Book Review

Transforming University Biochemistry Teaching

Using Collaborative Learning and Technology

Penny J. Gilmer, Springer. 2010 208 pp., ISBN 978-1-4020-4980-4, $159.00.

Readers of BAMBED most likely do not recognize thename Penny Gilmer despite the fact that she was presi-dent of the National Association for Research in ScienceTeaching in 2007–8. She has no publications in thisjournal and has been cited only twice in commentaries Ihave written. This probably reflects the isolation of dif-ferent communities within the field of science education.I associate her name with the idea of research, teach-ing, and service coalescing at a metaphorical triplepoint when one becomes immersed in education [1].

Penny Gilmer received a doctorate from Berkeley inmechanistic enzymology and, after a postdoc at Stan-ford, worked in cancer immunology at Florida StateUniversity until the mid 1990’s when she was diagnosedwith cancer. That battle, which she ultimately won, pro-pelled her in a different academic direction. While con-tinuing to be a professor of biochemistry at FloridaState, she embarked on a second doctorate awarded inscience education in 2004 from Curtin University ofTechnology in Perth, Australia.

She was frustrated by positivist approaches to educa-tion that relied on transmission of information by lec-tures, encouraged passive students, and valued rotememorization of facts without recognition of process oruncertainty. These personal concerns resonated withnational calls to change the way science was taught.Guided by constructivist models of how people learn,Gilmer redesigned the first semester of a two-semesterbiochemistry course to include different methods ofassessment, collaborative group work, extensive use ofinternet resources, and several other nontraditionalteaching approaches. That course, taught in 1998,served as the focus of her thesis. This book is an excep-tionally honest and often quite personal account of thatcourse, the assessment of it in multiple dimensions inthe context of postmodernist theory, and her journey toimprove the way biochemistry is taught.

As Gilmer admits, what she tried to do with thiscourse was too radical. It empowered some studentsand failed to motivate a few. It alienated colleagues whomade life difficult at times. She would teach the coursedifferently now, but in a sense that is the point of the

book. Action research is qualitative research. One triessomething, evaluates it, and modifies it as necessary ina continuing process of improvement. For example, byeliminating formal examinations, Gilmer discovered theimportance of examinations in motivating students tostudy. She encountered the challenges of teaching basiccomputer skills that competed with learning biochemis-try and subsequently refined her approach to theseassignments. She explored fiction writing to experiencethe students’ perspectives on her course. She learned tonegotiate problems with dysfunctional groups. And shelearned how to evaluate and interpret student behaviorin the context of theories of learning.

This is not a book about how to teach biochemistry orwhat to teach, although there are ideas that one mightwant to adopt. Rather it is about how to reflect andassess one’s own teaching with the goal of improvementregardless of what or how one teaches. One message isthat no course should ever be taught the same waytwice because there is always room for improvementthat should be recognized and acted upon by theinstructor. The book also exposes readers to ways ofthinking about science and education that will challengepreconceptions and provoke discussion. Because Gilmerhas read and reflected on an enormous volume of sci-ence education literature, which she cites, the book pro-vides references and access to valuable sources that donot often appear in BAMBED. Readers should not bedeterred by occasional use of words like “heuristics,”“epistemology,” and “hermeneutics” that are not intheir vocabulary. There is much to consider in thisbook. Unfortunately, the price probably makes it inac-cessible to many readers who could benefit from read-ing it and receiving the message Gilmer wishes to sendto the biochemistry education community.

Harold B. White

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University

of Delaware, Newark, Delaware 19716

DOI 10.1002/bmb.20725

References

[1] Gilmer, P. J. (2002), Opalescence at the triple point: Research,

teaching and service: Taylor P. C., Gilmer, P. J., and Tobin K.,

(Eds.), Transforming Undergraduate Science Teaching: Social

Constructivist Perspectives, Peter Lang Publishing, Inc, New

York, pp. 423–462.

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education 361

BIOCHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY EDUCATION

Vol. 41, No. 5, pp. 361, 2013VC 2013 International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.