| The knowledge, skills, and personal attributes which various groups perceived as important for high school students planning to study biology in college were investigated.; Information was collected from second year university biology students, high school biology teachers, college professors, and science educators in the United States and in Indonesia.; In the United States, high school biology teachers were found to perceive the mastery of biological knowledge as the most important preparation for college biology. The college biology professors and science educators, however, perceived that certain personal attributes such as creativity or ingenuity were more important than the acquisition of knowledge relating to biology. For all respondents, except the high school biology teachers in the United States, the three attributes considered most important for incoming biology students in college to possess include personal features such as ingenuity and creativity, general skills such as ability to read a graph or interpret data tables, and general study skills. For the high school biology teachers in the United States, besides such general skills, the knowledge of definitions and knowledge of comparative relationships/interpretations were considered the most important to possess.; In Indonesia, however, there was homogeneity among respondents about knowledge and biological-knowledge base skills as being less important. The closest similarities among Indonesian respondents were seen between the high school biology teachers and the science educators. This homogeneity may be attributed to the development and the enforcement of the national curriculum across the country.; The most important area of knowledge rated by American respondents was the knowledge of definitions whereas Indonesian respondents, except high school biology teachers, rated the knowledge of comparative relationships/interpretations as the most important area. The high school biology teachers in Indonesia rated the knowledge of functions as the most important area among the knowledge categories.; All the respondents rated the biological-knowledge base skills (such as using a Punnett square) as relatively less important than the general skills (such as interpreting data tables). The most important area of attributes was Personal Features were creativity and ingenuity were perceived as especially important. |
