PHENOTYPE DEVELOPMENT: IMPLICATIONS FOR PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT IN SECONDARY SCHOOL BIOLOGY

The primary aim of this study was the identification and description of theoretical propositions that characterize phenotype development. These propositions were then examined for their implications for program development in secondary school biology.;One premise of this study is that the theoretical impacts on the practical and that the practical monitors the theoretical. Governed by this premise, BSCS was examined. Purportedly, the several versions of this secondary school program, all incorporated evolution as one major theoretical basis. The examination of BSCS revealed that this claim was unfounded. Rather, evolution was one of several themes. As a potential theoretical basis for secondary school program development, evolution was examined. It was found that there is no dispute that evolution is factual. There are, however, competing positions as to the nature of the process of evolution. This lack of agreement precludes the use of the unconstrained theory of evolution as a basis for program development.;If evolution is constrained by the process of phenotype development, then there can be continuity of biological process, and the at least constraints of biology become those theoretical propositions that characterize phenotype development.;If phenotype development is constrained by the propositions that: (1) every organism has a phenotype; (2) every organism has a genotype; (3) every genotype can mutate; (4) stabilized patterns of phenotype development exist; (5) phenotype development is dependent on genotype-environment interraction; then a basis for consistent program development can be demonstrated.;This study was concerned with four distinct but interrelated areas: (1) a description and examination of the content of Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS); (2) beginning with The Origin of Species, a description and examination of competing points of view concerning evolution; (3) a description of the "theory of epigenesis" and the "mutation theory" which characterize phenotype development; (4) the derivations of implications for program development in secondary school biology.