Res Sci Educ (2010) 40:267289

DOI 10.1007/s11165-008-9107-8

Senior High School Student Biology Learning

in Interactive Teaching
Tan-Ni Lu & Bronwen Cowie & Alister Jones

Published online: 29 November 2008

# Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2008

Abstract This paper reports Grade 12 students biology learning during interactive teaching
classes in 2001 in Taiwan. The researcher as teacher, working within an interpretive framework,
set out to improve her senior high school student biology teaching and learning. An intervention
based on a social constructivist view of learning was designed, implemented and evaluated. The
findings of this study indicate that intervention students cognitive development was facilitated,
their reasoning and social abilities were enhanced, and they enjoyed the lessons more. Their
first term examination outcomes were comparable with those in the traditional teaching classes.
This study, therefore, provides an example for how interactive teaching, based on a social
constructivist view of learning, can be effectively used for teaching and learning biology in the
senior high school in Taiwan.
Keywords A social constructivist view of learning . Interactive teaching .
Pedagogical approaches

Senior High School Biology Learning

In the senior high school biology classroom, it seems that an absence of dialogue promotes
the use of memorisation and rote learning as productive learning approaches for biology
students (Lock 1998). Moreover, when content is taught in isolation from contexts which
give it relevance, students are often not able to make connections between theory and real

T.-N. Lu (*)
Zhongzheng Senior High School, Taipei, Taiwan
e-mail: tannilu@so-net.net.tw
B. Cowie
Wilf Malcolm Institute of Educational Research, The University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand
A. Jones
School of Education, The University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

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life situations (Leonard and Chandler 2003). In contrast to such a teacher-centred approach,
student-centred and student-active teaching approaches are advocated as a way of helping
students learn in a meaningful way (NRC 1996). In these approaches, students are helped to
understand how biology relates to them, and to integrate what they learn into their daily life
(Reiss 2005). Research indicates that assessment stressing factual recall (Lock 1997) cannot
help students achieve genuine understanding (Gardiner and Farragher 1999) and that
teaching and assessment needs to be extended to reflect a broad range of learning and
cognitive outcomes (Cartier and Stewart 2000).
The issue of how to help senior high students learn biology is of particular interest to the
first author as an experienced senior high school biology teacher in Taiwan. She was dissatisfied with the transmission teaching approach being used and wanted to provide students
with more interesting and effective learning experiences. To this end, she undertook the
doctoral study which forms the basis for this paper. The first phase of this doctoral study,
conducted from 1999 to 2000, indicated that both students and teachers were dissatisfied with
their learning and teaching (Lu 2006). The students learned passively, and the teaching did
not stimulate their interest or cultivate their processing abilities. There was little evidence
that student learning reached the goals set out in the senior high school biology curriculum
standards in Taiwan (Ministry of Education of ROC 1996) which included cognitive
aspects, process and skill aspects as well as affective aspects such as cultivating student
interest and helping them see how ideas about biology could apply to issues they encountered
in their daily life. An intervention based on a social constructivist view of learning was
devised to help the students gain a better understanding of biology concepts, activate their
learning interest toward learning biology, and facilitate thinking to learn actively. This paper
reports on senior high school students learning of biology through interactive teaching of
biology theory.

Interactive Teaching
The intervention design for this study is based on a social constructivist view of learning. It
focuses on building on students existing knowledge, and constructing meaning in a manner
that takes account of Confucian-heritage culture. A key aspect of Confucian-heritage culture
relevant to this study is the value placed on examination success: students strive for academic
achievement to gain a bright future and bring honour to their families. In contrast, social
constructivist views of learning are increasingly being employed in science education internationally (Duit and Treagust 1998). This view of learning is concerned with the contribution
of social interaction to the construction of knowledge (Hodson and Hodson 1998). Such
construction of meaning occurs when students negotiate understandings through class
discussion and by exchanging opinions (Prawat 1989). In this theory, it is recommended that
scientific concepts are applied to real-life situations (Howe 1996).
Previous research indicates that an interactive approach can assist the development of
concepts in science (Stamovlasis et al. 2006); an interactive approach can enhance student
science attitudes (Brunkhorst 1992); and discussion can facilitate the development of deep
learning (Brown 1994). In biology teaching and learning, interactions with the living world
and its ecosystems and the construction of knowledge about it are, as in all sciences,
fundamental. Student learning of biology not only involves incorporating new concepts into
their conceptual framework but also interacting within the social and physical context
(Hodson and Hodson 1998). Through these interactions, students begin to use the appropriate
scientific language, and are socialised into the biological science community. To make

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biology concepts more meaningful, a teacher can encourage students to integrate what they
have learned into their daily life. The link between their real experiences and biologists
concepts can help students to develop a more concrete understanding of these concepts
(Howe 1996).
Pedagogies based on a social constructivist view of learning focus on promoting student
understanding through social interactions. They focus on teachers identifying student misconceptions and then helping to promote student conceptual change towards science ideas.
Research indicates that the questioning-teaching approach can be helpful because it not only
facilitates student reflection on ideas but is also effective for gaining insight into students
prior concepts, and for promoting higher-order thinking (Brogan and Brogan 1995; Julian
1995; Nola 1997). Student alternative conceptions are acknowledged which can encourage
them to construct meaning for the natural world (Driver et al. 1985). Through group work,
knowledge is constructed socially through debate and/or the exchange of opinions (Barbosa
et al. 2004). Interaction with peers and the teacher can guide students to reconsider their
ideas and help them adopt more scientific explanations. Assessment for learning techniques
are consonant with the approach because the focus is on identifying what students know
in order to build on this so that students learning is improved through the closer integration
of teaching and learning (Bell and Cowie 2001).

