Academics' views on problems and solution in biology education in 21st century Türkiye

Abstract Purpose: Biology is a comprehensive discipline that studies the patterns, processes and interactions of all living things, including humans. Biology plays a pivotal role in interdisciplinary collaboration, and in addressing pressing problems on an individual, social, and global scale. The purpose of this study is to determine the views of academics’ teaching undergraduate biology regarding biology education, its content, its problems, and solutions to these problems in Türkiye in the twenty-first century Design and Methodology: In the study, phenomenological research design, one of the qualitative research methods, was used. The study was conducted with the participation of 24 academicians (13 female, 11 male) working in 14 different universities in Türkiye. The data were collected through a semi-structured form consisting of 5 demographic and 8 open-ended questions developed by the researchers. The analysis of the collected data was carried out by subjecting the participant responses to content analysis by creating themes and sub-themes. Results: As a result of the research, the participants stated that biology is a basic science in the education of the 21st century youth, that it has an important place in recognizing nature, the universe and society and in solving current problems, and that biology education in Türkiye does not have sufficient quality and standards. Among the most fundamental problems encountered in biology education, the insufficiency of laboratory practices, the opening of biology departments that produce more graduates than needed and the decrease in course quality due to the lack of specialized academicians in these departments were pointed out. Implications & Suggestions: Participants stated that National Science Education Standards and a curriculum aligned with contemporary content should be developed, and biology should be integrated with physics, chemistry, mathematics, and computer science. They also recommended that students actively participate in application-oriented projects during their undergraduate education.