Representational Trajectories in the Understanding of Mendelian Genetics

Fernando Flores-Camacho; Elena Calderón-Canales; Beatriz García-Rivera; Leticia Gallegos-Cázares; Araceli Báez-Islas

doi:10.29333/ejmste/10998

Fernando Flores-Camacho ¹ ^* , Elena Calderón-Canales ¹ ^* , Beatriz García-Rivera ¹ , Leticia Gallegos-Cázares ¹ , Araceli Báez-Islas ¹

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¹ Instituto de Ciencias Aplicadas y Tecnología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Circuito Exterior S/N, Ciudad Universitaria, 04510, Mexico City, MEXICO^* Corresponding Author

Abstract

Understanding genetics is one of the most significant learning difficulties faced by students. To improve teaching genetics and the students’ representational competence within the classroom have been proposed using multiple representations. This study presents an analysis of representational levels used by high school students learning Mendelian genetics and determining the construction trajectories of these representations. An assessment instrument was used to analyse the representational levels of 186 students with three different teaching strategies. The levels were used to analyse and classify students’ answers, written texts, and drawings and diagrams. The result shows that learning Mendelian genetics is a gradual process in which students appeal to various levels of representations that can determine different trajectories and demonstrate progress on comprehension. We identify five trajectories, ranging from responses that rely on descriptions of observable traits to responses from students who could integrate processes or use models.

Keywords

genetics
multiple representations
biology education
competences
learning

License

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, 2021, Volume 17, Issue 8, Article No: em1988

https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/10998

Publication date: 23 Jun 2021

Article Views: 1698

Article Downloads: 1060

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Disclosure

Declaration of Conflict of Interest: No conflict of interest is declared by author(s).

Data sharing statement: Data supporting the findings and conclusions are available upon request from the corresponding author(s).

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How to cite this article

APA

Flores-Camacho, F., Calderón-Canales, E., García-Rivera, B., Gallegos-Cázares, L., & Báez-Islas, A. (2021). Representational Trajectories in the Understanding of Mendelian Genetics. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 17(8), em1988. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/10998

Vancouver

Flores-Camacho F, Calderón-Canales E, García-Rivera B, Gallegos-Cázares L, Báez-Islas A. Representational Trajectories in the Understanding of Mendelian Genetics. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2021;17(8):em1988. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/10998

AMA

Flores-Camacho F, Calderón-Canales E, García-Rivera B, Gallegos-Cázares L, Báez-Islas A. Representational Trajectories in the Understanding of Mendelian Genetics. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2021;17(8), em1988. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/10998

Chicago

Flores-Camacho, Fernando, Elena Calderón-Canales, Beatriz García-Rivera, Leticia Gallegos-Cázares, and Araceli Báez-Islas. "Representational Trajectories in the Understanding of Mendelian Genetics". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education 2021 17 no. 8 (2021): em1988. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/10998

Harvard

Flores-Camacho, F., Calderón-Canales, E., García-Rivera, B., Gallegos-Cázares, L., and Báez-Islas, A. (2021). Representational Trajectories in the Understanding of Mendelian Genetics. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 17(8), em1988. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/10998

MLA

Flores-Camacho, Fernando et al. "Representational Trajectories in the Understanding of Mendelian Genetics". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, vol. 17, no. 8, 2021, em1988. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/10998