Abstract
M.Ed. (Subject Didactics)
Education in South Africa has had to face a process of unknown changes during the last few years of the past decade. One of the aspects of education which is receiving attention amid a wide spectrum of contributional factors concerning rationalisation, is the degree of success the current educational system is laying claim on. It is simply not economically viable to spend time in an unrealistic way regarding the instruction of science. There may be quite a few contributional factors which are eventually going to dictate the outcome of, among others, the teaching of Biology, but for the purpose
of this thesis, the focus was on the possible existence of misconceptions among standard 9 pupils concerning genetics. The effect that misconceptions may have on the effectiveness of meaningful learning, is briefly covered in the theoretical basis of this study. During the last few years various articles of scientific nature have been published on the existence of misconceptions among pupils regarding the different sectional disciplines of Biology. Although, compared to the vast number of other scientific publications, relatively few publications concerned topics in Biology. The
documentation of misconceptions regarding aspects of photosynthesis,
respiration, various aspects of ecology and genetics (e.g. 1.3.1) seems to be well formulated. From the various articles it becomes clear that the existence of misconceptions concerning genetics is a definite factor which cannot be denied by the authors. The latter unanimously agree on the inhibitory effect that misconceptions have on the assimilation of new concepts of Biology which children encounter during formal education.