Abstract
There is a consensus among teachers and students that genetics is one of the most difficult units to teach and learn. To help promote the teaching and learning of genetics concepts, we analyzed forty-eight papers published from 1970 to 2000 about genetics misconceptions. From these we generalized three causes (personal, social, and school teaching) for genetics misconceptions and listed seven categories of students’ misconceptions including: cell divisions (mitosis and meiosis), sexual reproduction (gamate and the inheritance of characteristics), Mendel’s laws of inheritance (the application of probability and genotype), gene (allele, chemical components and structure of DNA, dominance and recessive, codominance, incomplete dominance), chromosome (homologus chromosome, sex chromosome, sex-linked inheritance), mutation, and genetic engineering. Based on the results, other research findings and the principles of cognitive psychology, suggestions for the teaching of genetics concepts are provided.
| Keywords: | genetics; misconception; instruction |
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