Abstract

This thesis describes a research project that was carried out at the Centre for Science and Mathematics Education at Utrecht University between 1998 and 2002. The study addresses problems in learning and teaching genetics in upper secondary biology education. The aim of the study is to develop a theoretically founded and empirically tested learning and teaching strategy (LT strategy) to cope with these problems. The study is designed according to the developmental research approach (Chapter 2). In developmental research educational researchers and teachers co-operate in defining and developing learning activities and testing these in classroom settings. The LT strategy will evolve in a process of cyclic empirical testing of scenarios (Chapter 4). Literature review and focus group interviews with Dutch biology teachers (n=19) revealed that the main difficulties in genetics education are associated with its abstract and complex nature (Chapter 3). A separation of inheritance from reproduction and meiosis (resulting in abstract subject matter) and the occurrence of heredity phenomena at different levels of biological organisation (its complexity) account in considerable degree for learning problems. More in-depth data about these key difficulties have been gathered, and design criteria defined, using theoretical and empirical sources (e.g. 12 students interviews, classroom observations, content analysis of textbooks, literature) (Chapter 3). The LT strategy has been developed, evaluated, revised and optimised in a cyclic process of testing scenarios in practice (case studies). Three case studies in different schools (n=3) and forms (n=5) were carried out and resulted in the yo-yo LT strategy for genetics . A formal description of the didactical structure of the final version of the yo-yo LT strategy for genetics is presented in chapter 5.In the yo-yo strategy students are invited to think backward-and-forward between the levels of biological organisation and to interrelate the genetics concepts on these levels. Anal