Exploring conceptual change in genetics using a multidimensional interpretive framework

This article examines changes in Grade 10 students' conceptions of genes during a 10-week genetics course. Data collected by student worksheets given before and after the course, observations of lessons, videotape and audiotape recordings of classroom discourse, and detailed student interviews at the end of the course are interpreted using a multidimensional framework of conceptual change from epistemological, ontological, and social/affective perspectives. The results indicate that students' ontological conceptions of genes develop from the idea that a gene is a passive particle passed from parents to offspring, to being a more active particle that controls characteristics. From a social/affective perspective, it was evident that even though the students enjoyed the genetics course and participated in classroom activities, they often were uninterested in the microscopic explanatory mechanisms of genetics. The teaching approaches did not encourage a sophisticated conception of a gene in the minds of the majority of students. From an epistemological perspective, it was possible to classify the students' ontological conceptions as being intelligible, plausible, or fruitful. The article concludes that Grade 10 student learning about the concept of the gene is an evolutionary process that is more like weaker descriptions of conceptual change such as assimilation and conceptual capture than stronger forms such as accommodation and conceptual exchange. However, there is evidence to suggest that the conceptual change observed may be of a stronger form because students' conceptions changed to an ontological category that primarily relates to process. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.