An investigation of high school biology textbooks as sources of misconceptions and difficulties in genetics and some suggestions for teaching genetics

Cho, Hee-Hyung; Kahle, Jane Butler; Nordland, Floyd H.

doi:10.1002/sce.3730690512

Cited by 138 publications

(103 citation statements)

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“…The emergent sense from many science education scholars is that the plethora of representations in today's textbooks is problematic and perhaps even counterproductive to the learning of scientific ideas (e.g., Barrow, 1990;Cho, Kahle, & Nordland, 1985;Kikas, 1998;Stern & Roseman, 2004). The aim of this article is to examine why that perception has emerged.…”

Section: Science Textbooksmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptations and Continuities in the Use and Design of Visual Representations in US Middle School Science Textbooks

Lee

2010

International Journal of Science Education

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Visual representations are ubiquitous in modern-day science textbooks and, have in recent years, become an object of criticism and scrutiny. This article examines the extent to which changes in representations in textbooks published in the United States over the past six decades have invited those critiques. Drawing from a correlational analysis of a corpus of 34 US middle school physical science textbooks, continuities are established with respect the purposes that most textbook images serve and the numbers of schematic representations that are used. Changes are observed in the overall total number of representations in textbooks and in the proportion of representations that are photographic. Individual, interpretive cases of representations over time are presented to further illustrate the continuities and changes that have taken place. Specifically, high-fidelity images, such as photographs, are shown permeating or replacing schematic and explanatory images in the interest of promoting familiarization to students. This shifting emphasis toward familiarization is discussed as a specific cause for concern about quality and utility of representations in modern-day US science textbooks.

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Section: Science Textbooksmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptations and Continuities in the Use and Design of Visual Representations in US Middle School Science Textbooks

Lee

2010

International Journal of Science Education

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“…Students' views and explanations of science concepts may differ from those generally accepted by the scientists. Alternative views were given in various terms including "children science" [6, 7], "alternative frameworks" [8, 9], "naive beliefs" [10], "preconceptions" [11], and "misconceptions" [12].Over the last two decades, a large number of studies has been conducted on misconceptions in science [3, 4,11,[13][14][15][16]. Students' interpretations of observed phenomena and information obtained from school experiences were sometimes found to be scientifically incorrect and significantly different from the ideas that their teachers intended to convey.…”

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

Effectiveness of conceptual change text‐oriented instruction on students' understanding of cellular respiration concepts

Çakır

Geban

Yürük

2002

Biochem Molecular Bio Educ

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This study investigated the effect of conceptual change text-oriented instruction over traditional instruction on students' understanding of cellular respiration concepts and their attitudes toward biology as a school subject. The sample of this study consisted of 84 eleventh-grade students from four classes of a high school. Two of the classes were assigned randomly to the control group, and the other two classes were assigned randomly to the experimental group. During teaching the topic of cellular respiration concepts in biology curriculum, the experimental group was taught with the conceptual change text-oriented instruction whereas the control group was taught with the traditional instruction. The results showed that the students in the experimental group performed better with respect to cellular respiration concepts. In addition, it has been found that there was no significant difference between the attitudes of students in the experimental and control groups toward biology as a school subject.Keywords: Conceptual change instruction, cellular respiration concepts, attitudes toward biology.In recent years, many researchers in science education have focused on students' conceptual development and cognitive processes [1][2][3][4]. They mainly accepted that each student had a different cognitive structure because of their different abilities, backgrounds, attitudes, and experiences. According to Piaget [5], students construct new knowledge on their previous cognitive structures. Therefore, students may generate different meanings from upcoming information because of their different cognitive structures. Students' views and explanations of science concepts may differ from those generally accepted by the scientists. Alternative views were given in various terms including "children science" [6, 7], "alternative frameworks" [8, 9], "naive beliefs" [10], "preconceptions" [11], and "misconceptions" [12].Over the last two decades, a large number of studies has been conducted on misconceptions in science [3, 4,11,[13][14][15][16]. Students' interpretations of observed phenomena and information obtained from school experiences were sometimes found to be scientifically incorrect and significantly different from the ideas that their teachers intended to convey. Studies in the science education aimed at determining students' understanding of biology concepts have revealed many misconceptions. This is the case in biology subjects such as photosynthesis [17] [23]. Many of these concepts about which students hold misconceptions are basic to biology knowledge and are interrelated. Concepts related to the cellular respiration are among such concepts. These studies demonstrated that students have several misconceptions regarding the cellular respiration concepts [24 -26].The study carried out by Songer and Mintzes [25] with 200 novice and experienced students indicated that students had difficulties in understanding the role of oxygen in cellular respiration. Students thought that O 2 is used in all steps of glucose reduction r...

