Working within a scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) perspective requires a rigorous approach based on conceptual frameworks in order to build on previous developments. Nevertheless, in health sciences education, the development, implementation, and evaluation of many educational innovations are carried out without an underlying conceptual…

It has been argued that for novice students to acquire a full understanding of scientific texts, they also need to pursue a recurrent construction of their comprehension of scientific concepts. The course dossier method has students examine concepts in multiple passes: (a) through reflective writing on text before it is considered in the…

A first year non-majors biology course, with an enrollment of around 440 students, has been redesigned from a course of traditional content and teaching style to one that emphasizes biological concepts in current global issues and incorporates active learning strategies. We were informed by the education literature incorporating many aspects of…