Students’ Conception of Genetic Phenomena and Its Effect on Their Ability to Understand the Underlying Mechanism
Year: 2018
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Understanding genetic mechanisms affords the ability to provide causal explanations for genetic phenomena. These mechanisms are difficult to teach and learn. It has been shown that students sometimes conceive of genes as traits or as trait-bearing particles. We termed these "nonmechanistic" conceptions of genetic phenomena because they do not allow the space required for a mechanism to exist in the learner's mind. In this study, we investigated how ninth- and 12th-grade students' conceptions of genetic phenomena affect their ability to learn the underlying mechanisms. We found that ninth- and 12th-grade students with nonmechanistic conceptions are less successful at learning the mechanisms leading from gene to trait than students with mechanistic conceptions. Our results suggest that nonmechanistic conceptions of a phenomenon may create a barrier to learning the underlying mechanism. These findings suggest that an initial description of a phenomenon should hint at a mechanism even if the mechanism would be learned only later.
Source: CBE—Life Sciences Education
Authors: Michal Haskel-Ittah, Anat Yarden
Institution: Weizmann Institute of Science
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: hybrid
Funder: Weizmann Institute of Science
OpenAlex ID: W2811366750