Action Potentials & Biology Textbooks: Accurate, Misconceptions or Avoidance?

Abstract

FOR more than 50 years, science educators have been studying students' alternative conceptions. Numerous misconceptions have been detected among elementary, secondary and college students. Such misconception studies have generated volumes of information and have increased the awareness of educators about the difficulties of teaching science. Biology educators have reported misconceptions by students about the human body (Porter 1974; Mintzes 1984; McNab 1985; Slesnick 1988); genetics, natural selection and evolution (Cho 1985; Lawson & Thompson 1988; Bishop & Anderson 1990; Settlage 1991); and photosynthesis and respiration (Storey 1989; Lawson 1988). These findings are important because many students do not receive science training beyond the high school biology level, and misconceptions acquired at this time may remain with the student for life. To magnify the problem, Tolman (1982), Cho (1985) and Storey (1989) noted that misconceptions about genetics and photosynthesis are frequently found in biology textbooks. These findings are significant because student misconceptions may be compounded by textbooks. In addition, the problem is accentuated when more than 90% of all science teachers use a textbook 95% of the time (Yager & Penick 1987). Furthermore, textbooks may be a teacher's only source of information which can promote misconceptions among science teachers. Moreover, Brandwein (1981) reported that most of the effort in science education has been centered around writing science textbooks. Yet, gross misconceptions in textbooks have gone undetected. The purpose of this study was to determine which action potential concepts are found in biology textbooks, how these concepts are presented and to identify potential misconceptions about the concepts. Procedures