Teaching Cell Biology in Primary Schools

Research in Science Education, 2013

In our explorations of students' concepts in an inquiry science classroom with grade 6 students from urban schools in India, we uncovered a variety of problems in their understanding of biological cells as structural and functional units of living organisms. In particular, we found not only that they visualised the cell as a two-dimensional (2-D) structure, instead of a closed three-dimensional (3-D) functional unit, but that they had a strong resistance to changing their 2-D conception to a 3-D one. Based on analyses of students' oral as well as written descriptions of cells in the classroom, and of models they made of the cell, we were able to identify the causes of students' difficulties in correctly visualising the cell. These insights helped us design a pedagogy involving guided discussions and activities that challenges students' 2-D conceptions of the cell. The activities entail very simple, low-cost, easily doable techniques to help students visualise the cell and to understand that it would not be able to function if its structure were 2-D. We also present the results of our investigations of conceptions of grade 7 students and biology undergraduates, revealing that the incorrect 2-D mental model can persist right up to the college level if it is not explicitly addressed. The classroom interactions described in this study illustrate how students' ideas can be probed and addressed in the classroom using pedagogical action research.

Biodidaktika, 2024

The purpose of this study was to determine the learning interests, difficulties, and conceptual understanding of high school students on cell concepts. The study was conducted at one of the state high schools in Serang. The study cohort comprised 71 students enrolled in class XI, specializing in Mathematics and Natural Sciences, and a teacher in Biology. The data collection methodology employed in this research involved conducting structured interviews with the biology educator and survey questionnaires among students. The stages in carrying out data analysis are data reduction, data display, and the iterative process of drawing conclusions and verification. The results of this research showed the importance of students' conceptual understanding of cell concepts, as evidenced in the data analysis of students who have a low level of conceptual understanding. The low understanding of the concept is caused by several factors, including cell concepts being too complex and abstract, dominant learning not being interactive, cell concepts being conceptual, and difficulty understanding foreign languages or Latin. Based on the results of interviews with biology teachers, several obstacles result in students' low conceptual understanding of cell concepts, including students being less interested in seeking additional explanations regarding cell concepts, students having low memory ability in studying the lesson concepts that has been presented by the teacher, and still a lack of availability of teaching aids in schools for cell concepts.

Cell Biology Education, 2012

The large number of experimentally determined molecular structures has led to the development of a new semiotic system in the life sciences, with increasing use of accurate molecular representations.To determine how this change impacts students’ learning, we incorporated image tests into ourintroductory cell biology course. Groups of students used a single text dealing with signal trans-duction, which was supplemented with images made in one of three iconographic styles. Typically,we employed realistic renderings, using computer-generated Protein Data Bank (PDB) structures;realistic-schematic renderings, using shapes inspired by PDB structures; or schematic renderings,using simple geometric shapes to represent cellular components. The control group received a listof keywords. When students were asked to draw and describe the process in their own style and toreply to multiple-choice questions, the three iconographic approaches equally improved the overalloutcome of the tests (relative to keywords). Students found the three approaches equally useful but,whenaskedtoselectapreferredstyle,theylargelyfavoredarealistic-schematicstyle.Whenstudentswere asked to annotate “raw” realistic images, both keywords and schematic representations failedto prepare them for this task. We conclude that supplementary images facilitate the comprehen-sion process and despite their visual clutter, realistic representations do not hinder learning in anintroductory course.

Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and …, 2008

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of instruction (application) including interactive computer animation accompanied by teacher and student-prepared concept maps on primary students' biology achievement during instruction, as well as revealing attitudes towards ...

cvs.gnowledge.org

In our explorations of children's concepts in science we have found that children of grades 6 and 7 visualize cells as 2-D objects. This aspect of children's understanding of the cell has not been reported before, to our knowledge. In this paper we describe our motivation for ...

Cell Biology Education, 2004

The advent of genomics, proteomics, and microarray technology has brought much excitement to science, both in teaching and in learning. The public is eager to know about the processes of life. In the present context of the explosive growth of scientific information, a major challenge of modern cell biology is to popularize basic concepts of structures and functions of living cells, to introduce people to the scientific method, to stimulate inquiry, and to analyze and synthesize concepts and paradigms. In this essay we present our experience in mixing science and education in Brazil. For two decades we have developed activities for the science education of teachers and undergraduate students, using microscopy images generated by our work as cell biologists. We describe open-air outreach education activities, games, cell modeling, and other practical and innovative activities presented in public squares and favelas. Especially in developing countries, science education is important, since it may lead to an improvement in quality of life while advancing understanding of traditional scientific ideas. We show that teaching and research can be mutually beneficial rather than competing pursuits in advancing these goals.

European Journal of Education Studies

This study aims to assess the level of understanding of biology students and to identify their misconceptions about cell concepts. Participants of the study (n=160) were students enrolled in biology undergraduate level. Data analysis showed that the students had cell-related misconceptions. The misconceptions were found in four basic competencies of the cell concepts. The most common misconceptions (55.68%) among students are those related to the relationship between the structure and function of the nucleus and endoplasmic reticulum. We denote that most of the students have assimilated the concepts related to the chemical constituents of the cell. There are several potential factors that cause the occurrence of misconceptions among the participants in this study, including low retention of knowledge obtained in previous school levels, lack of learning resources, incomprehensible terms, and low interest of biology students in cell concepts. Article visualizations:

Electronic Journal of Science Education, 2008

Visual representations are commonly used in science instruction to enhance learning. In this study, 86 high school biology students were asked to study an illustration of meiosis to determine their ability to recognize, understand, and interpret textbook images. Data collected from interview and written responses to questions revealed that while the task helped them learn about the topic of meiosis in terms of labeling structures and describing the phases, students were unable to communicate an understanding of the overall purpose of meiosis. The findings of this study have implications for the design and scaffolding of visual representations.

Journal of Biological Education, 2022

The study reports on the theoretical- and empirical-based design and evaluation of cell membrane biology learning activities within the Model of Educational Reconstruction and experiential realism. First, we designed analogy-based learning activities by considering students’ and scientists’ conceptions as described in the literature. Secondly, we carried out two video-taped teaching experiments to study students’ learning processes when interacting with the learning activities. Interpreting students’ conceptual development as thinking pathways enabled us to identify and understand the roots of their learning difficulties. Due to inherent ontological and epistemological presumptions, the students had difficulties in understanding that cell membrane structure determines their two-fold function: to separate and to connect environments in order to maintain living processes. The multiple analogies we employed helped foster conceptual development because they highlighted aspects of the concrete everyday experiences the students already had, but had not thought about. As a result of the learning activities, the students revised their conceptions regarding the terms barrier, gatekeeper and environment and connected these to a more coherent conceptual structure of cell membrane biology. Methods and outcomes of the study may contribute to a better understanding of how this important concept can be brought to science classrooms.

Journal of Biology Education

The learning process has been carried out in the conventional way, this is caused by the teacher's understanding of using multimedia is still not optimal, so the learning method used is still limited. This phenomenon makes the researchers interested in doing this research. The purpose of the study to determine the effectiveness of multimedia use in improving mastery of cell concepts. this study uses a quantitative approach with a quasi-experimental method. This study uses a quantitative approach with a quasi-experimental method. Based on the results of the study, it was found that the use of interactive multimedia provides a good value of effectiveness in mastering the concept of students cells, compared with learning using conventional media. This is evidenced by the t test on spss obtained value t = 0.00. Based on these results the average value of the gain experimental class is greater, which is 41, compared to the average value of the gain control class, which is 32. The r...