Markus Lindholm and Monica Kjærstad. Illustrated textbool, Biofilia. NORENSE funding 2022: 227000

Summary

There is an urgent call for phenomenological featured science textbooks for teacher training courses, practicing teachers and related professions. The goal of the textbook project Biofilia is to deliver an ambitious science textbook, to meet the needs for phenomenological approaches on biology. The textbook will cover all main areas of biology of primary and secondary school curricula in Waldorf schools and offer in-depth-knowledge suitable for teachers. A wide range of illustrations, to inspire and motivate teachers, will be crucial, to meet the quality criteria and the standards within the Waldorf network, and within science education, in general. We apply for financial support for illustrations and drawings for the textbook Biofilia, which constitutes a cornerstone of the project. Below, we present the frame and concepts of the textbook, and elaborate the importance of drawings and illustrations.

Textbook project Biofilia

There is a nearly complete lack of textbooks in higher science education which not solely mediate standard models, but also integrates phenomenological approaches. Not the least is this the case in biology and ecology. By large, the main goal of science textbooks is to sketch out standard knowledge, with limited focus on empirical knowledge, phenomenology, philosophy and art – modesof thinking which have long traditions within the Waldorf school networks. These phenomenological extensions, on the other, had so far hardly any impact on science didactics in public schools and higher education, due to a lack of textbooks which present subjects in typical Waldorf educational fashions.

Now for the first time, an academic publisher – Universitetsforlaget in Oslo – has decided to publish a textbook, Biofilia, for teaching training colleges and related professions (nursing, university lower grade biology and environmental professions alike, as well as practicing teachers), based on the methodology developed within Waldorf schools (letter of intent from the publisher attached). Universitetsforlaget is the largest academical publisher of Norway, yearly publishing a broad range of science literature and textbooks. Their professionality is an important assurance for quality of the result. Biofilia may be considered as a demonstration and detailed elaboration of the science didactics sketched out in the book Nysgjerrighet. Dybdelæring I informasjonssamfunnet (published last year by the same publisher, after having received financial support from NORENSE). That book is already part of the curricula in various courses on five universities/university colleges. Biofilia will pursue and substantiate the success achieved.

Biofilia sums up a life for phenomenological science education, which the author is looking back to, inside and outside the Waldorf network. It aims to connect the science of biology with a diverse approach, thereby helping students to combine scientific knowledge with curiosity. This will be achieved not solely by the narrative style of the text itself (reading example attached), but also by application of art, first and foremost by means of a high number of artistic drawings, but by use of poetry, philosophical or historical quotas, as well. The textbook will offer students a solid academic foundation in biology, but at the same time reveal the complexity and possible ambiguity in ways of interpretation, to renew curiosity and let wonder and fascination get new foothold. By alternating between taxonomy, ecology, evolution, philosophy, art and the history of ideas, this book will be more than a standard textbook: It will offer a voluminous presentation of life sciences, which conveys firm and extensive scientific knowledge, but also leaves space for the unexpected, the puzzles and the wonders of natural phenomena. This goal is conceived, as we are convinced that teachers need to be personal affected by the knowledge and phenomena, if education shall be successful – again in accordance with the visions within Waldorf education.

Biofilia will pose an outstanding opportunity to actualize and profile Waldorf educational perspectives within science didactics for a broader audience. We will deliver a textbook tailored for our own Rudolf Steiner University College, and for public school teacher training colleges and teachers at public schools. Biofilia will hence fully meet the needs of practicing class teachers within Nordic Waldorf schools. The chapters will cover all main topics of biology and ecology given within primary and secondary school (zoology and botany of the fourth and fifth grade, and human biology, embryology, ecology and evolution for the second grade), in a fashion which at the same timeconforms to the educational demands and curricula for teacher training courses within public schools, and for lower grade students of life sciences. A referee group of scientific and didactic experts is established and will serve both as consults and as ambassadors for the book, when published. The book will meet both the standards set by public school teachers and their according curricula, and the specific needs of class teachers within Waldorf schools. A website will offer supplying material and didactic learning concepts in accordance with the textbook. Considerable parts of the text (ca 40%) are already written, and the remaining chapters will be conducted during the upcoming year. No financial issues are unsettled for the writing part of the project. One severe financial bottleneck remains unsolved, however: the illustrations. Illustrations. A textbook promoting phenomenological methodology in science education is strongly dependent on high quality illustrations, as has long traditions especially in Waldorf schools. As integrated part of Biofilia, the style, the emotive message and the artistic quality of the drawings, plots, diagrams and other illustrations are as crucial, as are the quality of blackboard drawings of science main lessons in Waldorf schools. The phenomenological approach promotes an imaginative element throughout the text, where the illustrations not solely support standard thought schemes, but serve to favour

imaginative thinking, and the students own joy of drawing. High quality illustrations are accordingly of crucial importance for the applicability of the book, both within Waldorf schools and in general science education. The drawings, paintings and illustrations need to be as appealing as possible for teacher college students, teachers and their students. Waldorf teachers are in permanent search for suitable underlays for their main lessons in science subjects, supporting both their own blackboard performances and handouts. Especially in science, students own drawing (as indeed, other arts) is an

integral part of the learning and the personal conquering of facts and insights. Rudolf Steiner emphasized the educational value of high-quality blackboard drawings, and, accordingly, even in his first lecture for the upcoming teachers august 1919, claimed that “You carry the feeling into the intellectual realm by application of (…) drawing and plasticity. We must (…) make sure that the students follow the forms of the plastic with their hands. When the child feels its own forms, when it moves its hand and draws something, we can get it to follow the forms with the will that goes through the eyes.” (Practical Advice to teachers, 1. Lecture). Drawings of students, accordingly, are not a secondary support of the learning process, but an integral part of personalizing knowledge. Drawings, accordingly, have a central function in main lesson books in Waldorf schools across the world, and interact strongly with the student text writings. Taken together, high quality illustrations and drawings constitute a core feature of the Biofilia textbook and decisive for its successful impact. The book will amount to 450 pages, and will rest on 230-260 detailed drawings, sketches, diagrams and other visual presentations. These will cover a broad range of issues, reaching from anatomy, embryology, animals, fungi and mushrooms, to mosses, trees, flowering plants, and a number of semi-schematic drawings and diagrams, in connection with microbiology, genetics, and ecological and evolutionary concepts. The illustrations will be partly carried out in aquarelle, and partly by coloured pencils/crayons, and we will favour a uniform character.