Students’ conceptions of biology

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Abstract
The argument in this paper has two parallel strands. One describes students’ conceptions of biology; the other uses Habermas’ epistemological framework as a way of suggesting alternative curricular questions. The two strands are brought together, since the research methodology is the situational‐interpretive curriculum orientation, and the findings are considered from this orientation. Thus, the data from the first strand is examined from the second strand, and consequently, new questions arise. With traditional knowing, science education researchers “know” how students conceive of the science they are learning by having students react to statements of the researcher's conception of science. This way of knowing has been criticized because it depends upon the researcher's set of ways of looking at students’ conceptions. As such, it does not treat students’ knowledge as a first‐order phenomena; knowing is, rather, a second‐order phenomena since it is filtered through another person's conceptions. In this study the Habermasian framework is used as an alternative perspective of knowledge which allows students’ conceptions to be examined at the level at which the conceptions were constructed. The study suggests that students conceptualize biology from three distinct philosophical positions; but when these positions are considered from the Habermasian framework, they all are examples of the empirical‐analytic tradition. As such, the students’ conceptions have not gone beyond explanatory knowledge, and this raises questions about the curriculum.

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