Course Identification

The following topics will be discussed: Centrality of mechanisms in biology. Describing biological mechanisms, what does it include? Describing phenomena and their contribution to the understanding of mechanisms. Mechanisms in teaching biology and evaluating mechanistic explanations. In the last few classes, students will begin preparing their final assignment and discuss it with their classmates.

Upon successful completion of the course students should be able to:

1. Demonstrate an understanding of the philosophy behind the search for mechanisms in the field of Biology
2. Acknowledge the importance of teaching mechanisms
3. Demonstrate awareness of the teaching choices regarding which parts of a specific mechanism should be taught and which should remain as a black box.
4. Enable to evaluate mechanistic explanations separated from the content knowledge

Abrams, E., & Southerland, S. (2001). The how's and why's of biological change: How learners neglect physical mechanisms in their search for meaning. International Journal of Science Education, 23(12), 1271-1281.

Craver, C. F., & Darden, L. (2013). In search of mechanisms: Discoveries across the life sciences: University of Chicago Press.

Duncan, R. G. (2007). The role of domain-specific knowledge in generative reasoning about complicated multileveled phenomena. Cognition and Instruction, 25(4), 271-336.

Russ, R. S., Scherr, R. E., Hammer, D., & Mikeska, J. (2008). Recognizing mechanistic reasoning in student scientific inquiry: A framework for discourse analysis developed from philosophy of science. Science Education, 92(3), 499-525.