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

ABSTRACT: 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 cau

SUBMITTER: Zhao F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6755322 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature