Concepts Related to the Biological Cell*

Abstract

The organization of curricula and the development of teaching methodologies based upon varieties of theories involving concepts as the central focus, although not new, has recently received considerable attention. Unfortunately associated with this desire to make learning more comprehensive comes the problem of selecting the concepts at a level of sophistication apropos to the learner. Little or nothing is known about the difficulty or ease of learning certain concepts. Unfortunately there does not seem to be a frame of reference from which to operate. David P. Ausubel [1] points out that, "We desperately need studies indicating that certain kinds, components, and levels of subject matter which cannot be learned efficiently at one age can be learned efficiently at another age. . . ." Problem: To determine which concepts selected from the scheme the biological cell seem appropriate for study by children in Grades 2-6. PROCEDUREConcept Selection: The initial procedure for the selection of the concepts to serve as the experimental variables included analysis of 10 series of elementary school science, 16 high school biology, 10 college biology, and two cytology textbooks. The concepts selected were ordered in a serial manner based upon suspected learning difficulty and submitted to a panel of eight for consideration and final listing in an order according to suspected difficulty. After the concepts were ordered each was classified according to taxonomic type; those concerned with the names of structures were called classificational concepts, those concerned with the correlation of two or more facts, such as structure and related function, were called correlational concepts, and those involving theoretical explanations were called theoretical concepts.Teaching: A sequence of eleven lessons was planned that involved the use of microscope slides, 2 X 2 photomicrographs, drawings, photographs, rock sections, metallic alloy sections, film loops and chart ma-*