Active and former members of the AG Biologiedidaktik at my farewell in 2004

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I began my work on biology didactics in 1970 as a research assistant at the Institute of Educational Sciences (IPN) at the University of Kiel within the curriculum development for the subject of biology (including teaching units "THE human being and THE animals"; "Human sexuality"; concept of human-centred biology teaching: "Reference point human being"). As a secondary school teacher for the subjects of biology, chemistry and Protestant religion, I had already dealt with sex education and the overlapping area of biology and religion, which continues to the present day in the examination of ethical issues(bioethics including animal and environmental ethics) and anthropology ("races" and racism, culturalism).

The focus of my development work lies in the areas of genetics and evolution. Evolution is used as a continuous explanatory principle in the conception of natural history biology lessons.

In 1982 I was appointed to the University of Oldenburg. Since 1992, my work initially focussed on developing the model of didactic reconstruction (together with Harald Gropengießer) and then on supervising work within the research model, particularly with regard to the role of implicit theories in students' conceptions (see Former students). In 2001, this led to the establishment of the doctoral programme "Didactic Teaching and Learning Research - Didactic Reconstruction".

Until my retirement at the end of September 2004, I was director of the Didactic Centre (diz) and head of the doctoral programme ProDid as well as a contributor to ProfaS as a teacher and supervisor of doctoral candidates. I edited their publication series "Beitrge zur Didaktischen Rekonstruktion" until 2009.

In 2001 I was a visiting professor at the University of Vienna. There I continue to be involved in an interdisciplinary seminar on topics where biology, philosophy and theology overlap.

I was (until 2010) co-editor of the journal "Unterricht Biologie" and (until 2011)
member of the advisory board of the "Zeitschrift für Didaktik der Naturwissenschaften".

A commemorative publication was published to mark my retirement from the university:
Gropengießer, H., Janssen-Bartels, A. & Sander, E. (eds.). (2004). Teaching for life. Didactic reconstruction in biology. Cologne: Aulis.

In 2007, I received the Eduard Strasburger Prize for services to biology teaching from the Association for the Promotion of Mathematics and Science Teaching (MNU).

In 2015, I gave a keynote speech on my didactic work at the international workshop of the doctoral programme "Lernprozesse im Übergangsraum -Praxisphasen von Lehramtsstudierenden empirisch untersuchen und modellieren (LÜP)": "On Biology and Education. My Curriculum as a Teacher and a Researcher".

In 2017, I gave a speech on episodes in biology didactics at the social evening of the international conference of the biology section of the VBIOL in Halle at the invitation of the board. A booklet was produced on this occasion: "The fig leaf and the gender of the living. Geschichten aus der Biologiedidaktik"(The fig leaf and the gender of life), in which, in addition to describing amusing episodes, I comment on the self-image of biology didactics.

One of my most important publications is the textbook "Fachdidaktik Biologie" (Aulis), one of the most beautiful is the non-fiction book "Elfen Gaukler un Ritter. Insects to get to know." (Kallmeyer). Using photos and graphics from the book, I created an educational presentation about small animals and, as the book is out of print, I wrote a book for children and young people in 2018 with the same idea, but partly with new photos and materials:
Die Insekten. NBBjunior. Magdeburg: Wolf.
Reading sample: www.neuebrehm.de/uploads/books/756/277_Insekten_Leseprobe.pdf

2015 is "Understanding pupils better" was published. A lexicon of everyday ideas in biology lessons. (Aulis). The keywords cover all areas of biology from descent to chance. Additional keywords and information are provided digitally.

Since 2019, I have been publishing the learning book series "Neue Wege in die Biologie", which is aimed directly at learners at secondary levels I and II (Friedrich Verlag, Hanover).

The booklet Der Mensch ... ein besonderes Lebewesen (NBBjunior. Magdeburg: Wolf) realises a matter close to my heart: in 2020, I summarised everything I have worked on regarding the topic of "human beings" in an elementary way for children and young people.
Reading sample: www.researchgate.net/publication/341902238_Der_Mensch_ein_besonderes_Lebewesen_Die_Neue_Brehm-Bucherei_NBBjunior_Leseprobe

List of my publications (selection)