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What should the student‐centered teacher of biochemistry and molecular biology be aware of?

In BAMBED’s 2008 closing issue, Harold White highlights the importance of putting ‘‘ourselves in the students’ place’’ [1]. In fact, the importance of centering university-level teaching around students is the theme of entire books [2, 3], guidelines, and recommendations from scientific societies [4]. As teaching becomes more ‘‘student-centered’’—i.e. considers the learning needs and interests of students—it is likely that students will be more committed and, thus, better able to process the materials and, ultimately, learn more Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (BMB) [5–7]. Unfortunately, BMB teaching proceeds largely unaware—or in disregard—of pleas to pursue in that direction. A recent report on the state of BMB education in liberal arts colleges in USA concludes that introductory, intermediate, and advanced courses, all are by and large content-driven and lecturedelivered [8]. Essentially, the report reveals the little concern teachers have for how and for what students learn in BMB. Students can learn substantially from one another when assigned more active roles in the learning process. Fresh evidence presented in two recent articles in Science contributes to this idea. In an enticing narrative, Eric Mazur (a Harvard Physics professor top rated by students) portrays the benefits of moving from delivering brilliant lectures to igniting student discussions in class by ‘‘peer instruction’’—a method in which students discuss and get instant feed-back on ideas, answers to conceptual questions in the classroom [9]. Of great interest is the research article by Smith and co-authors on how ‘‘peer-to-peer’’ discussion within the same method helps students learn conceptual issues with no contribution of the teacher [10]. BMB faculty must decide to leave the lectern. When the power balance in class is shaken the odds that our students will learn BMB will increase [11]. In this article, we present an individual account that illustrates how unexpected outcomes can come out of listening to students in class. Furthermore, drawing both on personal experience and on the existing literature, we contextualize the importance of listening to students in BMB courses and list student-related factors that impact learning across subject areas.