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Investigating Novice and Expert Conceptions of Genetically Modified Organisms

The aspiration of biology education is to give students tools to apply knowledge learned in the classroom to everyday life. Genetic modification is a real-world biological concept that relies on an in-depth understanding of the molecular behavior of DNA and proteins. This study investigated undergra...

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Autores principales: Potter, Lisa M., Bissonnette, Sarah A., Knight, Jonathan D., Tanner, Kimberly D.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: American Society for Cell Biology 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5589432/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28821537
http://dx.doi.org/10.1187/cbe.16-11-0333
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author Potter, Lisa M.
Bissonnette, Sarah A.
Knight, Jonathan D.
Tanner, Kimberly D.
author_facet Potter, Lisa M.
Bissonnette, Sarah A.
Knight, Jonathan D.
Tanner, Kimberly D.
author_sort Potter, Lisa M.
collection PubMed
description The aspiration of biology education is to give students tools to apply knowledge learned in the classroom to everyday life. Genetic modification is a real-world biological concept that relies on an in-depth understanding of the molecular behavior of DNA and proteins. This study investigated undergraduate biology students’ conceptions of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) when probed with real-world, molecular and cellular, and essentialist cues, and how those conceptions compared across biology expertise. We developed a novel written assessment tool and administered it to 120 non–biology majors, 154 entering biology majors, 120 advanced biology majors (ABM), and nine biology faculty. Results indicated that undergraduate biology majors rarely included molecular and cellular rationales in their initial explanations of GMOs. Despite ABM demonstrating that they have much of the biology knowledge necessary to understand genetic modification, they did not appear to apply this knowledge to explaining GMOs. Further, this study showed that all undergraduate student populations exhibited evidence of essentialist thinking while explaining GMOs, regardless of their level of biology training. Finally, our results suggest an association between scientifically accurate ideas and the application of molecular and cellular rationales, as well as an association between misconceptions and essentialist rationales.
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spelling pubmed-55894322017-09-14 Investigating Novice and Expert Conceptions of Genetically Modified Organisms Potter, Lisa M. Bissonnette, Sarah A. Knight, Jonathan D. Tanner, Kimberly D. CBE Life Sci Educ Article The aspiration of biology education is to give students tools to apply knowledge learned in the classroom to everyday life. Genetic modification is a real-world biological concept that relies on an in-depth understanding of the molecular behavior of DNA and proteins. This study investigated undergraduate biology students’ conceptions of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) when probed with real-world, molecular and cellular, and essentialist cues, and how those conceptions compared across biology expertise. We developed a novel written assessment tool and administered it to 120 non–biology majors, 154 entering biology majors, 120 advanced biology majors (ABM), and nine biology faculty. Results indicated that undergraduate biology majors rarely included molecular and cellular rationales in their initial explanations of GMOs. Despite ABM demonstrating that they have much of the biology knowledge necessary to understand genetic modification, they did not appear to apply this knowledge to explaining GMOs. Further, this study showed that all undergraduate student populations exhibited evidence of essentialist thinking while explaining GMOs, regardless of their level of biology training. Finally, our results suggest an association between scientifically accurate ideas and the application of molecular and cellular rationales, as well as an association between misconceptions and essentialist rationales. American Society for Cell Biology 2017 /pmc/articles/PMC5589432/ /pubmed/28821537 http://dx.doi.org/10.1187/cbe.16-11-0333 Text en © 2017 L. M. Potter et al. CBE—Life Sciences Education © 2016 The American Society for Cell Biology. This article is distributed by The American Society for Cell Biology under license from the author(s). It is available to the public under an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 3.0 Unported Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0). “ASCB®” and “The American Society for Cell Biology®” are registered trademarks of The American Society for Cell Biology.
spellingShingle Article
Potter, Lisa M.
Bissonnette, Sarah A.
Knight, Jonathan D.
Tanner, Kimberly D.
Investigating Novice and Expert Conceptions of Genetically Modified Organisms
title Investigating Novice and Expert Conceptions of Genetically Modified Organisms
title_full Investigating Novice and Expert Conceptions of Genetically Modified Organisms
title_fullStr Investigating Novice and Expert Conceptions of Genetically Modified Organisms
title_full_unstemmed Investigating Novice and Expert Conceptions of Genetically Modified Organisms
title_short Investigating Novice and Expert Conceptions of Genetically Modified Organisms
title_sort investigating novice and expert conceptions of genetically modified organisms
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5589432/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28821537
http://dx.doi.org/10.1187/cbe.16-11-0333
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