Interactive Teaching in this Study

There are five principles that underpin interactive teaching in the research study described in
this paper. The principles take account of social constructivist views of learning/pedagogies.
The principles are: (a) shift in the roles of the teacher and the students; (b) encouraging
studentteacher and studentstudent interactions; (c) emphasising both knowledge and the
learning process; (d) linking teaching content to everyday life; and (e) adopting assessment
for learning. In the intervention, a situation was created so that students could take more
responsibility for their own learning. In this case the teacher fulfilled her duty by helping
students develop their thinking rather than by transmitting knowledge to them. Based on a
social constructivist view of learning, both studentteacher and studentstudent interactions
were encouraged as a way of students exploring differences between them and evaluating
ideas (Prawat 1989). In regular classroom settings in Taiwan, teachers tend to transmit
information and do not expect contributions from students (Yang 2002). In Taiwan, teaching
which assists students to gain top marks in the joint entrance examination, normally teachercentred, is perceived as effective teaching (Huang et al. 1998). Teachers usually impart only
the information that is likely to appear in the entrance examinations (Yang 1994). Studentcentred teaching is often criticised on the grounds of the teachers lack of diligence and that
student learning is less when compared with teacher-centred teaching (Huang et al. 1998). In
order to increase student success rates, teachers in Taiwan utilise supplementary exercises,
and tend to instruct students in how to compose the correct answer to test items rather
than encouraging thinking (Yang and Fraser 1998). Overall, this leads to the teaching in
secondary schools being conservative and rigid. In contrast, the intervention in this study,
which focussed on interaction, provided more opportunities for the teacher to explore
student understanding of the intended learning outcomes and their motivation for learning.
Moreover, the intervention not only focused on what students were learning but also on the
development of their abilities in reasoning. This, too, was different from the traditional
teaching in which the product or biological knowledge was usually emphasised. To make
biological concepts more real to the students, the intervention used application activities to

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help them link their everyday experiences to the scientific concepts to be learned in the
biology lessons. Examples included an activity in Lesson 2 requiring students to design a
healthy meal incorporating vitamin and mineral supplementation and another in Lesson 5
asking them to propose some applications of hypertonic, hypotonic and isotonic solutions in
their lives. Activities like this are seldom seen in traditional teaching. The assessment used
was broadened to include assessment for learning to allow the teacher to assess the students
by way of ongoing question-feedback, and to provide them with assistance based on their
needs. This also helped guide the direction of teaching and learning. In traditional teaching
at secondary school level, assessment is quite often narrow in that it is a quiz or semester
examination focusing on factual recall with the purpose of grading students (Lin 2000).

Research Methods
The study was based on the interpretive paradigm (Cohen et al. 2000). The following
research questions guided the research:
1. Is interactive teaching feasible in the senior biology classroom in Taiwan?
2. What is the effect on student learning and attitudes of an intervention programme that
emphasises interaction?
Setting and Participants
Data were collected through classroom observations, student interviews, questionnaires and
tests. The study was conducted in a co-ed senior high school where the first author was a
teacher. There were six Grade 12 biology classes at the time of the interactive teaching; the
teacher as researcher taught five of these six classes (as assigned by the school). Students
destined for careers in agriculture, science, medicine and technology are required to take
biology in Grades 11 and 12. They are randomly allocated to a biology class in Grade 11.
However, some students change their career aspirations and drop biology before Grade 12,
so the Grade 12 class numbers taught by the researcher were 59, 51, 49, 38, and 36. The
two classes with the fewest students were chosen as intervention classes because the
intention was to explore ways to increase interaction between the students themselves and
between the students and the teacher. It was anticipated that this would be a challenging
task and that working with more than 40 students would make it even more so. The
remaining four classes were taught in the traditional way, one by a colleague of the
researcher. The participating students had a similar demographic profile in terms of ability
and biology marks in Grade 11 to those in the classes not involved in the intervention.
Data Collection Methods
Data about the intervention were collected using two tests, one before and one after the
intervention, classroom observations during the intervention, and student interviews and
questionnaires after the intervention. All the interviews and lesson dialogues were audiorecorded and then simultaneously transcribed and translated into English from Mandarin
Chinese by the researcher as teacher. The tests and questionnaires were likewise conducted
in Mandarin Chinese and then translated into English. The flow of the intervention and the
data generating strategies used at each phase are set out in Table 1.

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Table 1 The timing, focus, and data collection methods in the intervention
Time

Focus

Pre-intervention
2001 Aug Student test achievement pre-intervention
Conducting the intervention
SepOct Implementing the intervention

Data collection methods

Pre-test
Student assignments
Classroom observation

Evaluating the intervention

Oct
Student test achievement post-intervention
Post-test
Student evaluation of the intervention
Student Interview
Student views of the traditional and interactive teaching Questionnaire A1(traditional classes),
A2 (intervention classes)

Tests
A pre- and post-test were constructed for the research. The tests maintained the traditional
format that was required in the school context. Students sat the pre-test before the intervention
to determine their biology understandings and the post-test after the intervention teaching to
allow for comparison of student test achievement in the traditional and interactive teaching. The
questions in the tests were different but tested the same content. The post-test also served as the
students first term examination. Table 2 gives examples of the test questions which focused
on student biology concepts and life application.
Student test and exam performance was not the focus of this studythe aim was to
motivate students to engage in meaningful learning. Nevertheless, to be viable and credible
the intervention needed to maintain student achievement within the existing testing regime,
both school and national. Traditional school tests were used pre and post the intervention
for this reason. The researcher could also be sure students would take the tests seriously. A
further reason for using traditional tests was that data could be collected from the nonintervention and the intervention students. In the Taiwan context, as elsewhere, it needs to
be remembered that a teacher does not have ultimate control over a number of issues, and
the school and national testing approaches is one of these. The teacher as researcher (Borko
et al. 2007; Hesen 1996), the school and the students were taking a risk in trying something
new in a context in which student achievement on the standard test was the ultimate criterion
for success as judged by the students and their parents, irrespective of any insights gained for
research purposes. That is, this was not a study done by an independent researcher with
students and parents who did not have goals and expectations of their own.
The Intervention and Classroom Observation
The survey outcomes from the first stage of the study (Lu 2006) indicated that 66% of the
523 student respondents thought the main weakness of their biology classes was that the
teaching approach was monotonous. Just over half of the respondents (53%) wished their
teachers would include more interaction in lessons so as to provide them with more
opportunities for active involvement. Questioning, feedback and discussion were chosen as
a focus for this study in an attempt to achieve this. Another reason for choosing these
strategies is that they are consistent with the notion that knowledge is socially constructed.
Discussion, potentially, helps students construct their own biology knowledge and
understandings. It also assists the teacher to understand what students are thinking.

