Abstract

My research explores the development of students’ understandings of genetics and inheritance, in the context of health and disease. The study is mixed methods, quasi-experimental in design and draws from socio-cultural theory. Both scholarly and craft knowledge are used to support the research. I worked in close collaboration with a science teacher, who taught a sequence of four lessons to two parallel GCSE science classes, an intervention and a comparison class. The intervention lessons were designed to meet identified learning needs. Collaborative group work tasks, dialogic teaching and learning processes supported social interactions. The comparison class was taught according to the teacher’s usual lesson plans. During each lesson, systematic observation and audio-recorders were used to record student-student, student-teacher, and teacher-class ‘talk’. All students completed pre- and post-tests, with a sub-sample of students participating in individual follow-up interviews. The science teacher’s perceptions of the lessons’ (teaching and learning processes, outcomes and resources) were explored in pre- and post-intervention interviews.

During this session I aim to explore methodological issues related to the research design, share details of the coding scheme used to categorise the teacher’s and students’ conceptual levels of scientific ‘talk’ and present initial findings from the quantitative and qualitative analyses.