Promoting Middle School Students’ Understandings of Molecular Genetics

Abstract

Genetics is the cornerstone of modern biology and understanding genetics is a critical aspect of scientific literacy. Research has shown, however, that many high school graduates lack fundamental understandings in genetics necessary to make informed decisions or to participate in public debates over emerging technologies in molecular genetics. Currently, much of genetics instruction occurs at the high school level. However, recent policy reports suggest that we may need to begin introducing aspects of core concepts in earlier grades and to successively develop students' understandings of these concepts in subsequent grades. Given the paucity of research about genetics learning at the middle school level, we know very little about what students in earlier grades are capable of reasoning about in this domain. In this paper, we discuss a research study aimed at fostering deeper understandings of molecular genetics at the middle school level. As part of the research we designed a two-week model-based inquiry unit implemented in two 7th grade classrooms (N=135). We describe our instructional design and report results based on analysis of pre/post assessments and written artifacts of the unit. Our findings suggest that middle school students can develop: (a) a view of genes as productive instructions for proteins, (b) an understanding of the role of proteins in mediating genetic effects, and (c) can use this knowledge to reason about a novel genetic phenomena. However, there were significant differences in the learning gains in both classrooms and we provide speculative explanations of what may have caused these differences.

Genetic determinism in the Finnish upper secondary school biology textbooks

“…Probably due to this emphasis on the central role of proteins in genotype-phenotype distinction, much of the research has emphasized the understanding of the role of proteins and reserved a much smaller role for environment and development (e.g., Duncan, Freidenreich, Chinn, & Bausch, 2011;Duncan, Rogat, & Yarden, 2009;Williams, Montgomery, & Manokore, 2012). Downplaying of the environmental effects can in our view lead to weak genetic deterministic views.…”

Interrelation between regulatory and socioemotional processes within collaborative groups characterized by facilitative and directive other-regulation

“…The curriculum integrates disciplinary practices of science, bringing the curriculum into alignment with reform science standards: the PRACCIS materials engage students in scientific practices of evaluating evidence and model fit based on evidence (Chinn & Buckland, 2011;Duncan, Freidenreich, Chinn, & Bausch, 2011;National Research Council, 2007). Students developed shared criteria that became a tool for evaluation of model and evidence quality.…”

From Theory to Data: The Process of Refining Learning Progressions

“…The data analyzed in this article were collected as part of a 2-year longitudinal study of the genetics LP (Duncan, Ruppert, Bausch, & Freidenreich, 2008). Two instructional units were developed by a collaborative design team of educational researchers and teachers.…”