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Exploring Students’ Descriptions of Mutation from a Cognitive Perspective Suggests How to Modify Instructional Approaches

Prior studies have shown that students have difficulty understanding the role of mutation in evolution and genetics. However, little is known about unifying themes underlying students’ difficulty with mutation. In this study, we examined students’ written explanations about mutation from a cognitive...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Zhao, FangFang, Schuchardt, Anita
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: American Society for Cell Biology 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6755322/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31469622
http://dx.doi.org/10.1187/cbe.18-11-0225
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author Zhao, FangFang
Schuchardt, Anita
author_facet Zhao, FangFang
Schuchardt, Anita
author_sort Zhao, FangFang
collection PubMed
description Prior studies have shown that students have difficulty understanding the role of mutation in evolution and genetics. However, little is known about unifying themes underlying students’ difficulty with mutation. In this study, we examined students’ written explanations about mutation from a cognitive science perspective. According to one cognitive perspective, scientific phenomena can be perceived as entities or processes, and the miscategorization of processes as entities can lead to noncanonical ideas about scientific phenomena that are difficult to change. Students’ incorrect categorization of processes as entities is well documented in physics but has not been studied in biology. Unlike other scientific phenomena that have been studied, the word “mutation” refers to both the process causing a change in the DNA and the entity, the altered DNA, making mutation a relevant concept for exploration and extension of this theory. In this study, we show that, even after instruction on mutation, the majority of students provided entity-focused descriptions of mutation in response to a question that prompted for a process-focused description in a lizard or a bacterial population. Students’ noncanonical ideas about mutation occurred in both entity- and process-focused descriptions. Implications for conceptual understanding and instruction are discussed.
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spelling pubmed-67553222019-10-15 Exploring Students’ Descriptions of Mutation from a Cognitive Perspective Suggests How to Modify Instructional Approaches Zhao, FangFang Schuchardt, Anita CBE Life Sci Educ Article Prior studies have shown that students have difficulty understanding the role of mutation in evolution and genetics. However, little is known about unifying themes underlying students’ difficulty with mutation. In this study, we examined students’ written explanations about mutation from a cognitive science perspective. According to one cognitive perspective, scientific phenomena can be perceived as entities or processes, and the miscategorization of processes as entities can lead to noncanonical ideas about scientific phenomena that are difficult to change. Students’ incorrect categorization of processes as entities is well documented in physics but has not been studied in biology. Unlike other scientific phenomena that have been studied, the word “mutation” refers to both the process causing a change in the DNA and the entity, the altered DNA, making mutation a relevant concept for exploration and extension of this theory. In this study, we show that, even after instruction on mutation, the majority of students provided entity-focused descriptions of mutation in response to a question that prompted for a process-focused description in a lizard or a bacterial population. Students’ noncanonical ideas about mutation occurred in both entity- and process-focused descriptions. Implications for conceptual understanding and instruction are discussed. American Society for Cell Biology 2019 /pmc/articles/PMC6755322/ /pubmed/31469622 http://dx.doi.org/10.1187/cbe.18-11-0225 Text en © 2019 FF. Zhao and A. Schuchardt. CBE—Life Sciences Education © 2019 The American Society for Cell Biology. “ASCB®” and “The American Society for Cell Biology®” are registered trademarks of The American Society for Cell Biology. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0 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.
spellingShingle Article
Zhao, FangFang
Schuchardt, Anita
Exploring Students’ Descriptions of Mutation from a Cognitive Perspective Suggests How to Modify Instructional Approaches
title Exploring Students’ Descriptions of Mutation from a Cognitive Perspective Suggests How to Modify Instructional Approaches
title_full Exploring Students’ Descriptions of Mutation from a Cognitive Perspective Suggests How to Modify Instructional Approaches
title_fullStr Exploring Students’ Descriptions of Mutation from a Cognitive Perspective Suggests How to Modify Instructional Approaches
title_full_unstemmed Exploring Students’ Descriptions of Mutation from a Cognitive Perspective Suggests How to Modify Instructional Approaches
title_short Exploring Students’ Descriptions of Mutation from a Cognitive Perspective Suggests How to Modify Instructional Approaches
title_sort exploring students’ descriptions of mutation from a cognitive perspective suggests how to modify instructional approaches
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6755322/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31469622
http://dx.doi.org/10.1187/cbe.18-11-0225
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