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Table 2 Sample questions for biology concepts and life application

Biology Concepts
Cyanide, a metabolic poison, interferes with the cellular aerobic production of ATP. Which cell
organelle does cyanide most directly influence first in this situation? (a) nucleus; (b) lysosome;
(c) mitochondria; (d) ribosome; (e) endoplasmic reticulum. (Pre-test)
A human foetus webbed hand turns into five fingers. Which of the following organelles is most
related to this statement? (a) mitochondria; (b) Golgi body; (c) lysosome; (d) endoplasmic
reticulum; (e) ribosome. (Post-test)
Life Application
Which of the following statements relevant to tonicity is incorrect? (a) Salty prunes are preserved
in a hypertonic solution; (b) Water is a kind of hypotonic solution to the flowers which are dipped
in it; (c) An I.V. injection is a kind of isotonic solution to the human body; (d) The mechanism
of red wine production is osmosis; (e) Blood is a kind of isotonic solution to blood cells. (Pre-test)
The detail of the concentration of cholesterol in Marys blood is in the following table. According
to the table, Mary should: (a) do regular follow up; (b) take medicine for decreasing cholesterol
immediately; (c) take medicine for decreasing fatty acid inthe blood immediately; (d) stop taking
any food containing cholesterol; (e) become a vegetarian. (Post-test)
Check item
Cholesterol
Triglyceride
High Density Lipoprotein
Low Density Lipoprotein

Marys results
203
50
65
118

Regular values
130-200
35-160
Male : > 35 Female : > 60
< 130-160

The intervention was devised to improve senior high school student learning in theory
teaching classes. It had to cover the syllabus and proceed on a school-determined schedule
because the participant students were in Grade 12 and would take a significant examination
at the end of the school year. Cell Biology was chosen as the teaching topic because it
followed a school-assigned teaching schedule.
The teaching content was not fully restricted to the textbooks. Any points relevant to the
teaching topics were open to be proposed and discussed by the students. Each lesson began
with 10 minutes of initiating and focus questions. These questions were intended to activate
student prior knowledge, stimulate student interest in the topic, and encourage students to
use thinking as a learning strategy. The questioning activity was followed by 20 minutes of
group discussion. In the last 20 minutes of a lesson, groups presented their ideas then the
teacher orchestrated a whole class discussion which was followed by application tasks and
assignments. During the activities the students observed, modified their ideas and then
convinced others through the interpretation of evidence to develop a public consensus. This
intervention provided students with time and opportunity to interact with peers and the
teacher. In this way the intervention students had a greater opportunity to interact compared
with the traditional students who mainly listened to the teacher.
The intervention lasted for 5 weeks of one or two lessons per week in September and
October in 2001. In this study, the researcher was also the teacher who implemented the
intervention. This meant it was important that the students were aware of when she was
gathering data for research purposes. When the participating students were asked to fill out the
questionnaire, the researcher as teacher explained to them that the questionnaires were for

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research purposes only, and would have no effect on their grades. The intention here was to
make them feel secure and assure them that there would be no potential harm as a result of
their forthrightness. The researcher as teacher observed the students whilst she conducted the
intervention. She kept observational head notes and audio-taped the classroom dialogues. She
did not take field notes but jotted down key points during the teaching. She made full notes
immediately after a lesson. In addition, informal student interviews were undertaken. Classroom
dialogues were recorded and transcribed as soon as possible after a lesson, and the insights
gained used to inform the remainder of the intervention and observation process.
Interviews
An interview guide approach (Patton 2002) was adopted for interviewing the students because
a conversational approach was considered more likely to promote student willingness to share
their opinions. The interview questions guided students to discuss specific topics and issues.
The intention of the student interviews was to identify student views about the interactive
teaching, including the features, the learning outcomes, differences from previous lecture
classes, and their suggestions and ideas about student and teacher responsibilities in learning
and teaching. Twenty-three of the intervention class students were interviewed. The researcher
administered Tsais Pomeroy Questionnaire (the Chinese version of the Pomeroy Questionnaire) to investigate students scientific epistemological views (this part of the research is not
shown in this paper). The interview subjects were chosen based on the scores students obtained
in Tsais Pomeroy Questionnaire. The class was divided into three groups based on their scores
in the questionnaire. The first group was students with high scores, the second was students
with middle scores and the third group was students with low scores. Seven students were
randomly selected from the high and low score groups, and six from the middle group, giving a
total of 20 students. Three students, when hearing that their classmates were asked to be
interviewed, volunteered to be interviewed, as they wanted to share their feelings about the new
teaching with the teacher. Most of their comments were negative. Table 3 provides example
questions from the interview.
Questionnaires
Both traditional and intervention classes of students were surveyed. The survey questionnaire
consisted of 21 agree-disagree statements on a 5-point Likert scale. The questions focused on

Table 3 Student views about the interactive teaching

Student interview sample questions
Features of the theory classes
What are the features of the current theory classes?
Differences from previous lecture classes
What are the differences between the current theory classes and the previous lecture classes?
Learning outcomes
What have you learned from peer discussion?
Suggestions from students
Do you have any suggestions for improving the theory classes?
Ideas about student and teacher responsibility for learning and teaching
What responsibility do you think the teacher and student should take in teaching and learning?

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student ideas about learning, teaching and an overall evaluation of the intervention. The
questions were designed by the researcher based on a review of international science education
research literature and the responses from students and teachers in phase one of the research in
19992000 (Lu 2006). Phase one elicited student and teacher opinions of the current teaching
and learning processes in senior high school biology in 12 classes from three schools. The
participants (four traditional classes and two intervention classes of students) of this study
were from one of the three schools. Table 4 lists sample questions from the sections focusing
on learning, teaching and overall evaluation.
Data Analysis
The quantitative non-parametric data from the student perception questionnaire were analysed
using a MannWhitney U test to compare the intervention and traditional class responses
(Bernard 2000). The data from the pre- and post-tests were analysed using a gain percentage
(Gain %) measure. A gain percentage measure was used by Hake (1998) to compare the test
scores of the college students taking introductory mechanics courses which used two different
types of instruction: traditional/conventional and interactive-engagement approaches. As
described by Hake, these can be seen to parallel the traditional and intervention approaches
used in this study. The Gain % is defined by Hake as the ratio of the actual average gain to the
maximum possible gain, that is the Gain %=(postscoreprescore)/(100prescore)100%.
Hake suggested this could be used as a rough measure of the average effectiveness of a
course in promoting conceptual understanding. It is used for this purpose in this study. Data
arising from student interviews and classroom observations were categorised and organised
to identify themes, and then interpretation was employed to search for meaning. Themes and
interpretations were discussed with the researchers supervisors over three iterations of testing
and refining. These data were also discussed with two biology university educators. Through
interpretation of the data, coherent answers to the major descriptive questions were arrived
at (Patton 2002).
Strategies to Ensure Trustworthiness
A range of strategies was used to ensure the trustworthiness of the data collection and analysis
processes. Two science education researchers checked the face validity of the English version
of the interview questions and the questionnaire. A biology education researcher and two of
the researchers colleagues checked the questions in each of the tests to make sure they were
clear, suitable for the students level and covered the correct content. The tests were deliberately
formulated so that they were generally consistent with what the students were used to. This
while, it could be seen as a limitation in terms of the research data gathered, was important for
meeting the researchers obligations as a teacher within the participating school and also
ensured students were likely to understand the nature of the responses required. The Chinese
Table 4 Student perceptions about the learning, teaching, and overall evaluation
Learning
Clear notes would be better than learning from discussion.
Teaching
The teaching content is related to my daily life.
Overall evaluation
I am very satisfied with the current biology classes.

