Research data necessary for meaningful review of grade ten high school genetics curricula

Hackling, Mark; Treagust, David F.

doi:10.1002/tea.3660210210

Cited by 53 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…We also analyzed the mentions of dominance and recessiveness, as this has proved to be especially difficult concept for students (Hackling & Treagust, 1984). Table 4 Gene and a trait is the same thing Table 4 Genes and environment have distinct effects on phenotype …”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic determinism in the Finnish upper secondary school biology textbooks

Aivelo¹,

Uitto²

2015

NorDiNa

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Genetics is a fast-developing field and it has been argued that genetics education is lagging behind. Genetics education has, for example, been suspected of indoctrinating strong genetic determinism. As the updating of the national upper secondary school curricula is about to start, we decided to study how the current curriculum manifests in Finnish biology textbooks. We studied the main four textbooks for historical gene models and definitions of genes using content analysis. Hybrid models were pervasive in textbooks. The textbooks expressed sometimes even strong genetic determinism, which might be linked to the dominance of older historical models in the textbooks. We also found instances of determinism which we call 'weak determinism': genes were depicted as more important factor than environment in relation to the expressed properties. Subsequently, there were no modern gene models found. We suggest gene models should be presented explicitly to reduce misconceptions about genes. We argue that genetics education needs to take more into account than environmental effects and there needs to be more emphasis on the temporal and developmental aspect of genotype-phenotype link. Specifically in Finland this could be done by a more explicit formulation of the national curriculum. IntroductionThere's a wide international pressure to re-examine the contents of genetics education (Dougherty, 2009;Mills Shaw, Van Horne, Zhang, & Boughman, 2008). The canonical contents in genetics in secondary schools usually start with Mendelian patterns of inheritance (Banet & Ayuso, 2000;Dougherty, 2009;Tsui & Treagust, 2010), but this has been questioned as both irrelevant to students' scientific literacy and potentially leading to false ideas of genetic determinism (Santos, Mariane, & El-Hani, 2012;Castéra, Bruguière, & Clément, 2008;Dougherty, 2010; but see Smith & Gericke, 2013 Tuomas Aivelo is PhD student in University of Helsinki. His PhD research is on longitudinal monitoring of parasite dynamics in mouse lemurs by next generation sequencing tools. He has also actively participated in research and development in biology education, including teacher training, development of learning materials and research on genetics education.Anna Uitto is professor of biology education at the Department of Teacher Education, University of Helsinki. Her research focuses on inquiry-based learning, concepts of biology and secondary school teachers' and students' interests and attitudes to biology and their self-efficacy beliefs in biology. She is also conducting research on the education for sustainable development.TUOMAS AIVELO

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic determinism in the Finnish upper secondary school biology textbooks

Aivelo¹,

Uitto²

2015

NorDiNa

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“…Evolution is a needs-based process (Alters and Nelson 2002;Bizzo 1994;Deadman and Kelly 1978;Hackling and Treagust 1984) The environment causes adaptation (Alters and Nelson 2002;Andersson and Wallin 2006, p. 679) Evolution is progressive, an emergence from an underdeveloped form; involves a purposeful striving toward higher forms (Alters and Nelson 2002;Evans 2008) Animals (but not plants) need to evolve to survive (re anthrocentrism?-not discussed above; Bizzo 1994) Individuals within species and populations are the same, especially in plants; there is no intraspecific variation (Andersson and Wallin 2006;Ramorogo and Wood-Robinson 1995) Taught-and-learned misconceptions (including inadvertent messages from teachers and textbooks)…”

Section: From-experience Misconceptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Current Status of Research in Teaching and Learning Evolution: II. Pedagogical Issues

2009

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This is the second of two articles that address recent scholarship about teaching and learning about evolution. This second review seeks to summarize this state of affairs and address the implications of this work for the classroom by addressing four basic questions: (1) What is evolution?/What components of the theory are important at the introductory level? (2) Why do students and members of the public at large need to understand evolution? (3) What makes evolution difficult to teach and learn? and (4) What promising instructional approaches have been developed and tested? The paper will also focus on concerns about both the research designs and the measures used in this work. Based on this review, I will then propose a set of pedagogical implications and recommendations for the classroom instructor and call for studies to address specific gaps identified.

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“…On the one hand, students´ conceptions were collected after students had been taught following their respective national curricula (e.g., Hackling & Treagust, 1984;Dreyfus & Jungwirth, 1988, 1989Zamorra & Guerra, 1993;Díaz de Bustamante & Jiménez Aleixandre, 1998;Lewis, Leach & Wood-Robinson, 2000;Marbach-Ad & Stavy, 2000;Flores et al, 2003). On the other hand, there are a few empirical investigations that collected students´ conceptions before, during and after a specific learning-strategy (e.g., Knippels, 2002;Verhoeff, 2003).…”

Section: State Of Research Into Conceptions Of Cells and Cell Divisionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…• Problems in understanding the different levels of organisation of multi-cellular organisms (e.g., Schäfer, 1979;Hackling & Treagust, 1984;Dreyfus & Jungwirth, 1988, 1989Zamorra & Guerra, 1993;Knippels, 2002;Verhoeff, 2003;Flores et al, 2003).…”

Section: State Of Research Into Conceptions Of Cells and Cell Divisionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the Roots of Difficulties in Learning about Cell Division: Process‐based analysis of students’ conceptual development in teaching experiments

Riemeier¹,

Gropengießer²

2008

International Journal of Science Education

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Research data necessary for meaningful review of grade ten high school genetics curricula

Cited by 53 publications

References 7 publications

Genetic determinism in the Finnish upper secondary school biology textbooks

Genetic determinism in the Finnish upper secondary school biology textbooks

Current Status of Research in Teaching and Learning Evolution: II. Pedagogical Issues

On the Roots of Difficulties in Learning about Cell Division: Process‐based analysis of students’ conceptual development in teaching experiments

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