Visualization is an essential skill for all students and biochemists studying and researching the molecular and cellular biosciences. In this study, we discuss the nature and importance of visualization in biochemistry education and argue that students should be explicitly taught visual literacy and the skills for using visualization tools as essential components of all biochemistry curricula. We suggest that, at present, very little pedagogical attention has been given to this vital component of biochemistry education, although a large diversity of static, dynamic, and multimedia visual displays continues to flood modern educational resources at an exponential rate. Based on selected research findings from other science education domains and our own research experience in biochemistry education, 10 fundamental guidelines are proposed for the promotion of visualization and visual literacy among students studying in the molecular and cellular biosciences.Keywords: External representation, visual literacy, visualization, interpretation, teaching, learning.All biochemists would readily agree that visualization tools are essential for understanding and researching the molecular and cellular biosciences. This is reflected by the exponential growth over the years in the number and range of visualization tools now available to the biochemist for teaching, learning, and research. These include, inter alia,

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This commentary expands the notion that models and modelling can be used as a basis to foster an integrated and authentic STEM education and STEM literacy. The aim is to synthesize key publications that document relationships between authenticity, models and modelling, and STEM education. The implications of the synthesis are as follows: authenticity must be viewed as a cornerstone of STEM literacy; models and modelling processes can bridge the gap between STEM disciplines through authentic practices; models and modelling should be used as a means to promote STEM literacy and the transfer of knowledge and skills between contexts, both in and out of the STEM disciplines; modelling activities can serve as a meaningful route toward authentic STEM education; teaching authentic modelling processes must be rooted in explicit and tested frameworks that are based on the practice of the STEM disciplines; and, authentic STEM education should be driven by developing interaction between STEM subjects in parallel with maintaining the integrity of each subject. If this vision is to be reinforced, it is of utmost importance that implementing any model-based authentic educational activities are underpinned by evidencebased frameworks and recommendations for teaching practice. It is therefore imperative that intended model-based pedagogies for STEM education classrooms are further researched, in order to contribute to an integrated STEM literacy.

Diagrams are considered to be invaluable teaching and learning tools in biochemistry, because they help learners build mental models of phenomena, which allows for comprehension and integration of scientific concepts. Sometimes, however, students experience difficulties with the interpretation of diagrams, which may have a negative effect on their learning of science. This paper reports on three categories of difficulties encountered by students with the interpretation of a stylized textbook diagram of the structure of immunoglobulin G (IgG). The difficulties were identified and classified using the four-level framework of Grayson et al. [1]. Possible factors affecting the ability of students to interpret the diagram, and various teaching and learning strategies that might remediate the difficulties are also discussed.Keywords: Student's conceptual and reasoning difficulties, textbook diagrams, teaching and learning.Over the past three decades, a major focus of science education research has been the identification of the reasoning and conceptual difficulties of students. Furthermore, it has been shown that if such difficulties are not addressed they can hinder students' learning and understanding of science [2]. A large number of student difficulties have been reported in physics (e.g. see Ref.3), chemistry (e.g. see Ref. 4), and biology (e.g. see Ref. 5). In biochemistry, however, only a few such difficulties have been identified by formal research. Fisher [6], for example, has published research on student difficulties with protein synthesis, whereas Anderson and Grayson [7] and Anderson et al. [8] have identified a range of conceptual and reasoning difficulties in the area of metabolism. Recently, a methodological framework has been developed for the identification and classification of such difficulties [1].Research in various disciplines has shown that diagrams can be extremely useful for clarifying and integrating concepts, for the mental representation of text, and for the construction of useful mental models of abstract phenomena such as chemical structures and biochemical reactions and processes [9,10]. What has not, however, always been acknowledged is that the interpretation of diagrams is a highly cognitively demanding task [11] that can lead to numerous misconceptions and incorrect ways of reasoning that are very difficult to correct through conventional teaching methods [12,13]. Although extensive literature exists on the general use of, and difficulties with, diagrams in other scientific fields (e.g. see Refs. 14 -17), very few research reports have been published on the effectiveness of diagrams in the field of biochemistry. Nuñ ez de Castro and Alonso [18] have shown that textbook diagrams of enzyme-catalyzed reactions are often too simplified and exclude essential chemical steps, whereas Menger et al. [19] have reported that the presentation of micelle structure in texts can be misleading, especially when they are presented as "spokes of a wheel." Crossley et al. [20] have presented prelimina...

