About this Research Topic
Understanding the immune system has become increasingly relevant in current times due to its relevance to vaccines, infectious diseases, emerging pathogens, and immunotherapies. Yet, efforts to systematically approach the teaching of immunology have been rare, as evidenced by the sparseness of scholarly literature on evidence-based pedagogical practices for curriculum development, program or lesson design, or assessments in immunology education. This presents itself as a missed opportunity to train learners in immunology-relevant professional paths. This further translates into a significant lack of immune literacy in the general public which is critical to ensure sound decision-making in the health policy arena and to combat the increasing threat to society posed by vaccine hesitancy.
The Vision and Change report by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS, 2010) identified core concepts and competencies for general life sciences. Although immunology is built upon advances in life science disciplines, including genetics, microbiology, biochemistry, organismal, cell, and molecular biology, the interdisciplinary connections between immunology and other areas are not always obvious. The guest editors of this journal recently led an effort to identify overarching concepts and competencies in immunology and align them with those listed in the Vision and Change report, making immunology-related interdisciplinary connections obvious for teachers and students. The resulting learning frameworks have been made available for the immunology educator community through Course Source (1). We also shared a set of challenges and recommendations to foster immune literacy in society, which can be adopted and implemented by educators, professional societies, and policymakers (2).
We invite STEM educators at all levels (K-12, undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools) to heed the call for action to enhance immune literacy in their community, share their pedagogical practices, and learn from each other.
Contributions can include original research articles, reviews, assessments, curricula, program or lesson designs, case studies, or perspectives. Topics can include, and are not limited to:
1. Use of core concept(s) in immunology to design curriculum, programs, or lessons.
2. Ways to address core competencies in life or health science education in the context of immunology.
3. Assessment tools to measure the coverage of immunology core concepts or competencies in the curriculum.
4. Relevance of immunology education for training the next generation of professionals.
5. Relevance and methods to address immune literacy for the general population.
6. Challenges that are unique to immunology education and potential suggestions/recommendations to address them.
7. Ways to integrate immunology with other disciplines.
8. Misconceptions in the learning of immunology and suggestions/recommendations to address them
9. Reports on cognitive processes that students use to learn immunology.
The Vision and Change report by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS, 2010) identified core concepts and competencies for general life sciences. Although immunology is built upon advances in life science disciplines, including genetics, microbiology, biochemistry, organismal, cell, and molecular biology, the interdisciplinary connections between immunology and other areas are not always obvious. The guest editors of this journal recently led an effort to identify overarching concepts and competencies in immunology and align them with those listed in the Vision and Change report, making immunology-related interdisciplinary connections obvious for teachers and students. The resulting learning frameworks have been made available for the immunology educator community through Course Source (1). We also shared a set of challenges and recommendations to foster immune literacy in society, which can be adopted and implemented by educators, professional societies, and policymakers (2).
We invite STEM educators at all levels (K-12, undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools) to heed the call for action to enhance immune literacy in their community, share their pedagogical practices, and learn from each other.
Contributions can include original research articles, reviews, assessments, curricula, program or lesson designs, case studies, or perspectives. Topics can include, and are not limited to:
1. Use of core concept(s) in immunology to design curriculum, programs, or lessons.
2. Ways to address core competencies in life or health science education in the context of immunology.
3. Assessment tools to measure the coverage of immunology core concepts or competencies in the curriculum.
4. Relevance of immunology education for training the next generation of professionals.
5. Relevance and methods to address immune literacy for the general population.
6. Challenges that are unique to immunology education and potential suggestions/recommendations to address them.
7. Ways to integrate immunology with other disciplines.
8. Misconceptions in the learning of immunology and suggestions/recommendations to address them
9. Reports on cognitive processes that students use to learn immunology.
Keywords: Vision and Change, Competencies, Core Concepts, Curriculum, Learning Framework, Immune Literacy, Assessment, Pedagogy, Best Practices, Teaching, Interdisciplinary, Cross Disciplinary, Cognition
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
