Premium
Predicting genetics achievement in nonmajors college biology
Author(s) -
Mitchell Angela,
Lawson Anton E.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
journal of research in science teaching
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.067
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1098-2736
pISSN - 0022-4308
DOI - 10.1002/tea.3660250104
Subject(s) - mathematics education , test (biology) , psychology , comprehension , achievement test , intelligence quotient , mendelian inheritance , science education , reading comprehension , academic achievement , reading (process) , genetics , developmental psychology , biology , cognition , standardized test , computer science , paleontology , neuroscience , gene , political science , law , programming language
Students enrolled in a non‐majors college biology course were pretested to determine their level of intellectual development, degree of field independence, mental capacity, amount of prior genetics knowledge, and amount of fluid intelligence. They were then taught a unit on Mendelian genetics. The only student variables found to not account for a significant amount of variance on a test of reading comprehension and/or a test of genetics achievement was amount of prior genetics knowledge. Developmental level was found to be the most consistent predictor of performance, suggesting that a lack of general hypothetico‐deductive reasoning ability is a major factor limiting achievement among these students.