Learning and teaching the molecular basis of life

Although learning about DNA, RNA and proteins is part of the upper-secondary biology curriculum in most countries, many studies report that that students fail to connect molecular knowledge to phenomena at the level of cells, organs and organisms. It is proposed that students are not sufficiently equipped and encouraged to reason about complex and emergent systems behaviour to bridge the gap between the molecular level and phenomena at higher levels of biological organization. This study explores the potential of a new educational approach that is based on encouraging molecular mechanistic reasoning, which entails interpreting cellular phenomena as the overall result of the interactions between underlying physical entities. It builds on recent work in the philosophy of science that characterizes explanations in molecular cell biology as molecular mechanistic explanations. In this study we focus specifically on the interactions of proteins as a basis for higher level cellular phenomena. The study present the theoretical basis for a learning trajectory based on molecular mechanistic reasoning and it shows in a small-scale test of the educational approach that it is within reach for pre-university students (aged 17–18) to explore meaningfully the multi-level mechanistic nature of cell activities as well as the physical and chemical principles that are at the basis of molecular mechanisms in the cell. In the presented approach students are challenged to interpret cell biology animations and graphics as mechanistic explanations for cell activities, which makes these visual models a powerful educational tool for developing the multi-level mechanistic perspective on cellular behaviour. It is argued that this perspective helps students to get a grip on cellular complexity in life science education