epigram Omnis cellula e cellula (‘all cells
come from cells’). Virchow was a polymath; in addition to being a biologist (with
some 2000 scientific publications to his name), he was also a prehistorian and
a politician. He was the first to describe and name a number of diseases and
other pathological conditions, including embolism, leukaemia, spina bifida
and thrombosis; he introduced hair analysis into forensics and was the first to
systematise how autopsies were undertaken. At the same time, he was an anti-
evolutionist and called Charles Darwin an ‘ignoramus’, which seems a touch
harsh.
Another key concept (or pair of concepts) within biology – but found in
the other sciences – is to do with the flow of energy and the circulation of
materials. Many students find it difficult to ‘get’ that while both energy (the
law of conservation of energy) and matter (the law of conservation of mass)
are conserved, there is a fundamental asymmetry in that energy moves in
one direction, continuously dissipating, whereas matter circulates; this is true
whether we are thinking at the cellular or ecosystem scale.
Other key concepts that are restricted to biology, and which will be treated in
more depth in succeeding chapters, include:
➜ Reproduction. No organism is immortal and so all organisms need to give
rise to individuals in future generations or become extinct.
➜ Heredity. In giving rise to the next generation, organisms may split into two
(asexual reproduction) or produce specialised structures that enable either
sexual or asexual reproduction. Sexual reproduction means that offspring
typically differ from either of their parents. Information from one generation to
another is carried in genes.

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1.1 What is biology?
➜ Evolution. Over time, organisms change. A key insight of Charles Darwin

and some other biologists, notably his contemporary Alfred Russel
Wallace, was that natural selection is an inevitable consequence of the
overproduction of offspring, what we now call genetics and the pressures
exercised on organisms by the environment.
➜ Homeostasis. All organisms are able to regulate their internal environments
to a very considerable degree – though this is more apparent in some
(including homeotherms, such as most mammals and birds) than in others.
History of biology
Not all students enjoy learning large amounts of history, but small amounts
can enliven the teaching of a topic (think Mendel and genetics, van Helmont
and plant growth, Francis Crick, Rosalind Franklin and James Watson and the
structure of DNA). More importantly, the inclusion of history can help students
get a better understanding of a topic or of the nature of science. For example,
thinking about why Mendel’s work was under-appreciated for some 40 years
can help students to realise that one really can be ‘ahead of one’s time’ and
to appreciate the way in which understanding in science (not just in biology)
depends on the social and scientific context in which a discovery is made.
The story of the way in which the contributions of Francis Crick, Rosalind
Franklin and James Watson to the elucidation of the structure of DNA were
differentially recognised has been a feminist trope for decades. Almost every
student of biology in the 14–19 age range would benefit from reading both
James Watson’s eminently readable, autobiographical The Double Helix: A
Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA (Watson, 1968) and
Anne Sayre’s feminist reclamation of Rosalind Franklin’s contribution, Rosalind
Franklin and DNA (Sayre, 1975).
The story of how van Helmont disproved the idea that plants grow by eating
soil provides a simple yet effective context to learn how scientists can change
scientific understanding through providing evidence to contradict current
ideas. Van Helmont weighed a willow tree and some dry soil. He planted the
willow tree in the soil and added water. Five years later, the willow tree had
substantially gained in weight, but the weight of the dried soil was pretty much
the same. He had used evidence to disprove the theory that plants gain mass
by eating soil. He suggested that trees gain mass by taking in water. One
hundred years later, Nicolas de Saussure provided evidence that trees gain
mass from a gas in the air (that we now know is carbon dioxide).

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1 The principles behind

secondary biology teaching

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1.1 What is biology?

Key concepts in biology

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➜ Evolution. Over time, organisms change. A key insight of Charles Darwin

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