First-year university students’ problems in understanding basic concepts of plant reproduction

Abstract

This paper describes two inter-related studies which investigated the ideas held by students entering first-year biology courses at university. The first was an in-depth naturalistic investigation probing the conceptual difficulties of first-year College of Science students over a three-year period. The second was a study of the ideas held by 187 first-year General Biology students about basic genetics concepts essential for understanding plant life cycles. Three problem areas were identified: the extent of rote learning of the life-histories of individual organisms and other related concepts, terminology-related problems; and conceptual problems such as the idea that in plants, as in animals, meiosis results directly in the formation of gametes. Particularly evident was the confusion generated by concepts involving single and paired structures at several stages of the reproductive cycle, including the division of chromosomes into chromatids, pairing of homologous chromosomes, haploid and diploid cells, and the concept of chromosome number. The importance of reviewing fundamental concepts and correcting erroneous ideas before teaching new work is emphasised within the context of educational theories of learning