From nature table to niche: curriculum progression in ecological concepts

Abstract

The problems of concept development and progression within ecology teaching are reviewed and discussed with particular reference to the school science curriculum of England and Wales. It is considered that a serious barrier to the teaching of ecology is the over‐emphasis on sophisticated concepts combined with a failure to allow a knowledge of whole organism biology to progress. An innovative alternative progression model for the teaching of ecological concepts is presented. It is based on a series of filaments, representing concept themes, all of which progress in parallel and yet between which the emphasis shifts laterally. The model facilitates the tracing of pathways of progression and integration as part of curriculum development and it is suggested that this approach could be profitably applied to other scientific disciplines.