Abstract

This paper aims to elucidate guiding concepts for the design of powerful undergraduate bioinformatics degrees which will lead to a conceptual framework for the curriculum. "Powerful" here should be understood as having truly bioinformatics objectives rather than enrichment of existing computer science or life science degrees on which bioinformatics degrees are often based. As such, the conceptual framework will be one which aims to demonstrate intellectual honesty in regards to the field of bioinformatics. A synthesis/conceptual analysis approach was followed as elaborated by Hurd (1983). The approach takes into account the following: bioinfonnatics educational needs and goals as expressed by different authorities, five undergraduate bioinformatics degrees case-studies, educational implications of bioinformatics as a technoscience and approaches to curriculum design promoting interdisciplinarity and integration. Given these considerations, guiding concepts emerged and a conceptual framework was elaborated. The practice of bioinformatics was given a closer look, which led to defining tool-integration skills and tool-thinking capacity as crucial areas of the bioinformatics activities spectrum. It was argued, finally, that a process-based curriculum as a variation of a concept-based curriculum (where the concepts are processes) might be more conducive to the teaching of bioinformatics given a foundational first year of integrated science education as envisioned by Bialek and Botstein (2004). Furthermore, the curriculum design needs to define new avenues of communication and learning which bypass the traditional disciplinary barriers of academic settings as undertaken by Tador and Tidmor (2005) for graduate studies.