Análise das concepções sobre meiose e sua relação com conceitos genéticos em diagramas resolvidos por estudantes de licenciatura em ciências biológicas

Abstract

Analysis of mistakes in written assignments of students may be considered a powerful tool to investigate how students understand concepts and the ideas they bring from their previous learning process, be it formal or informal. In this study, a Genetics assignment done by biology licentiate students was analyzed to investigate their understanding on genetic concepts involved in meiosis. This assignment required students to diagram the meiosis process in one cell with three pairs of chromosomes with heterozygous loci. A database with 219 assignments was accessed by us and a system of categorization of the mistakes made by the students in meiosis diagrams was developed to help analyze them. Furthermore, this research had a qualitative approach where the process of completing the meiosis diagram in a group of biology students of the discipline in which the assignment has been given in the last few years. The results from the analysis of the assignments show that students do not understand the meiosis process well, making mistakes related to replication, disjunction and ploidy. Some misconceptions have been identified in the diagrams of this study included: failing in representing the replication process, not illustrating replicated chromosomes and the mistaken representation of ploidy in meiotic products. These mistakes may show the existence of alternative conceptions of meiosis. On the other hand, the solutions presented by the students show that some characteristics of meiosis are well understood, such as the fact that the process has stages of replication, segregation, division, etc. The data shows the need of further studies on the teaching-learning process of these concepts and of recommendations of more effective ways of applying this topic in the class in order to avoid persistence of these difficulties experienced by students.