The ability to write effectively in biology is a persistent concern in the Department of Life Sciences of the University of the West Indies. Although writing skills, such as spelling, punctuation, and sentence structure, are generally sufficient, content, structure, and coherency fall below an acceptable standard. In this study, we used quantitative methods to determine whether specific writing tasks would lead to a change in biology students' perception of writing in science and the perceived value of and/or willingness to use writing as a component in their science learning.

Science syllabuses, standardized examinations, and teacher content knowledge are critical to the development of scientific literacy. In this study, we quantify the presence of biological evolution in the Caribbean Secondary Examinations Certificate (CSEC) biology syllabus and examinations as well as evaluate the level of evolutionary knowledge held by teachers in the country of Belize. Analyses of the biology syllabus (2002) and the 2005–2012 examinations suggest that biological evolution plays a minimal role at the secondary level in the Caribbean.

In this study, the knowledge shown by selected preservice secondary school science teachers of six categories of labelling errors in some biological drawings was investigated using the Errors in Biological Labelling Test developed by the author. The sample consisted of 173 students, in their first, second and third year at Teachers' Colleges in Jamaica which train high school teachers. Of the sample, 56 were males and 117 females.