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translation was checked by a science educator who was also a biologist and fluent in both
English and Chinese. She also checked the face validity of the two tests.
While the intervention took 5 weeks, the researcher had spent the previous year (August
2000 to August 2001) as the classroom teacher of the two classes involved in the
intervention. During this time she worked to build the rapport and trust necessary for the
implementation of an innovation that would challenge student expectations of teacher and
student roles. During the year prior to the intervention she observed the participant students
to identify important issues and aspects of the context that were relevant to the ideas being
pursued. The researcher collected data across the full time of the teaching intervention. She
frequently discussed with a disinterested peer the data she was collecting and her analysis
and conclusions from the data. This helped the researcher reflect on and better understand
her own stance, values and role within the study, both as the teacher of the innovation and
as the researcher of the innovation. The analysis of the transcripts of the interviews and
lesson dialogues was member checked by participants. Qualitative data from the interviews
and classroom observations were compared with and supplemented by quantitative data
from the questionnaire and tests.

Results
The intervention described here covered the syllabus for Grade 12 Biology that needed to
be taught before the first term examination in the fall of semester 2001. The main teaching
content was cell biology. Data deriving from classroom observations, test outcomes, and
student questionnaires and interviews demonstrated student learning in the interactive
teaching intervention as follows:
The Classroom Interactions
Four typical classroom dialogues are presented. The dialogues illustrate the ways in which
the students constructed knowledge in social contexts, changed their concepts, engaged in
deeper thinking, and reflected on ideas through the use of questioning teaching approaches.
During the intervention students offered and debated ideas to develop new understandings
with the support of the teacher and in co-operation with their peers. The researcher as a
teacher had not seen such student behaviour in her previous more traditional teaching. She
experienced more genuine student involvement in the intervention than in her previous
teaching. Through the intervention, she was more aware of how her students learned, and
her continuing reflection contributed to her knowledge of teaching. The four dialogues
presented here are just some of many that took place during the teaching and learning.
The intervention aimed to help students clarify their ideas and prompt conceptual change.
The questioning-teaching approach in which the teacher responds to all answers with a further
question was frequently used to achieve this. In using this approach, the researcher as teacher
needed to be aware that some students might feel uncomfortable with assertive questioning if
she had not explained her reasons for this form of questioning. Therefore, before the
commencement of the interactive teaching, the students were told that the teacher would
propose questions rather than provide answers to help them develop their thinking skills.
However, some of the teachers questions were relatively closed questions because she
needed to open up her questions slowly to build students confidence in responding and her
own questioning confidence and experience. The first dialogue illustrates the way students
constructed knowledge through group work, and extended their thinking through teacher

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questioning. It shows a discussion about the DNA in different cells of the one individual.
Students clarified concepts through question-feedback from the teacher. The dialogue was:
T: Does every cell have the same genes in our body?
S1: Maybe not.
S2: It does. The cells in one individual have the same DNA.
To understand where the student S2s idea came from, the teacher asked:
T: But how can you make sure the cells in one individual have the same DNA?
S3: They come from the same fertilized egg.
The teacher began the sequence with a question. Her response to student replies in a
traditional class would have been to confirm or deny the students response. Here, she
encouraged students to continue thinking by posing a further question to which student S3 gave
an acceptable scientific explanation. What was also notable in the continuation of this dialogue
was that a number of students contributed answers. This is something that is, in the teachers
experience, unusual in Taiwan senior lessons. Following this, the other students debated the
relationship between cell genes, shapes and function. Finally, they reached a consensus that the
more the cell shape matched the cell function, the stronger the possibility of survival of the cell.
To make sure the students knew that cell shape was tightly related to function, the teacher asked,
T: What is the advantage of a branch-shaped nerve cell?.
S4: It is helpful to transmit information. If it had a round shape, the information
wouldnt go far.
This answer indicated that the student had a real comprehension of the relevance of cell
shape and function. The students when interviewed at the end of the intervention commented
that the teachers questions prompted their thinking and helped them to clarify their concepts.
A typical student comment was: When the teacher raises questions, we need to think by
ourselves. Very often, the concepts were not as we supposed them to be. This comment
supports the importance of teacher questioning in fostering students real understanding. It
also encouraged the teacher as researcher to develop her questioning skills.
In the second dialogue, a comparison of chloroplasts and mitochondria (both are cell
energy-related organelles which are membranous sacs, envelopes and other compartmented
portions of the cytoplasm, with double membranes) was made to help students clarify these
two concepts. Students often confuse the two organelles because of their common attributes
and in this dialogue teacher questioning served a dual function of eliciting student ideas and
guiding them to extend their thinking as a form of formative feedback. For example, one
idea raised by a student was about the division reproduction of these two cell organelles:
T: What are the differences between mitochondria and chloroplasts?
S5: Mitochondria can duplicate and divide but chloroplasts cant (many students
responded, but S5 spoke the loudest).
The teacher probed to find out how the students came to this opinion. She asked:
T: Why do you think so?
S5: According to the description in the textbook on page 49, it says mitochondria can
duplicate and divide, but doesnt mention that chloroplasts can.

