Misconceptions of cell division held by student teachers in biology: A drawing analysis

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify biology student teachers’ misconceptions of cell divisions using drawings and interviews. Data were collected from 124 biology student teachers. An analysis of drawings and interviews suggested that biology student teachers have a series of significant problems and misconceptions regarding cell division and structuring of concepts in a meaningful manner. These problems were mainly associated with meiosis rather than mitosis. The students confused the stages of the cell division process and the events occurring at these stages. Some misconceptions identified from this study included that DNA replication occurs in the prophase during the cell division, interphase is the resting phase of mitosis, the chromosome number is doubled in prophase of mitosis and halved in anaphase of mitosis, the chromosome number remains the same during meiosis-I and it is halved during meiosis-II, and a chromosome has always two chromatids during cell division. These results were compared with related literature and recommendations were made for teachers and researchers for future studies to overcome students’ misconceptions.   Key words: Biology education, cell division, students’ drawings, misconceptions.