The purpose of this research was to explore the way pupils of different age groups use a model to understand abstract concepts in genetics. Pupils from early childhood to late adolescence were taught about genes and DNA using an analogical model (the wool model) during their regular biology classes. Changing conceptual understandings of the…

Critiques two popular and current perspectives on the nature of understanding in science education, and offers a competing perspective drawing from Dewey, aesthetics, and aesthetic experience. Uses aesthetic understanding as an analytic lens to critique and illuminate the learning of three students studying geology in a fourth-grade classroom.…