The Dominance Concept Inventory: A Tool for Assessing Undergraduate Student Alternative Conceptions about Dominance in Mendelian and Population Genetics

Abstract

Biology undergraduates often have difficulty understanding dominance in genetics. The authors developed and evaluated the Dominance Concept Inventory, a tool to measure the prevalence of four alternative conceptions about dominance. It was found that the test is an effective tool and that introductory and advanced students harbor confusions about dominance.

The Impact of an Interactive Approach on the Evolution of Moroccan University Students’ Conceptions of Neurotransmission

“…This result is in agreement with a previous study during 2015-2016 academic year, where the concepts of neurotransmission were far from being mastered by the majority of students. In fact, the results of present study are very consistent with data from literature review on teaching and learning scientific concepts showing that initial conceptions sometimes constitute barriers/obstacles to learning (Ozmen, 2004;Schneider & Stern, 2010;Abraham, Perez & Price, 2014;Kampourakis, Silveira & Strasser, 2016).…”

“…These prior conceptions have an importance in later learning because they can promote learning or block it when they do not evolve (Ozmen, 2004), that being why a better account of these conceptions in lessons would be beneficial from the perspective of the effectiveness of learning. Indeed, several researchers are agreeing that the failure to take learners' conceptions into account can lead the teaching run into a number of obstacles (Viennot, 1988;DeVecchi, 1992;Giordan, 1994;Giordan, 1998;Soudani, 1998;Kaddari, 2005;Kochkar, 2007;Laribi et al, 2010;El Hassouny, 2014;Sadi, 2014;Bouayad, 2015;Schneider & Stern, 2010;Abraham, Perez & Price, 2014;Kampourakis, Silveira & Strasser, 2016).…”

Development of the Central Dogma Concept Inventory (CDCI) Assessment Tool

“…In the 20+ yr since the introduction of the Force Concept Inventory ( Hestenes et al ., 1992 ), dozens of other concept assessment tools have been created for many science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, including physics (e.g., Thornton, 1998 ; Singh and Rosengrant, 2003 ; Ding et al ., 2006 ), statistics ( Stone et al ., 2003 ), geosciences ( Libarkin and Anderson, 2005 ), and engineering (e.g., Midkiff et al ., 2001 ; Krause et al ., 2003 ; Steif and Dantzler, 2005 ). The number of concept assessments on biological topics is quickly expanding, as more instructors and researchers recognize the need for research-based tools to evaluate student understanding of essential biological concepts (e.g., Kalas et al ., 2013 ; Abraham et al ., 2014 ; Deane et al ., 2014 ; Price et al ., 2014 ; Williams and Heinrichsen, 2014 ; Couch et al ., 2015a). Many of the more recently developed instruments align with some of the five core concepts required for biological literacy as described in the National Science Foundation/American Association for the Advancement of Science 2009 report Vision and Change: A Call to Action ( AAAS; 2011 ).…”

Misconceptions in Genetics: Review Study

“…Problematické je podle dosavadních výzkumů i porozumění základním pojmům týkající se genetiky (např. alela, DNA, gen, chromozom) (Abraham, Perez a Price, 2014;Saka, Cerrah, Akdeniz a Ayas, 2006).…”