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The teacher thought the student might not have a real understanding of the idea because
of his reference to the textbook and so she asked another question to help him think more
deeply:
T: Do you think chloroplasts have a limited number when a young leaf grows to a
mature leaf?
S5: No, they will increase along with the leaf, because the latter one is bigger and
greener than the former one.
In response, the student provided a scientific explanation which showed his reasoning
ability, not just his recall of facts. The teacher posed another question to extend his knowledge.
T: How does a normal cell increase?
S5: Through duplicating and dividing. But a chloroplast is an organelle rather than a
cell.
Again this student indicated he was unsure. The teacher used questions to stimulate his
thinking.
T: What is the essential factor a divided cell needs to have?
S5: DNA. The cell can duplicate and divide if it has DNA.
T: Do chloroplasts have DNA?
S5: They do. Oh, so they can duplicate and divide!
Finally the student realised that chloroplasts can divide. This example is of interest
because it illustrates that students can think more deeply and reflect on their own ideas in
response to teacher questioning which encourages them to clarify their conceptual
understanding. This students response indicated that conceptual change had occurred.
The teacher felt a sense of satisfaction at the conclusion of the dialogue. The students
response indicated that he, too, was pleased to have achieved a new understanding. This
sense of mutual achievement was a characteristic of the dialogues that were part of the
intervention and went some way to compensating for the time taken; the benefits for student
learning outweighed the fact that the dialogues were time consuming.
In the third dialogue, the students in a whole class setting discussed whether carnivores
can suffer from Vitamin C deficiencies. In order to stimulate student thinking and initiate
discussion the teacher posed the question: Carnivores do not consume vegetables or fruits.
Will they suffer from vitamin C deficiency? The students did not think that carnivores would
suffer from vitamin C deficiency. They gave many possible reasons for this, including:
S6: When the carnivore eats the herbivore, there are lots of grasses waiting to be
digested in the stomach of the herbivore. The carnivore takes vitamin C from the
grasses not completely digested.
S7: I think in the body of herbivores there is sufficient vitamin C for the carnivore.
S8: Is it possible that the carnivore could produce vitamin C rather than obtain it from
food?
S9: Perhaps the carnivore eats vegetables or fruits secretly, but we do not know.
(Laughing)

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The teacher initiated the following dialogue to help S7, who thought that maybe carnivores
could access vitiman C from the bodies of the herbivores they ate, to think through her idea.
As can be seen in the following sequence, other students participated in the dialogue.
T: After taking in vitamin C, where does it go?
S9: It is peed by us (Laughing).
T: The purpose you take it is to pee it?
S8: No. It is peed by us if it is too much.
T: What does that mean?
S8: Well, it isnt stored in our bodies. We need to re-ingest it after a period of time.
T: According to that, do you think there is sufficient vitamin C left in a herbivores
body when a carnivore eats a herbivore?
S7: It seems not, because herbivores dont have surplus vitamin C.
The teacher attemped to clarify the students idea that vitamin C is soluable and unable
to be accumulated in the body of an organism. Here, S7 appeared to be persuaded that her
initial suggestion was not viable. Next, the teacher provoked conceptual conflict by querying
whether carnivores would be able to digest vegetables given they do not usually eat them.
T: Do you think carnivores eat vegetables?
S6: No, they dont.
T: If they dont eat vegetables, will they be able to digest the vegetables which are left
in the herbivores stomach?
S?: That sounds unreasonable. (in a soft voice so the student could not be identified)
In this case the students seemed persuaded when evidence was presented that carnivores
are unable to use grass as a food energy source.
Consequent to student S8s suggestion that a carnivore could produce vitamin C rather
than obtain it from food, the following conversation took place:
T: Why do you think carnivores produce vitamin C by themselves?
S8: I just reckoned.
S8s answer had been speculation but another student was inspired by the idea.
S10: I think it is because of natural selection.
T: Could you explain that more clearly?
S10: Originally, all the carnivores were unable to produce vitamin C. Gradually, due to
gene mutation or recombination, the ones with the ability to produce vitamin C
were more likely to be successful than the others.
S10 gave a more scientific explanation, one based on an evolutionary view.
T: What do you think about what we have discussed?

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S8: Which one is correct...? Tell us the right answer.

T: So far, the scientists are in closer agreement with the view expressed by S10 on the
matter.
Despite the evidence here that the teacher provided a clear statement of the scientific
position, some students complained that she had not provided them with an absolute
answer. They were not satisfied with the teachers summation that scientists views were
similar to that of student S10. They considered she should refute all but one interpretation.
In this case teacher questioning helped students reflect on their ideas but they accorded
most value to the teacher as an authority and pushed for her to tell them the right answer.
This example illustrates the challenges teachers facing when they try to develop a more
constructivist teaching style. The indication here is that student beliefs relevant to teacher
and student roles are hard to change even when they are knowingly involved in a research
intervention. Consequent to this, the teacher as researcher realised that more needed to be
done to bridge the old and new teaching and learning cultures. From then on, she tried to
offer students questions without correct answers, such as:Should people choose genemodified food? to help change their beliefs.
The fourth dialogue illustrates how students constructed knowledge by linking ideas
to everyday life. In the second lesson, the teacher asked students to provide some
everyday examples of vitamins and minerals. Her intention in asking the students to do
this was to help them realise the function and importance of vitamins and minerals in
their lives. She prepared some PowerPoint diagrams relevant to vitamins and minerals,
such as the diagram of iodine and thyroid hormone or iron and haemoglobin, in case the
students talked about relevant issues. In the event, students readily contributed ideas. In
the ensuing dialogue, a student gave the example of her mother needing iron because she
was anaemic. This was notable because the student introduced an instance that linked to
his family. He explained:
S11: My mum was anaemic, so the doctor said that she should take iron pills every day.
Students had learned in junior high school that anaemia comes from a low concentration
of haemoglobin in the blood. S11s contribution provided an opportunity for the teacher to
help the students understand how iron is related to anaemia. She put up a PowerPoint
diagram and prompted:
T: Look at the structure of haemoglobin. Do you know why an anaemic patient needs
iron?
The diagram showed the structure of a haemoglobin which contains four poly-peptide
sub-units. Each sub-unit has a nonpolypeptide component, called heme (with an iron atom).
One student pointed out the relationship between the haemoglobin and iron.
S11: The heme of haemoglobins contains an iron ion.
To extend the students knowledge, the teacher put up the second diagram which showed
haemoglobin carrying O2. Looking at the diagram, another student commented:
S12: Oxygen binds with the iron ion.
Finally, one student attempted to link these two ideas and concluded that;
S13: Without iron the heamoglobin will lose the function of carrying oxygen.

