Workshop Biology: Demonstrating the Effectiveness of Active Learning in an Introductory Biology Course

T University of Oregon’s Workshop Biology curriculum is one of many experimental approaches to teaching introductory college-level science that emerged during the last decade (Lawson et al. 1990, Ebert-May et al. 1997, Laws 1997, McNeal and D’Avanzo 1997, Wyckoff 2001). Our motivation for developing Workshop Biology came partly from a concern that, despite generally favorable student course evaluations, our traditional approaches (for example, teacherdirected, “cookbook” activities and demonstrations) did not provide students with valuable skills or even with a body of knowledge that lasted much beyond the end of the term. The Workshop Biology project aimed at improving science literacy among nonscience majors in the context of a major research university. The curriculum was developed, implemented, and evaluated during the period 1991–1994. The project included both the development of the Workshop Biology course (a three-term, lab-based introductory sequence for nonscience majors) and a thorough evaluation of its effectiveness as compared with a traditional lecture-based course. The Workshop Biology curriculum incorporated three leading approaches in science education reform: (1) directly confronting students’ misconceptions through concrete experiences, or what we refer to as “conceptual change”; (2) integrating “science as inquiry” into the underlying philosophy of the course; and (3) introducing science in context. The idea of “conceptual change”was drawn from the very successful Workshop Physics approach (Thornton and Sokoloff 1990, Laws 1997), which focuses on identifying common misconceptions and then confronting them through concrete experiences. We drew the name for our course, Workshop Biology, from this approach. Programs that teach “science as inquiry” focus on the need for students to experience the process of science in order to view science as a way of knowing, rather than as a body of knowledge. For example, the BioQUEST curriculum consortium’s “3 P’s” model, problem posing, problem solving, and peer persuasion (Peterson and Jungck 1988), helps students gain skills in the full range of scientific practice. Similarly, case studies can motivate students to search out information and develop analytical skills needed to solve a problem presented by a realistic, interesting case (Herreid 1994a, 1994b). Finally, programs addressing “science in context”focus on the personal and social