Investigation of Students’ Alternative Conceptions of Terms and Processes of Gene Technology

Table 1

Common categories of students’ conceptions, each category with one sample term and one sample process of gene technology (students’ key words for each category are within students’ quotations in italic letters; see Table 6 for all categories).

Category	Definition:	Students’ application to the
	conception is connected to …	term of gene^a	process of change of genotype^a
Genotype	Genotypic level.	… means genetic information …	… means that hereditary information will be changed.
Phenotype	Phenotypic level.	… which eye color one has, …	… is the chemical change of certain traits of the father.
Procedure	Techniques and/or equipment.		… means that parts of the genotype are changed by medical techniques.
Pedigree	Words showing relationships.	The child of a pair has the genes of his/her parents  …	For example, if everybody in the family has blond hair and one child has red hair.
Valuation	Value-related aspects.		… is a specific manipulation.
Object	A specific object.	… are small  cells …	If one changes the genes of a human  being.
Localization	A specific localization.	… inside of the person …

aSample student quotation.