Cargando…
Students’ Understanding of the Dynamic Nature of Genetics: Characterizing Undergraduates’ Explanations for Interaction between Genetics and Environment
The idea of the interaction between genes and environment in the formation of traits is an important component of genetic literacy, because it explains the plastic nature of phenotypes. However, most studies in genetics education characterize challenges in understanding and reasoning about genetic p...
Autores principales: | , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
American Society for Cell Biology
2020
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8711817/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32822276 http://dx.doi.org/10.1187/cbe.19-11-0221 |
_version_ | 1784623435609014272 |
---|---|
author | Haskel-Ittah, Michal Duncan, Ravit Golan Yarden, Anat |
author_facet | Haskel-Ittah, Michal Duncan, Ravit Golan Yarden, Anat |
author_sort | Haskel-Ittah, Michal |
collection | PubMed |
description | The idea of the interaction between genes and environment in the formation of traits is an important component of genetic literacy, because it explains the plastic nature of phenotypes. However, most studies in genetics education characterize challenges in understanding and reasoning about genetic phenomena that do not involve modulation by the environment. Therefore, we do not know enough to inform the development of effective instructional materials that address the influences of environmental factors on genes and traits, that is, phenotypic plasticity. The current study explores college students’ understanding of phenotypic plasticity. We interviewed biological sciences undergraduates who are at different stages of their undergraduate studies and asked them to explain several phenomena that involved phenotypic plasticity. Analysis of the interviews revealed two types of mechanistic accounts: one type described the interaction as involving the environment directly acting on a passive organism; while the other described the interaction as mediated by a sensing-and-responding mechanism. While both accounts are plausible, the second account is critical for reasoning about phenotypic plasticity. We also found that contextual features of the phenomena may affect the type of account generated. Based on these findings, we recommend focusing instruction on the ways in which organisms sense and respond. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8711817 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | American Society for Cell Biology |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-87118172022-01-03 Students’ Understanding of the Dynamic Nature of Genetics: Characterizing Undergraduates’ Explanations for Interaction between Genetics and Environment Haskel-Ittah, Michal Duncan, Ravit Golan Yarden, Anat CBE Life Sci Educ Article The idea of the interaction between genes and environment in the formation of traits is an important component of genetic literacy, because it explains the plastic nature of phenotypes. However, most studies in genetics education characterize challenges in understanding and reasoning about genetic phenomena that do not involve modulation by the environment. Therefore, we do not know enough to inform the development of effective instructional materials that address the influences of environmental factors on genes and traits, that is, phenotypic plasticity. The current study explores college students’ understanding of phenotypic plasticity. We interviewed biological sciences undergraduates who are at different stages of their undergraduate studies and asked them to explain several phenomena that involved phenotypic plasticity. Analysis of the interviews revealed two types of mechanistic accounts: one type described the interaction as involving the environment directly acting on a passive organism; while the other described the interaction as mediated by a sensing-and-responding mechanism. While both accounts are plausible, the second account is critical for reasoning about phenotypic plasticity. We also found that contextual features of the phenomena may affect the type of account generated. Based on these findings, we recommend focusing instruction on the ways in which organisms sense and respond. American Society for Cell Biology 2020 /pmc/articles/PMC8711817/ /pubmed/32822276 http://dx.doi.org/10.1187/cbe.19-11-0221 Text en © 2020 M. Haskel-Ittah et al. CBE—Life Sciences Education © 2020 The American Society for Cell Biology. “ASCB®” and “The American Society for Cell Biology®” are registered trademarks of The American Society for Cell Biology. https://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 Haskel-Ittah, Michal Duncan, Ravit Golan Yarden, Anat Students’ Understanding of the Dynamic Nature of Genetics: Characterizing Undergraduates’ Explanations for Interaction between Genetics and Environment |
title | Students’ Understanding of the Dynamic Nature of Genetics: Characterizing Undergraduates’ Explanations for Interaction between Genetics and Environment |
title_full | Students’ Understanding of the Dynamic Nature of Genetics: Characterizing Undergraduates’ Explanations for Interaction between Genetics and Environment |
title_fullStr | Students’ Understanding of the Dynamic Nature of Genetics: Characterizing Undergraduates’ Explanations for Interaction between Genetics and Environment |
title_full_unstemmed | Students’ Understanding of the Dynamic Nature of Genetics: Characterizing Undergraduates’ Explanations for Interaction between Genetics and Environment |
title_short | Students’ Understanding of the Dynamic Nature of Genetics: Characterizing Undergraduates’ Explanations for Interaction between Genetics and Environment |
title_sort | students’ understanding of the dynamic nature of genetics: characterizing undergraduates’ explanations for interaction between genetics and environment |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8711817/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32822276 http://dx.doi.org/10.1187/cbe.19-11-0221 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT haskelittahmichal studentsunderstandingofthedynamicnatureofgeneticscharacterizingundergraduatesexplanationsforinteractionbetweengeneticsandenvironment AT duncanravitgolan studentsunderstandingofthedynamicnatureofgeneticscharacterizingundergraduatesexplanationsforinteractionbetweengeneticsandenvironment AT yardenanat studentsunderstandingofthedynamicnatureofgeneticscharacterizingundergraduatesexplanationsforinteractionbetweengeneticsandenvironment |