Biochemical Education

Book excerpt: The purpose of the present text is to distil the experience of a number of workers active in the field of biochemical education, so providing readable accounts which, it is hoped, will be of significant benefit to those who are new to the teaching profession in addition to those who may be stimulated to experiment with alternative strategies in their own teaching situation. From the various contributions considered in this book, each topic, in its widest sense, would warrant at least a volume on its own and indeed such texts are currently available. However, it was felt more appropriate to restrict the coverage to those aspects which are of particular use to the subject of biochemistry and, for which, work in this area has already achieved some measure of success. In effect what each of us is doing is supplying findings from a body of knowledge collectively called educational technology. Without entering the debate on the semantics of what educational technology is or is not, it doesn't take long to realise that, like the vast majority of subject areas, it has its own unique terminologies and vocabulary. Whilst it is inevitable that such terms will appear throughout the text, hopefully all will be explained on first use and so it is not envisaged that this will be too distractive to the reader.