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In traditional lecture classes, the students were just told the relationship between
heamoglobin, iron and oxygen. In this example, the students learned these concepts through
the diagrams the teacher had prepared and the students own analysis.
Continuing the conversation, another student talked about her grandmother needing
calcium because she had osteoporosis. This provided a critical teaching moment for the
teacher. The dialogue started with:
S14: My grandma had osteoporosis and the doctor suggested that she takes calcium
pills.
T: Do you know the reason she got the disease?
S14: She cant absorb calcium efficiently.
To encourage the students to challenge the idea that taking calcium pills is able to
increase the concentration of calcium in the blood, the teacher asked:
T: So do you think it is feasible that taking more calcium pills will increase the level
of blood calcium?
S8: No, we need to find the possible reasons first.
To help the student think further about the treatment of S14s grandmother, the teacher
asked:
T: What will be the main reason?
S15: She is too old and lacks estrogen. She had better take estrogen and calcium at the
same time to prevent calcium loss.
This conversation triggered S16s thinking and he doubted whether the case of S14s
grandmother applied to most women who are post-menopausal. He asked:
S16: Will most women who go through menopause get osteoporosis?
T: Not really. It depends on how much calcium storage they have in their bones
originally
In this case the teacher provided information in response to S16s question. She did this
because she wanted the students to understand the importance of calcium storage at a young
age. The dialogue as a whole was of note to the researcher as teacher because of the students
enthusiasm in discussing vitamin/mineral deficiencies in relation to the experiences of their
family members. The discussions served as an effective teaching focus for the teacher to
introduce and clarify the concepts of vitamins/minerals.
The above dialogues have illustrated ways students were helped to reflect on their own
ideas through questioning-teaching approaches. Through classroom interactions they raised
their opinions, debated them and reached consensus to construct meaning and understand
biological concepts. Also, through teacher question-feedback, student alternative conceptions
were uncovered and challenged. The clarification of these alternative conceptions led to
conceptual change. Classroom conversations stimulated student interest in connecting their
concepts to daily life. All these experiences facilitated student learning in a way that is
consistent with the senior high school biology curriculum in Taiwan, which seeks to cultivate
student interest and help them see how ideas of biology could apply to issues they encounter
in their daily life.

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The Outcomes of the Pre- and the Post-Test

In order to gauge the impact of the intervention programme on student test achievement,
both the intervention students and traditional students completed a pre-test and a post-test.
Sixty-eight intervention and 191 traditional students took the tests. The class average marks
and gain percentage for the two groups are presented in Table 5.
Based on Table 5, it appears that the intervention classes have higher pre-test scores.
However, they did not show a significant difference in a t-test (p = 0.19). When the
researcher interviewed the students after the intervention, many of them indicated that they
worried they might get a low score in the term examination. This was not the case. The gain
percentage of student test achievement in the intervention classes (29.20%) was greater than
the traditional classes (23.92%). However, there was no difference between them based on
Hakes classification. Hake defined a Gain % of more than 70% as high and of less than
30% as low. The gains in both the traditional and intervention classes were below 30% and
thus fell into the low region as defined by Hake. This shows that the intervention
maintained test scores.
Student Responses from the Questionnaires and Interviews About the Intervention
To understand the students thoughts about the learning and teaching of the intervention,
students in four traditional and two intervention classes were surveyed, and 23 intervention
students were interviewed.
Comparing Student Perceptions of Learning
The students from the intervention and traditional classes responded to questions about their
learning. Their responses are summarised in Table 6.
Eighty-one percent of the intervention students agreed that they spent time engaging in
thinking and attempting to reach agreement with their classmates. This compared with 28%
of students from the traditional classes. Nearly half (43%) of the traditional students believed
that clear notes provided them with more knowledge than did the class discussions. This
percentage was nearly double to that of the intervention students (24%). The intervention

Table 5 Student marks and gain percentages: traditional and intervention classes before and after the
intervention
Classroom type

Traditional class 1
Traditional class 2
Traditional class 3
Traditional class 4
Intervention class 1
Intervention class 2
Traditional classes
Intervention classes

No. of students

53
49
47
42
34
34
191
68

Class average mark

Gain %

Pre-test

Post-test

42.04
48.30
46.30
50.67
51.76
48.59
46.83
50.18

55.04
60.57
59.32
63.14
66.35
63.06
59.52
64.71

22.43
23.73
24.25
25.28
30.24
28.15
23.92
29.20

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Table 6 Student perceptions of learning in the interactive teaching and traditional lecture classes (NIS =70,
NTS = 195)
Questions

Agree % IS (TS)

Time thinking and negotiating with classmates

Clear notes would be better than discussion for learning
Willing to seek more information

81 (28)
24 (43)
59 (37)

***
***
***

(2) IS intervention students responding to survey; TS traditional students responding to survey

Key: (1) *p<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.005(MannWhitney U test)

students showed a stronger desire to seek more information (59%) than the students from
traditional classes (37%), which implies that the intervention students were more willing to
actively seek out additional information. The differences between the students in the intervention
and traditional classes in these four comparisons were statistically significant (p < 0.005)
(MannWhitney U test).
The 23 intervention students were interviewed about their thoughts on what they learned
from talking with peers. Some students commented on more than one aspect. Their
responses were categorised into four areas: the discussions could uncover alternative
conceptions; the discussions helped them appreciate different views; the discussions
promoted learning; and they also enhanced their skills competence. Eight students said they
had identified their own alternative conceptions through discussion. Something they took
for granted before the teaching might be revealed as incorrect through peer discussions as
was explained by the following student:
From the peer discussion I found that some of my concepts were wrong. If those
concepts dont appear in the test, I may have never realised that.
Seven students said they no longer judged peer opinions as either right or wrong, but
rather they appreciated different interpretations. They recognised that understanding peers
thoughts broadened their own thinking. As one student explained:
When I considered matters from my classmates positions, I found a different world.
Seven students indicated that their peers helped promote their learning. Very often the
students were surprised by their classmates ideas, and on occasion acquired new
inspiration through those ideas. The opinions their peers raised frequently reminded them
to think more deeply. For example:
My group members are very smart and they often provide many ideas. Their thinking
paths are totally different from mine. They often propose what I have never thought
before, which reminds me that I need to consider more details.
Six students declared that they had developed better competence with presentation,
debate, negotiation of ideas and making judgements, from discussions that required them to
be actively engaged in thinking. Through interactions, they learned to negotiate with group
members and make appropriate judgements. For example:
I learned how to reach a compromise with my group members by negotiation.
Experiences and knowledge can help me to convince others and reach agreement. I
have confidence in debating.

