Taking a Scientific Approach to Science Education, Part I–Research: Developing expertise requires intense practice that includes doing challenging and relevant tasks, followed by feedback and reflection on one's performance

During the past few decades, major advances in the fields of cognitive psychology, brain research, and discipline-based education research in college science classrooms are providing guiding principles for how to achieve learning of complex knowledge and skills such as science. In part I, we describe the nature of expertise and how it is learned, primarily based on the findings of cognitive psychology. We also give examples of studies in undergraduate science classrooms and the resulting student outcomes compared with those from traditional lecture instruction.