Genética e suas aplicações : identificando o tema em diferentes contextos educacionais /

Abstract

Genetics, a subarea within Biology, has a major importance for the study and comprehension of diversity, heredity and biological evolution. A significant understanding of this subarea, with its correlations and applications, allows that individuals perform in a critical way in the society. This study aimed to recognize how the contents of Genetics and its applications are explored in different teaching situations. This research had a quali-quantitative approach, using for data collection instruments as tests composed by exercises focusing on Genetics and its relationships/applications applied to High School students and University students, a questionnaire applied to teachers, and documental analysis. The participants in the study were High School senior students in the years of 2013 and 2014 from two schools, chosen because they had studied Genetics at least one year before, University freshman enrolled in courses within the Biological Area, in the first or second semester in 2012; and also Biology teachers from public and private schools located in the town of Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil. Admission exams for entering High Education in Brazil in the period from 2009 to 2013 were also analyzed. Results showed that students, both High School seniors and University freshmen, did not present a significant knowledge related to Genetics and its applications. The main difficulties are related to the understanding of the triad genes-chromosomes-DNA, lacking of inter-relationships among contents previously studied and utilization of math rules for probabilities and calculations involving fractions. Students presented misconceptions related to the concepts of genetic code and genome, relationship between number of chromosomes and DNA molecules, presence of different DNA molecules in different cell types in a single individual, confusion between the concepts of transgenic and genetic modified organisms. The admission exams presented a model favoring the correlation among different contents, but usually toward basic Genetics to the detriment of subjects related to the applications of Genetics. Teachers, on the other hand, considered that the basic contents of Genetics are essential to the individual formation and that the difficulty in learning Genetics is related to the excess of concepts, abstract content, besides correlation between contents, as nucleic acids, and to other matters, mainly Mathematics and Chemistry. Based on the results we developed a didactic booklet containing models and auxiliary teaching resources in Genetics.