The student teachers:

Understand the importance of biological science as a subject and the relationship with other subjects
Get acquainted with aims and objectives of teaching Biology.
Understand the basic theories of learning biological sciences
Apply the principles of teaching-learning in preparing different types of lesson plans.

Nature and scope of science with special reference to Biology; relationship of Biology with other school subjects; impact of Biology on the welfare of the people; eminent world Biologists; Indian Biologists.

Aims and objectives of teaching Biology with reference to taxonomies of objectives under cognitive domain, affective domain and psychomotor domain; concept of objective-based instruction; instructional objectives and specifications of Biology (NCERT classification).

Student-centred vs teacher-centred learning. - Teacher-initiated vs student-initiated instruction
Process-oriented and product-oriented instruction - product as a medium for developing scientific process skills. - Observation as theoretical base for learning - Problem-based instruction leading to the development of skill in solving problems. - Acquiring knowledge by information processing like inventing 'old' knowledge as 'new' knowledge by students. - Constructivism 'generating' knowledge by students. - 'Reflection' as a way of learning from experiences. - Self-study approach rather than reception learning.

Developing teaching skills as a base for effective teaching - teaching skills in classroom instruction - an analysis. Microteaching - an approach to skills-based training, its relevance in developing the skills. - Identify teaching skills specially required for the teaching of biological sciences - their development.

a. Importance of planning for teaching; selecting the principles and theories to be applied; deciding the instructional strategy needed - types of planning - year Plan, Unit Plan, Lesson Plan and the Resource Unit.

b. Planning practical / laboratory work - principles.

c. Multimedia approach to teaching - concepts - planning for their attainment.

d. Effective use of relevant A-V aids; video lessons and computer-assisted lessons.

The student teachers:

Get an understanding of principles of curriculum construction in Natural Science.
Understand the process of curriculum transaction.
Apply educational theories and principles in curriculum transaction.
Get an understanding of different types of models of teaching and their application.
Apply modern strategies of instruction in school situation.
Acquire mastery over development and use of tools of assessment and interpretation of test results.

Principles of curriculum construction, selection of content and organisation of subject-matter - concentric, topical, integrated approaches. Modern trends in Biology curriculum construction in developed and developing countries. Critical appraisal of (1) the existing curriculum of Biology at secondary level in Kerala State (2) BSCS, (3) Nuffield Science Foundation. Features of a good science textbook, workbook for pupils and handbook for teachers with reference to modern curriculum. Concept of correlation -correlation of Natural Science with other subjects.

- Reception learning - lecturing, explaining, textbook approach, lecture demonstration - their drawbacks.
Alternative to reception learning.
Inducting meaningful learning, strengthening with advance organizer.
Supplementing with students' observation, reporting, narrating, ^finding relationships and interpreting.

(i) Reception learning vs Problem-solving (ii) Scientific process approach - Process rather than product approach (iii) Student-initiated rather than teacher-initiated learning (iv) Environment - oriented instruction - place of observation and inquiry; field study approach. (v) learning by doing - students are 'doers' rather than 'knowers'. (vi) Inductive-deductive approach (vii) Guided discovery and investigatory approach. (viii) Constructivist approach (ix) Self-study approach

Scientific process models - Inquiry training models - Inductive models - Deductive models - Concept-attainment model - Investigatory models and guided discovery models - Constructivist model.

Environment-based teaching - inquiry training instruction - Problem-solving method of teaching - steps in problem-solving -locating problem, formulating hypotheses, designing experiment for testing hypotheses, collecting data, analysing data, finding relationships and interpreting them for conclusion.
Content-based discovery instruction
Constructivist model of instruction for 'generating' knowledge.

a. Nature Club - constructing green house b. Eco-Club c. Science Fair d. Nature Calendar. e. Field trips, excursion.

Purpose of testing - diagnostic; knowledge about students' progress. - Types of questions - Formative and Summative evaluation - Objective-based testing - Assessing students'thinking skills
Interpreting test results.