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“…This information formed the basis for the checklists developed to identify and capture the Cho et al 1985), as discussed later. Second, the use of certain 'risk-terms' may cause problems.…”

Section: Sanders and Makotsamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This information formed the basis for the checklists developed to identify and capture the manifest and latent errors in the books analysed. Textbooks have been shown to be a source of errors in biology (Cho et al 1985) including evolution-related ones (for example, Jiménez Aleixandre 1994; Rees 2007;Stern 2004), although no systematic analysis of such errors has been done. Several problems have been identified.…”

Section: The Conceptual Framework For the Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

The possible influence of curriculum statements and textbooks on misconceptions: The case of evolution

Sanders¹,

Makotsa²

2016

Educ. as change.

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Curriculum statements and textbooks are considered to be vital support tools for teachers, particularly during times of curriculum innovation. A recent change in South Africa was the controversial inclusion of evolution in the school curriculum, raising serious concerns amongst biology teachers regarding the adequacy of their content and pedagogical content knowledge for teaching the topic. Widespread 'misconceptions' about evolution make teaching this topic difficult for biology teachers worldwide. Identifying the sources of errors is an essential step needed before addressing them. This study explored curriculum support materials as a possible source of misconceptions, using content analysis of the South African school Natural Sciences curriculum statement and six Grade 7-9 Natural Sciences textbooks from two different publishers, and investigated 'curriculum slippages' between the 'formal' and 'perceived' curricula. The aim was to determine the nature and extent of unscientific ideas about evolution, and 217 Sanders and MakotsaCurriculum materials as a source of misconceptions to see how authors dealt with potential misconceptions. Errors were found in the curriculum statement and in the textbooks, where they escalated in frequency. Latent problems associated with ambiguous wording of statements posed further problems. Although this paper uses evolution as an example, lessons learned about curriculum materials as a possible influence on misconceptions are applicable to other subjects.Keywords: curriculum support materials, textbooks, misconceptions, curriculum slippages, evolution, natural selectionIn times of curriculum innovation textbooks become important props for teachers, particularly if they are inadequately prepared to implement new curriculum content. However, an important assumption is that such support materials will be scientifically accurate. If they contain errors, teachers with poor content knowledge may not be in a position to recognise mistakes, which are thus likely to be transmitted to pupils. This paper focuses on an investigation of curriculum statements and textbooks as a possible source of misconceptions, as well as how the textbooks identified and addressed common misconceptions. We have used the umbrella term 'misconceptions' for this paper in the commonly understood everyday sense, referring to incorrect ideas, as this is how most teachers and the public are likely to understand the term. Because document analysis was used for this study it was not possible to discriminate between ideas which have been mentally constructed by the document authors (the correct technical meaning of 'misconceptions') and 'errors', which have been acquired from some outside source. THE CONTEXT OF THE STUDYThe inclusion of evolution in the South African school curriculumThe radical revision of the South African school curriculum, progressively implemented by the newly elected government's education department between 1998 and 2008, was characterised by several changes, one of which was a modernisi...

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An investigation of high school biology textbooks as sources of misconceptions and difficulties in genetics and some suggestions for teaching genetics

Cited by 138 publications

References 13 publications

Adaptations and Continuities in the Use and Design of Visual Representations in US Middle School Science Textbooks

Adaptations and Continuities in the Use and Design of Visual Representations in US Middle School Science Textbooks

Effectiveness of conceptual change text‐oriented instruction on students' understanding of cellular respiration concepts

The possible influence of curriculum statements and textbooks on misconceptions: The case of evolution

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