Student misconceptions in genetics

Abstract

Genetics presents itself as being a very difficult topic for students to comprehend due to its abstract and complex nature. Students enter the classroom with their own set of prior notions and ideas regarding basic genetic concepts and these impede their meaningful learning of genetics. Concept maps were used as tools to explore students’ understanding of a number of genetic concepts both before and after being taught the topic and common misconceptions were identified by analysing the links made between different concepts. These misconceptions were investigated further by means of interviews so as to get a more in-depth understanding of the students’ reasoning behind these relationships. From this research, it was found that students are confusing the structures and functions of genes, chromosomes and DNA. This leads to an inability of the students to develop a well-established knowledge on the concept of alleles and on the formation and acquisition of different characteristics. Students still have a relatively undeveloped notions regarding the nature of genetic information and variation. There was a confusion between mitosis and meiosis and the significance of these processes of cell division. The concept of fertilization was also confused with that of meiosis. It was, thus, concluded that students are not developing a coherent understanding of genetics, and this resulted in the presence of ‘gaps’ in their knowledge. They are also not developing the appropriate reasoning skills to advance in their understanding of concepts as they tend to study genetics as rote memorization of facts, rather than as interlinked concepts.