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The researchers observation, and also some student interview data, indicated that some
students (one or two students in a group of five or six) did not talk. Nevertheless, these students
appeared to be actively listening to their groups discussion. No student appeared bored and no
student dozed or read the textbook as sometimes happened in the traditional classroom.
To conclude, the traditional and intervention student perceptions of learning were
different. Students in the intervention classes recognised that they had engaged in thinking
and had interacted with peers. They experienced benefits from peer discussions. Most of
them sought information on their own initiative. Few traditional class students reported that
they had engaged in thinking and interacted with their classmates. They indicated less
willingness to pursue further information as might be expected if they were more passive
learners. The statements of the intervention class students about their learning from
discussions suggested many of the students had moved towards a more constructivist
approach to learning where they were actively comparing, contrasting and revising their
ideas as a consequence of social interaction with the teacher and their peers.
Comparing Student Perceptions of Teaching
The 195 traditional and 70 intervention students were surveyed about their perceptions of
teaching. Their responses are set out in Table 7.
More intervention students announced that the teaching content was related to their daily
life and not abstract (90% and 70% respectively) compared with the traditional group (72%
and 50% respectively). This suggests that the intervention students had noticed the shift in
focus to linking theory and practice. More traditional students (59%) considered their
teaching to have been monotonous than the intervention group (36%). Sixty-nine percent of
intervention students alleged that their concepts were clarified via group and whole class
discussion, a higher proportion than the traditional students (32%). The differences in these
five responses are statistically significant at p = 0.005 level.
Intervention Students Perceptions of the Interactive Teaching
When interviewed about the interactive teaching, students spoke about how it fostered thinking,
emphasised life application, that there were no absolute answers, and that it encouraged them to
be active in their learning. Some students commented on more than one aspect. Fourteen of the
23 students perceived that the intervention teaching encouraged thinking, which enabled them
to clarify their concepts, and gave them the feeling of learning more. Previously, the students
said they often took what the teacher said for granted, so there was little need to think. Even
when the teacher asked a question this tended to have a prescribed answer. Through the

Table 7 Student perceptions of teaching in the interactive teaching and traditional lecture classes (NIS =70,
NTS =195)
Questions

Agree % IS (TS)

The teaching content is related to my daily life

The teaching content is not abstract for me
The teaching method is monotonous
From class discussion concepts were clarified

90
70
36
69

(72)
(50)
(59)
(32)

***
***
***
***

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intervention, they had been guided to employ a more independent thinking approach to learning
biology. A representative comment was:
We can think and infer rather than just following the textbook. We have independent
thinking. In the old teaching, although we were allowed to think, we were often
following the teachers way of thinking.
Five of the 14 students noted that they had been encouraged to make a breakthrough
from the traditional perspective. For example:
I am learning to think from different angles. Some ideas I have never thought of before.
It appears that the teaching successfully engaged students in thinking to facilitate their
cognitive development.
Nine of the 23 students indicated that they recognised and appreciated the teachers
endeavours to transform the abstract content of the textbook into living examples to help
them connect theory and practice. The students stated that this had made the learning more
interesting and meaningful for them. Some representative comments were:
The teaching taught supplements of daily life rather than that of content knowledge. It
emphasises the integration of theory and everyday life.
The content of the new teaching is more concrete to me. The textbook is more abstract
and it seems we learn that just for passing tests. I am more interested in what you taught.
Nine of the 23 students commented that the teacher gave no absolute answers as
conclusions to the discussions. To them a couple of the conclusions seemed tentative and
uncertain, as one student explained:
Some things are uncertain in the teaching.
In fact, most of the conclusions in the interactive teaching fitted with biology concepts.
It seems the students still ask for a right answer to any question.
Six of the 23 students reached the conclusion that they need to take responsibility for
their own learning to gain real understanding, and that passive students benefit little from
interactive teaching. The students noted that they had to engage in active mental work
and decide themselves what to learn. An active attitude was said to help student learning.
One stated:
In the new teaching, we need to find out what we are going to learn. The previous
teacher transmits knowledge to us, which is hard to remember. But now, we need to
think or seek for information. In this type of learning, we are our own masters. If we
didnt learn actively, we wouldnt know what we were doing in the class.
They pointed out that students who attempted to memorise without understanding or put
responsibility on their team mates were not well placed to adopt the new teaching. As one
capable student commented, in frustration:
This teaching is suitable for the students who take the initiative in learning. A couple
of my group membersthought that I needed to take the responsibility for
presentations, because my marks are higher than theirs. They discuss only when the
teacher approaches them.

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A crucial change here was that the teaching was experienced by the students as being
more student-centred than teacher-centred, although they appreciated the fact that the
teacher played a crucial role in guiding discussions and making conclusions. One said:
The teachers role is important, too. She will guide the direction of the discussion and
help us to make conclusions.
Seventeen of the 23 interviewed students indicated that poor preparation for the
examinations was the main weakness of the teaching. They conceived that they needed
unambiguous notes and supplements to earn marks, and the intervention teaching did not
provide these. Although the students did not reject the new teaching approach, they were
upset at feeling less confident in preparing for term examinations which generally focused
on content. One said:
Some material appears in the term examination, but wasnt taught to us. I feel very
frustrated; because you didnt teach it in class and I didnt know how to respond.
Two of the 17 students thought they lacked confidence in outlining the main ideas which
are the content of tests in the interactive teaching classes. One said:
Sometimes I feel it is very messy and I cant grab the key point. How can I deal with tests?
Another revealed his hesitation toward the new teaching under the pressure of the
University Entrance Examination (UEE):
I know you are trying to lead us out of the cage, but we have little confidence in
preparing for tests. Its risky. Who can promise the new teaching could help us to pass
UEE successfully?
When the traditional and intervention groups of student were surveyed to gain their overall
evaluation about the teaching, 66% of the intervention group were unsure whether they could
cope with tests and 42% of the traditional group had the same feeling. Although fewer
traditional students worried about tests, this was still of concern to nearly half of them. In
contrast, 73% of the intervention group felt time passed quickly in biology classes whereas only
46% of the traditional group had the same feeling. Also, 70% of intervention compared with
60% of the traditional group students were satisfied with their current biology classes. It appears
that more intervention students were satisfied with their classes than the traditional students.
The most important suggestion that students (9 out of 23 students) provided was that the
intervention teaching should commence in Grade 10 or even earlier, and in other subjects,
because they needed time to become accustomed to it, including managing class time and
learning more independently. One proposed that it begin from childhood:
The new teaching should begin from elementary school, which would help students be
familiar with this type of teaching earlier.
One student explained that he had begun to take a more active approach in other subjects even
though other subject teachers do not employ intervention type teaching instruction. He said:
Being affected by the teaching, I began to use thinking to learn in other subjects.
However, in those classes, the teachers still used the old teaching approaches, which
makes me feel it is hard to have different types of lessons.

