Chabalengula Vivien Mweene, Mumba Frackson, Chitiyo Jonathan
Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Carbondale, Illinois 62901, USA.
Biochem Mol Biol Educ. 2011 Jul;39(4):321-5. doi: 10.1002/bmb.20505.
This study examined preservice teachers' understanding of biotechnology and its related processes. A sample comprised 88 elementary education preservice teachers at a large university in the Midwest of the USA. A total of 60 and 28 of the participants were enrolled in introductory and advanced science methods courses, respectively. Most participants had taken two integrated science courses at the college level. Data were collected using a questionnaire, which had open-ended items and which required participants to write the definitions and examples of the following terms: biotechnology, genetic engineering, cloning and genetically modified foods. The results indicate that preservice teachers had limited understanding of biotechnology and its related processes. The majority of the preservice teachers provided poor definitions, explanations, and examples of biotechnology, genetic engineering and genetically modified foods. Surprisingly, however, a moderate number of preservice teachers correctly defined cloning and provided correct examples of cloning. Implications for science teacher education, science curriculum, as well as recommendations for further research are discussed.
本研究考察了职前教师对生物技术及其相关过程的理解。样本包括美国中西部一所大型大学的88名小学教育职前教师。分别有60名和28名参与者参加了基础科学方法课程和高级科学方法课程。大多数参与者在大学阶段修过两门综合科学课程。通过问卷调查收集数据，问卷包含开放式问题，要求参与者写出以下术语的定义和示例：生物技术、基因工程、克隆和转基因食品。结果表明，职前教师对生物技术及其相关过程的理解有限。大多数职前教师对生物技术、基因工程和转基因食品给出的定义、解释和示例都很差。然而，令人惊讶的是，有相当数量的职前教师正确地定义了克隆并给出了克隆的正确示例。文中讨论了对科学教师教育、科学课程的启示以及对进一步研究的建议。
