A Study Of High School Biology Teachers’ "Knowledge Of Student" Influencing Students’ Misconception Transformation

Teaching biology requires teachers to be supported by rich expertise in biology,and Pedagogical Content Knowledge(PCK),as a kind of expertise,PCK consists of content knowledge,curriculum knowledge,knowledge of student,and pedagogical knowledge.One of the dimensions of "knowledge of student" is the teacher’s knowledge of the existence of misconceptions,the causes of misconceptions,and how to transform them.This study links teachers’ "knowledge of student" in PCK theory with students’ misconception transformation.The study finds the characteristics and deficiencies of teachers’ "knowledge of studente" and proposes suggestions to effectively improve teachers’ "knowledge of student",so as to improve the teaching level and quality of teachers and promote their professional development.In this paper,four biology teachers of a provincial-level model high school in Zunyi City,Guizhou Province,and four biology entrance examination classes taught by the teachers were used as theresearch objects,and the content of Chapter 5 " Gene Mutations and Other Variations" of Compulsory 2 "Genetics and Evolution" of High School Biology of the People’s Education Press was used as the carrier to carry out the research:(1)Four biology teachers with different levels of "knowledge of student" were selected as the subjects of the study by using the questionnaire for preliminary investigation of teachers’ "knowledge of student" levels,and the four biology entrance examination classes corresponding to the teachers were also taken as the subjects of the study.Using a questionnaire,investigated the four teachers’ "knowledge of student" in the chapter of "Gene Mutation and Other Variations";(2)Before the teachers’ lectures,the second-order diagnostic test was used to investigate the rate of misconceptions held in the chapter of "Gene Mutation and Other Variations" in the four classes(studentpre-test);(3)teachers conducted the chapter of "Gene mutation andother variations" according to their own teaching plan,and recorded their teaching process;(4)After the teacher’s lecture,this paper used a test to investigate the rate of misconceptions held by the four classes in the chapter of "Gene Mutations and Other Variations"(students’ post-test),and the misconceptions held in the pre-test were subtracted from the misconceptions held in the post-test to obtain the transformation rate of each misconception in the four classes.(5)analysis was conducted between teachers’ teaching process,"knowledge of student" level and students’ misconception transformation rate to obtain the relationship between teachers’ "knowledge of student" and students’ misconception transformation,as well as to analyze the characteristics and shortcomings of teachers’ "knowledge of student".The following conclusions were drawn:(1)students had multiple misconceptions in the chapter "Gene Mutations and Other Variations";(2)students’ misconceptions were transformed after teachers’ teaching,but the transformation rate is low;(3)teachers’ "knowledge of student " had a positive effect on students’ misconception transformation;(4)The teacher’s "knowledge of student" is characterized by "difference".In response to the above findings,this study proposes several recommendations:(1)to improve frontline teachers’ awareness and attention to misconceptions;(2)to improve frontline teachers’ level of "knowledge of student";and(3)to improve frontline teachers’ ability to change misconceptions.