External representations (ERs), such as diagrams, animations, and dynamic models are vital tools for communicating and constructing knowledge in biochemistry. To build a meaningful understanding of structure, function, and process, it is essential that students become visually literate by mastering key cognitive skills that are essential for interpreting and visualizing ERs. In this article, first we describe a model of seven factors influencing students' ability to learn from ERs. Second, we use this model and relevant literature to identify eight cognitive skills central to visual literacy in biochemistry. Third, we present simple examples of tasks as a foundation for designing more sophisticated and complex items for assessing and developing students' visual literacy. We conclude that visual literacy is fundamental to the development of sound conceptual understanding and it is crucial to develop visual skills in parallel with meaningful learning outcomes in all biochemistry curricula.

The availability of digital tablets in preschools has increased significantly in recent years. Literature suggests that these tools can enhance students' literacy and collaborative skills. As society becomes increasingly digitized, preschool curriculum reform also emphasises the subjects of technology and science as priority areas of learning. Teachers' knowledge and experiences are of utmost importance in carrying out this mandate. Few studies have explored the use of digital tablets to teach preschool technology and science in Sweden, and there is an urgent need to ascertain the role of digital aids as teaching tools. This survey study seeks to determine how digital tablets are used to support preschool children's learning in general, and with respect to technology education. Preschool educators (n = 327) across Sweden responded to an online survey consisting of 20 closed and 6 open items that probed the use of digital tablets. Survey results revealed a high degree of engagement with digital tablets in preschools, with activities directed toward various subject-related, social and generic skills. Programming, invention, construction and creation, problem-solving, and design emerged saliently as tablet activities in technology subject areas. Opportunities for providing meaningful learning tasks and digital adaptability were seen as pedagogical benefits of using tablets, but increasing expectations to integrate tablet activities with an accompanying lack of digital skills were expressed as limitations. Teachers' recommendations for future tablet use included defining clearer curriculum guidelines for tablet implementation and adequate training for acquiring digital competence.

Twenty students assigned to a haptics (experimental) or no-haptics (control) condition performed a "docking" task where users sought the most favourable position between a ligand and protein molecule, while students' interactions with the model were logged. Improvement in students' understanding of biomolecular binding was previously measured by comparing written responses to a target conceptual question before and after interaction with the model. A log-profiling tool visualized students' movement of the ligand molecule during the docking task. Multivariate parallel coordinate analyses explored any relationships in the entire student data set. The haptics group produced a tighter constellation of collected final docked ligand positions in comparison with no-haptics students, coupled to docking profiles that depicted a more fine-tuned ligand traversal. Students in the no-haptics condition employed double the amount of interactive behaviours concerned with switching between different visual chemical representations offered by the model. In the no-haptics group, this visually intense processing was synonymous with erroneously 'fitting' the ligand closer distances to the protein surface. Students who showed higher learning gains tended to engage fewer visual representational switches, and were from the haptics group, while students with a higher spatial ability also engaged fewer visual representational switches, irrespective of assigned condition. From an information-processing standpoint, visual and haptic coordination may offload the visual pathway by placing less strain on visual working memory. From an embodied cognition perspective, visual and tactile sensorimotor interactions in the macroworld may provide access to constructing knowledge about submicroscopic phenomena. The results have cognitive and practical implications for the use of multimodal virtual reality technologies in educational contexts.

ABSTRACT. Recent curriculum reform promotes core competencies such as desired 'content knowledge' and 'communication' for meaningful learning in biology. Understanding in biology is demonstrated when pupils can apply acquired knowledge to new tasks. This process requires the transfer of knowledge and the subordinate process of translation across external representations. This study sought ten experts' views on the role of transfer and translation processes in biology learning. Qualitative analysis of the responses revealed six expert themes surrounding the potential challenges that learners face, and the required cognitive abilities for transfer and translation processes. Consultation with relevant curriculum documents identified four types of biological knowledge that students are required to develop at the secondary level. The expert themes and the knowledge types exposed were used to determine how pupils might acquire and apply these four types of biological knowledge during learning. Based on the findings, we argue that teaching for understanding in biology necessitates fostering 'horizontal' and 'vertical' transfer (and translation) processes within learners through the integration of knowledge at different levels of biological organization.