Upper secondary school students, their teachers and textbooks - understanding the gene function
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Tuomas AiveloUniversity of Kiel, 7.3.2016
Upper secondary school students, their teachers and textbooks – understanding the gene function
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IntroductionM
ethodsResults
Discussion
Contents of genetic education• An international trend to question the current
state of genetics education (Venville & Treagust, 1998; Shaw et al., 2008; Dougherty, 2010; Redfield, 2012)
Dramatic change in contents but no in teaching
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IntroductionM
ethodsResults
Discussion
”Canonical” approach
• Mendelian genetics• Monohybrid, dihybrid
crosses• Are these crucial or current
contents?
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IntroductionM
ethodsResults
Discussion
Finnish curriculum• Mandatory course Cells and heredity has goals:– Be familiar with the structure of genetic
information and how it transfers from cell-to-cell and generation-to-generation
– Know how genes control the cell’s functions– Know the basic principles of the laws of
inheritance(Finnish National Board of Education, 2004)
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IntroductionM
ethodsResults
Discussion
Research problem
Question:What kind of gene models do the
textbooks contain?
Textbooks
Students
Teachers
National curriculumGeneticists
Science
comm
unicationMatriculation examination
Genetic literacy
Everyday life
Studies
Work
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Methods
IntroductionResults
Discussion
Historical models of genes
Five different features used to divide genes in five distinct models (based on the work by Gericke & Hagberg, 2007):
•Mendelian – “genotype is the phenotype”
•Classical – “a gene is situated in the chromosome and leads to a phenotype”
•Biochemical-classical – “gene produces an enzyme which creates a phenotype”•Neoclassical – “DNA makes RNA makes protein”•Modern – “complex interaction between genes, gene products and environment”
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Methods
IntroductionResults
Discussion
The materials and methods
• 4 upper secondary school textbooks – almost all Finnish students use one of these books (Aivelo & Uitto, 2014)
• Used content analysis (Neuendorf, 2002)
• Collected mentions of genes and analyzed the gene model (Gericke & Hagberg, 2010)
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ResultsDiscussion
IntroductionM
ethods
No modern gene models present!
Mendelian
Classical
Biochemical-classical
Neoclassical
Modern
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ResultsDiscussion
IntroductionM
ethods
Gene models This study Gericke &Hagberg
MendelianClassicalBiochemical-classicalNeoclassicalModern
34% 25%7% 19%
28% 31%31% 34%0% 8%
Similarity in gene models
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ResultsDiscussion
IntroductionM
ethodsHereditary phenomena were not connected to the molecular phenomena.
Genotype to phenotype link wasn’t explained.
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ResultsDiscussion
IntroductionM
ethods
The environmental effects on gene expression were rarely mentioned and even when mentioned, subordinate to genes.
There was also explicit distinction between genes and environment:
e.g. “Phenotype = Genotype + Environmental effects”.
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IntroductionM
ethodsResults
Discussion
Scientific determism- Genes and environment have interactions.
Hard genetic determism- Genes determine the phenotype
Soft genetic determism- Genes and environment have distinct effects.
In a related study we found evidence for this soft determinism in students’ perceptions!
(Aivelo & Uitto, 2014)
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IntroductionM
ethodsResults
Discussion
genotype environment
phenotype
development
Scientific genetic determinism
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IntroductionM
ethodsResults
Discussion
Implications for textbooks and teaching
• More coherence needed in gene models (Gericke, 2008)
• Need to adress internally conflicting models (Justi & Gilbert, 2003)
• Need to bridge everyday language (gene for…) to the scientific language
• Explain different meaning of genes (Snyder & Gerstein, 2003)
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IntroductionM
ethodsResults
Discussion
Outcomes
• New national curriculum:– In objectives: ”Students use concepts, models and theories
when studying phenomena related to cells and heredity”– In contents: ”Inheritance of genes and passing of traits to
next generation”
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IntroductionM
ethodsResults
Discussion
Continuation
Interviews with teachers and questionnaires to students
Textbooks
Students
Teachers
National curriculumGeneticists
Science
comm
unicationMatriculation examination
Genetic literacy
Everyday life
Studies
Work
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IntroductionM
ethodsResults
Discussion• Aivelo & Uitto 2014: Geenimallit lukion oppikirjoissa ja lukiolaisten käsityksiä geenien toiminnasta.
Natura 2/2004: 31-35.• Aivelo & Uitto 2015: Genetic determinism in the Finnish upper secondary school biology textbooks.
NorDiNa – Nordic Studies in Science Education 11:139-152.• Dougherty, 2010: It’s time to overhaul our outdated genetics curriculum. The American Biology
Teacher 4:4-7. doi: 10.1525/abt.2010.72.4.2• Finnish National Board of Education, 2004:
National Core Curriculum for General Upper Secondary Education Intended for Young People• Flodin, 2009: The Necessity of making visible concepts with multiple meanings in science education:
the use of the gene concept in a biology textbook. Science & Education 18:773-94. doi:10.1007/s11191-007-9127-1
• Gericke & Hagberg, 2007: Definition of historical models of gene function and their relation to students’ understanding of genetics. Science Education 16:849-881. doi: 10.1007/s11191-006-9064-4
• Gericke 2008: Science versus school-science – multiple models in genetics: the depiction of gene function in upper secondary textbooks and its influence on students’ understanding. PhD Thesis, Karlstadt University. LINK
• Gericke & Hagberg, 2010: Conceptual incoherence as a result of the use of multiple historical models in school textbooks. Research in Science Education 4:605-623. doi:10.1007/s11165-009-9136-y
• Justi & Gilbert 2003: Teachers' views on the nature of models. International Journal of Science Education 25:1369-1386. doi: 10.1080/0950069032000070324
• Neuendorf 2002: The content analysis guidebook. Thousand Oaks: Sage.• Redfield, 2012: ”Why do we have to learn this stuff?” – a new genetics for 21st century students.
PLoS Biology 10:e1001356. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001356• Shaw et al. 2008: Essay contest reveals misconceptions of high school students in genetics content.
Genetics 178:1157-1168. doi:10.1534/genetics.107.084194• Snyger & Gerstein 2003: Defining genes in the genomics era. Science 300:258-260.
doi:10.1126/science.1084354• Venville & Treagust 1998: Exploring conceptual change in genetics using a multidimensional
interpretive framework. Journal of Research in Science Teaching 35:1031-1055. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1098-2736(199811)35:9<1031::AID-TEA5>3.0.CO;2-E