Turkish Middle School Students’ Difficulties in Learning Genetics Concepts

dc.creator	Mustafa Sami TOPÇU
dc.creator	Esin ŞAHİN-PEKMEZ
dc.date	2009-08-01T00:00:00Z
dc.date.accessioned	2015-07-20T22:16:06Z
dc.date.available	2015-07-20T22:16:06Z
dc.identifier	1304-6020
dc.identifier	https://doaj.org/article/c82f1b3463c045cb85870e9a7849b4ec
dc.identifier.uri	http://evidence.thinkportal.org/handle/123456789/18209
dc.description	The purpose of this study is to reveal middle school students’ difficulties in learning genetics concepts. Both quantitative and qualitative research approaches were used in the present study. Survey method was used to explore the students’ difficulties in conceptual and procedural level. An open-ended questionnaire was conducted to find out students’ difficulties in learning genetics. Moreover, basic interpretive qualitative research approach was used in the present study. Parallel with this approach, a semi-structured interview was conducted to find out the students’ difficulties comprehensively. The number of students that participated in this study was 128 from two elementary schools in Izmir-Turkey. The determined major difficulties in learning genetics were the function of cell and chromosome concepts. When we ask the functions of genetics concepts instead of their definition, most of the students had difficulty to explain the functions of these concepts. In general, students memorized the concepts of genetics. In addition to conceptual difficulties, some procedural difficulties in genetics were also explored. Regarding transfer of genetics information, when 62.6 % of the students answered the related question correctly, 41.6 % of the students did not develop true reasoning about this process. The difficulties related to teaching methods, textbooks, and mathematical expressions were other difficulties determined in this study.
dc.language	Turkish
dc.language	English
dc.publisher	Ekip Ltd. Sti
dc.relation	www.tused.org
dc.relation	https://doaj.org/toc/1304-6020
dc.source	Journal of Turkish Science Education, Vol 6, Iss 2, Pp 55-62 (2009)
dc.subject	Learning Difficulties
dc.subject	Genetics Concepts
dc.subject	Middle School Students
dc.subject	Special aspects of education
dc.subject	LC8-6691
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	DOAJ:Education
dc.subject	DOAJ:Social Sciences
dc.subject	Special aspects of education
dc.subject	LC8-6691
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	DOAJ:Education
dc.subject	DOAJ:Social Sciences
dc.subject	Special aspects of education
dc.subject	LC8-6691
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	Special aspects of education
dc.subject	LC8-6691
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	Special aspects of education
dc.subject	LC8-6691
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.title	Turkish Middle School Students’ Difficulties in Learning Genetics Concepts
dc.type	article