Discusses the frequent misconception displayed by students that chromosome structure is a function of chromosome number or ploidy. Provides detailed analyses of the evidence concerning the prevalence of this ploidy/structure misconception among students of introductory genetics and the potential sources for inaccurate communication that it can…

Previous research has cast doubt on children's ability to use specified evidence when making causal inferences, or, indeed, to differentiate between the specified evidence and their own preconceptions, or "prior theories." The present study continues previous work by distinguishing between children's reasoning in conditions where…

Identifies the unsophisticated assumptions and conjectures, both intuitive and empirical in character, underlying secondary school science students' (n=25) portrayal of scientific knowledge and its production. Structured interview protocols explored not only the students' substantive knowledge base but, perhaps more important, their ability to…