Young students' understanding of the relationship between inheritance and variation of traits using structural equation modeling

Abstract

Genetics has become increasingly important in everyday life, a fact that is reflected in state and national science education standards. This study examines the relationship between 474 fifth graders' understandings of the core ideas of inheritance of traits and variation of traits. A confirmatory factor analysis, supplemented with qualitative analyses of students’ responses, revealed a relationship between these concepts and contributed evidence about the nature of students' challenges in learning these ideas. While most students demonstrated some normative ideas, many struggled to explain variation of traits as resulting from equal inheritance of genetic information from two parents. Instead, they focused on generational patterns of visible traits or on the influence of nongenetic factors. Deepening understanding of young students' heredity‐related thinking can improve preparation of older students for learning advanced genetics‐related ideas.

About birds and bees, snails and trees: Children's ideas on animal and plant evolution

“…showed slightly higher acceptance rates that increased when beneficial features of a trait were not mentioned beforehand (Emmons & Kelemen, 2015). In contrast to those findings, other studies have reported slightly more favorable outcomes, suggesting that children at the age of 5-11 years exhibit at least an isolated to advanced understanding of variation in animals, which appears to improve with age (Gormley et al, 2022;Ibourk et al, 2018).…”

“…In one of these studies, older children (7–8 years) showed slightly higher acceptance rates that increased when beneficial features of a trait were not mentioned beforehand (Emmons & Kelemen, 2015). In contrast to those findings, other studies have reported slightly more favorable outcomes, suggesting that children at the age of 5–11 years exhibit at least an isolated to advanced understanding of variation in animals, which appears to improve with age (Gormley et al, 2022; Ibourk et al, 2018). These divergent findings could be attributed to differences in assessment tasks, rating scales, as well as the specific nature of the examples used (fictional vs. real, beneficial traits vs. neutral traits).…”

“…Especially younger children might be prone to three cognitive biases: essentialist, anthropomorphic, and teleological reasoning (e.g., the assumption that variation in traits serves identification; Gormley et al, 2022; Legare et al, 2013). Within‐species variation can also sometimes be mistaken for between‐species variation or for a developmental stage (Allen, 2010; Ibourk et al, 2018). For instance, after hearing a story about natural selection younger children were less likely to recall within‐species variation than between‐species variation (Legare et al, 2013), and in a study about variation in animal breeding programmes, some students reduced variation to differences due to sex or age (Alred et al, 2019).…”

“…These divergent findings could be attributed to differences in assessment tasks, rating scales, as well as the specific nature of the examples used (fictional vs. real, beneficial traits vs. neutral traits). Comparatively, the origin of variation is more difficult for children to grasp (Ibourk et al, 2018) as it requires a basic understanding of genetics and inheritance.…”

The role of collective sensemaking and science curriculum development within a research–practice partnership

“…Five key criteria of RPPs are: they are long-term, center a problem of practice, are mutually beneficial, are strategic in fostering the partnership, and produce original analyses. This project employed a design-based research project to develop a genetics curriculum to meet the instructional needs of students (Coburn et al, 2013;Ibourk et al, 2018;Tate et al, 2020).…”