Types of Deviation in Genetics Knowledge Presented in Textbooks Relative to the Reference Literature

Abstract

The present study seeks to examine how basic knowledge presented in textbooks for the teaching of genetics in secondary schools approximates or deviates from academic knowledge of the subject. Among transposed scientific knowledge of greatest importance in education is knowledge of genetics. Therefore, knowledge taught in schools is necessarily subject to two influences. The first is laxity, which is the tendency to alter scientific knowledge, when presenting it in textbook form, to make it accessible to learners. The other is rigorism, which is the opposite of laxity, i.e., the tendency to approximate knowledge taught to scientific knowledge, seeking to transmit it correctly, with a commitment to scientific principles. Different types of deviations were identified in textbooks from Brazil and the United States. To determine how knowledge presented in textbooks deviates from that presented in the reference bibliography, concepts were classified according to type of deviation, using the following categories: equivalent term, metaphor, conceptual deviation; deviation in the description of the process, generalisation of occurrence, content not updated. The present study finds that the deviations cannot be classified as conceptual errors and are not necessarily related to the concepts themselves. Deviations were mostly categorised as generalisations of occurrence. The highest frequency of this type of deviation was independent of the concept examined or of the country of origin of the group of textbooks analysed.