The Genetics Conceptual Understanding of Indonesian and United States Undergraduate Biology Students

Abstract

Genetics as a core concept of life science is essential for understanding biology. Examining genetics understanding among biology majors is becoming important since they must necessarily achieve some level of genetics understanding to advance their career. This study compares Indonesian biology majors’ genetics understanding with previously published data from students in the United States (US). This study also identifies the effect of academic year and program on genetics understanding by administering the Genetics Concept Assessment (GCA) to 377 biology majors in Indonesia. IRT-Rasch modeling was performed for instrument validation, followed by one-way ANOVA and independent sample t-test for the analysis. The results showed that Indonesian biology majors’ genetics understanding was significantly affected by academic year but was not affected by the academic program. Indonesian biology majors had a slightly similar level of genetics understanding with US non-majors’ pre-test scores, while Indonesian biology majors’ scores were two times lower than US majors’ post-test scores. The implications of reducing the gap between two countries are discussed.

The development of molecular genetics concept test for senior high school students using Rasch analysis

“…The instrument was developed with the intent of biology teachers to measure students' understanding of molecular genetics concepts at the senior high school level. In Indonesia, molecular genetics concepts at the senior high school level taught in grade 12 are more complex than those at the middle level [27]. So it is essential to measure students' understanding of the concept of molecular genetics regularly [27].…”

“…In Indonesia, molecular genetics concepts at the senior high school level taught in grade 12 are more complex than those at the middle level [27]. So it is essential to measure students' understanding of the concept of molecular genetics regularly [27]. Based on Figure 3, it shows that 34 items of MGCT indicate a reasonable way to measure students' molecular genetics concepts before and after an introductory molecular genetics concept in the classroom.…”

Urgensi Keberadaan Buku Panduan Penelitian Biologi Molekuler Menggunakan Drosophila melanogaster

“…Penelitian di bidang molekuler akan mampu meningkatkan kesejahteraan di Indonesia (Ramdhan, 2014). Namun demikian, pemahaman aspek molekuler mahasiswa Indonesia masih belum optimal (Rusmana et al, 2021). Oleh karena itu, pendidikan molekuler di Indonesia diharapkan dapat ditingkatkan (Nellen et al, 2017;Rusmana et al, 2021).…”