Assessing students' understanding of cell division in an undergraduate biology course: a qualitative perspective

Abstract

This paper describes undergraduate students' understanding of cell division. Specifically, the study explored students' understanding of mitosis and meiosis before and after laboratory instruction using a phenomenological analytical approach. The sample comprised 41 first-year university students enrolled in a biology course. A Cell Biology Test (CBT) was administered at the pre—and post-test stages and the students' activities during laboratory sessions on cell division were observed and recorded. Overall, the findings of this study suggested that, the cell biology laboratory work substantially improved the students' level of understanding of mitosis and meiosis. Despite this, similar to other studies carried out in this field, the students consistently demonstrated a poor knowledge of the basic concepts (e.g. chromosome structure, chromosome number, specific events in prophase I of meiosis and DNA replication) that are important to understanding the whole process of mitosis and meiosis even after the laboratory instruction. Furthermore, practical difficulties experienced by most of the students in the use of the light microscope during the laboratory sessions seemed to have a negative influence on the envisaged aims of laboratory work in cell division. The findings of the study are highlighted and discussed in the paper.