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These opinions suggest that the students appreciated the teaching, but it was difficult for
them in that they were required to take a completely different approach to learning and,
hence, become accustomed to a different learning culture.
The data suggest that most intervention students perceived they were engaged in
thinking, learned actively to develop real comprehension, and were willing to seek
additional information. They experienced the benefits of peer discussions, through which
they learned how to appreciate alternative ideas; their alternative conceptions were
uncovered; and, their thinking skills were enhanced. Their statements about what and
how they learned from discussions suggests many of them had moved towards a more
constructivist approach to learning. The students perceived that the intervention teaching
helped them connect scientific concepts with their own lives and experiences. Student
perceptions of the interactive teaching identified by the students are consistent with the five
principles of the teaching design. However, although the students perceived that the
intervention classes apparently provided them with benefits in thinking, applying and
clarifying concepts, they had less confidence in preparing for tests compared with the
students in the traditional classes. This suggests the influence of an examination culture
which emphasises good grades, and their prior experience of learning biology provided a
challenge as they tried to adapt to the new approach. The students appreciated the
interactive teaching and suggested beginning the teaching in an earlier grade and using it in
all science subjects to help them become accustomed to the use of thinking as a learning
strategy, and learning independently. Overall, the intervention students had greater
satisfaction than the traditional students.
Conclusions and Discussions
Despite initial misgivings from students and colleagues that interactive teaching would
adversely affect student examination results, this study has demonstrated that Taiwanese senior
high school biology students are able to construct their own knowledge through interaction with
the teacher, peers, and their physical world in a social context whilst maintaining their test
achievement. The students demonstrated that they were able to reflect on their ideas, co-operate
with each other and to apply, clarify and understand biological concepts. The students enjoyed
interacting with the teacher and peers and the student-centred activities.
The intervention is feasible for being able to engage students in interactive teaching
approaches and these not adversely affecting their academic performance. Student test
achievements were comparable in the traditional and interactive teaching classes, but more of
the intervention students were satisfied with their classes than the traditional students. The
findings of this study suggest that students who are used to transmission teaching can be
persuaded to take a more active and interactive role in the teaching and learning process and,
indeed, that they enjoy doing this. Transmission and constructivist teaching can be seen to
provide different cultural contexts for learning. Students can find it difficult to move from a
structured environment to one in which they are expected to accept more responsibility (Haigh
1998). In this study the challenge of this shift was ameliorated through careful planning by
the teacher and a positive teacher response to and sensitive probing of student ideas and
reasoning. Nevertheless, some students still found the culture shift challenging. Most of the
students who participated in the interactive teaching in this study supported the shift in the
roles of teachers and students however their recommendation was that this approach be used
earlier in their schooling. They commented they needed time to become accustomed to taking

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a more active part in the learning process. Since this teaching was conducted successfully
with twelfth graders who have the most examination pressure in Taiwan, there is no reason to
expect that it would not be successful in other grades.
The intervention teaching emphasised student-centred learning but this is not to
downplay the teachers role. In this study, the teacher used questioning-teaching approaches
and prompt-questions to guide student thinking and support understanding. A questionfeedback strategy was employed which proved effective in assessing student learning and
encouraging student thinking. Prior to the intervention, students in the same school who
were surveyed in 1999 (Lu 2006) had stated that they were afraid of being asked questions
and that they felt threatened when a teacher asked for elaboration or challenged their ideas
in a follow-up to their answer. The findings here suggest that if probing questions from the
teacher becomes routine practice, students will realise that the teacher has a genuine interest
in knowing more about what they think and why, and consequently, they become more
willing to interact with the teacher (Brooks and Brooks 1993). Thus, the findings lend
support to the significance of teachers questioning and assistance in supporting student
learning (Hodson and Hodson 1998).
Shifting the roles of the teacher and student did not, in practice, contradict the Confucianheritage culture that permeates education in Taiwan. In this culture, a teacher has a duty to
students, but this duty does not necessarily need to be interpreted as the provision of facts. It can
involve teaching students thinking skills and how to search for information so that they can
construct knowledge through reasoning and the integration of information. Also, in the
Confucian-heritage culture, students have a duty. This duty is to study hard. However, studying
hard does not need to equate to spending lots of time memorising facts; rather, it can be
interpreted as thinking to learn with understanding. Students can fulfil their duty through social
interaction to construct meaning and enhance the quality of their learning.
Somewhat surprisingly only a few students commented that they gained only uncertain
knowledge from lessons. Typically, if this happens students criticise the teacher as ignorant.
This did not happen in this study. It may have been because the teacher/researcher had built
rapport with the students in the year previous to the intervention. While this could be seen to
restrict the generalisability of the study it could also be seen to further emphasise the
importance of supportive teacher-student relationships.
Understanding the nature and implementation of social constructivism were critical in
changing the first authors classroom practice. Other research has shown that teachers
beliefs about and their understanding of constructivism are pivotal in how they change their
classroom practice (Spillane 1999). This research resonates with this point. For the first
author it also highlighted the time needed for teachers to reconceptualise learning and the
practical implications of this for their teaching.
During this process of reconceptualisation teachers need help, support and strategies to
assist students to reconceptualise their role; students being more actively involved in their
learning requires changes in both teacher and student beliefs. Teachers who intend to use a
more constructivist teaching approach are recommended to begin with small changes. For
example, they might use a couple of open questions to the whole class, 5-minute group
discussions or asking students to link a concept to their daily lives. In this way they and
their students can begin to appreciate some of the benefits of this approach.
Acknowledgement Thanks to the teachers and students participated in this study. Without their
contributions, this research could not have been undertaken. Special thanks to the anonymous reviewers
for their valuable advice in the revision of this paper.

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