Examined the problem-solving performances of novices (11 undergraduates) and experts (9 graduate students and instructors), comparing them in terms of background expertise and problem-solving success. Also examined problem-solving behaviors reported in other domains and determined whether or not genetics is a fruitful area for problem-solving…

The results of a study of the meiosis models utilized by individuals at varying levels of expertise while reasoning about the process of meiosis are presented. Based on these results, the issues of sources of misconceptions/difficulties and the construction of a sound understanding of meiosis are discussed. Five individuals from each of three…

This paper is a progress report of the first phase of a project which essentially seeks to replicate previous studies using the successful/unsuccessful design in an attempt to: (1) corroborate the surface/deep structure conclusion which has become an essential component of an understanding of problem-solving; (2) examine more closely the nature of…

The purpose of this study was to analyze the errors made by students solving genetics problems. A sample of 10 non-science undergraduate students was obtained from a private college in Northern New Jersey. The results support prior research in the area of genetics education and show that a weak understanding of the relationship of meiosis to…

Nine undergraduate science and non-science majors (novices) who had recently completed their first college classroom study of genetics and seven genetics graduate students and biology instructors (experts) were videotaped as they attempted to solve a selected group of seven moderately complex classifical genetics problems and three Piagetian tasks…

Seventy-one college general biology students were taught a unit in Mendelian genetics by the traditional lecture method. Emphasis was placed on meiotic formation of gametes, dominance, segregation, and independent assortment. The Punnett square model was used for all practice problems. While using this model, students were asked to: (1) identify…

The mental representations used by experts and novices for organizing their knowledge of a discipline have been studied by observing the categorization schemes these subjects produce when presented with a diverse group of problems. In this study, seven biology faculty, eight certified genetic counselors, and 26 students were asked to organize a…

The opinions of 1,585 Iowa farmers about 8 emergent agricultural technologies (energy production from feed grains and oils; energy production from livestock waste; genetic engineering research on plants, livestock, and humans; robotics for on-farm use; confinement livestock facilities; and personal computers for farm families) were found to be…

One aim of this study was to identify, in a group of unsuccessful college level problem solvers, the status and use of their declarative knowledge as revealed by students' attempts to solve novel problems in a pencil-and-paper setting. It was hypothesized that for some unsuccessful problem solvers, their problem representation could be improved by…

The purpose of the research was to manipulate two aspects of genetics instruction in order to measure their effects on college, introductory biology students' achievement in genetics. One instructional sequence that was used dealt first with monohybrid autosomal inheritance patterns, then sex-linkage. The alternate sequence was the reverse.…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the achievement of some abstract concepts in "molecular genetics" and prior knowledge, formal reasoning ability, and sex. The major findings of the study were: (1) prior knowledge had a high significant correlation with the achievement of abstract concepts; (2) the…

This 1-week study explored the extent to which high school students (n=140) acquired meaningful understanding of selected biological topics (meiosis and the Punnett square method) and the relationship between these topics. This study: (1) examined "mental modeling" as a technique for measuring students' meaningful understanding of the…

This study investigated the retention of meaningful understanding of the biological topics of meiosis, the Punnett square method and the relations between these two topics. This study also explored the predictive influence of students' general tendency to learn meaningfully or by rote (meaningful learning orientation), prior knowledge of meiosis,…