Abstract
Students’ misconceptions are often deeply rooted and instruction-resistant obstacles to the acquizition of scientific concepts and remain even after instruction. A large number of prior studies reported that primary and secondary school students have many conceptional problems concerning cell biology and genetics. The study was set out to determine misconceptions held by pre-service teachers about genetics of Science and Technology Education Department at the Faculty of Education in Lagos State University. A sample of 120 pre-service biology teachers in their second and third year was purposively selected. Multiple-choice Genetic Concept Test (MGCT) and Pre-service Teachers’ Genetics Misconceptions Checklist (PTMC) were administered to obtain information about pre-service teachers’ understanding level of genetics. Results revealed that 75.1% on the average of pre-service teachers had misconceptions about genetics concepts. This percentage of pre-service teachers who have misconceptions could have been due to wrong understanding of the teachers to the concepts of genetics. Findings further showed that about 83.4% on the average of pre-service teachers attributed the misconceptions about genetics to challenges in genetics textbooks, instructional methods in teaching genetics, lecturers' English language skills, pre-service teachers' cultural beliefs and practices, nature of laboratories and abstractness of genetics. Science education and science teachers should take priority for the supplying of scientific literacy which is required for making informed decision about genetic related controversial issues imposed by daily life. KEYWORDS : Genetics, Misconceptions, Pre-Service Teachers, Mendelian Inheritance, concepts
Highlights
Learning and students’ performance in educational settings can be affected by diverse factors
The results revealed that 75.1% on the average of preservice teachers had misconceptions about genetics concepts
The emphasis in the textbooks and teaching is on Mendelian genetics, which could cause the students to believe dominant alleles are more prevalent in a population and will be more frequent than recessive alleles, especially because the dominant phenotype appears in both the homozygous dominant condition and the heterozygous condition whereas the recessive phenotype only appears in the homozygous recessive condition
Summary
Learning and students’ performance in educational settings can be affected by diverse factors. Hypothesis H01: There is no significant difference between Multiple-choice Genetic Concept Test scores of pre-service teachers on misconceptions about genetics according to their year of study. The sample of study consisted of 120 pre-service biology teachers in their second and third year of Science and Technology Education Department at the Faculty of Education in Lagos State University. Two research instruments were used in the collection of data – the Multiple-choice Genetic Concept Test (MGCT) and Pre-service Teachers’ Genetics Misconceptions Checklist (PTMC); to obtain information about pre-service teachers’ understanding level of genetics concepts such as DNA, chromosome, gene, genome and cell divisions. The multiple-choice Genetic Concept Test (MGCT) was developed by the researcher based on previously identified target concepts and propositional knowledge statements and from pre-service teachers’ responses in an interview administered on some forth year pre-service teachers in the department.
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