Abstract

FABRICIO, Maria de Fátima Lima; JOFILI, Zélia Maria Soares; SEMEN, Luiza Suely Martins  and  LEAO, Ana Maria dos Anjos Carneiro. The understanding of Mendel's laws by students of Biology during secondary school and undergraduation. Ens. Pesqui. Educ. Ciênc. [online]. 2006, vol.8, n.1, pp.59-72. ISSN 1983-2117.  https://doi.org/10.1590/1983-21172006080106.

The difficulty of understanding the hereditary characters transmission, based on Mendel's laws is observed among Secondary School students (EM) as well as undergraduate students of Biology (ES), possibly due to the lack of knowledge of previous contents. The aim of this study has been to test this hypothesis and the way these difficulties appears in the ES. A questionnaire was elaborated to identify the difficulties among students of these two groups (EM and ES). Questionnaires and interviews also had been applied with secondary and university teachers to identify their perceptions about the difficulties of its students and the actions they develop to help them. In spite of the biggest access to information, the identified problems persist among the undergraduate students. The fact that they do not seem able to solve practical questions becomes preoccupying since they will teach in secondary school.

Keywords : Mendel's laws; conceptual learning; teacher education..

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