제7차 교육과정의 과학교과서에 수록된 멘델유전학 및 생명공학 관련 내용 분석

Abstract

Genetics is one of the central themes in biology education. According to the 7th Curriculum, the basic concepts of genetics are first introduced into the science class at the 9th grade. The part titled as "Heredity and Evolution" in the science curriculum is composed of three major chapters including Mendelian Genetics, Human Genetics, and Evolution. Biotechnology based upon the application of modern genetics is also covered in the science textbooks at various levels. In this study I examined whether the textbook materials described Mendelian Genetics well enough to have the student understand the important ideas of both Mendelian and modern genetics. The parts of "Heredity and Evolution" in nine science textbooks currently available were subjected to investigation. Although all the textbooks included the Mendelian genetics as one of the major chapters, the content was limited to a simple introduction of Mendel's experimental results. Futhermore, most of the textbooks inclined to emphasize excessively on the relation between dominant and recessive alleles by naming the relationship as the "Rule of Dominance" and by describing a partial dominance as an exceptional case of the rule. These parts covered more than half of the content in the chapter of Mendelian Genetics. For students to better understand the basic genetic concepts, I recommend to emphasize the Mendel's critical experiments on the segregation of genes. The second part of this thesis was on investigating how biotechnological issues were integrated in the secondary school science textbooks in the 7th Curriculum. Four different kinds of science textbooks from the 7th to the 10th grades were examined in this study. The result showed that biotechnology was presented mostly as a new breakthrough in medicine. Most cases were focusing on the application of science and not much attention was payed on the ethical aspects. Although all the issues were presented as parts of STS materials, they failed to encourage diverse activities in the class. Discussion and information search were the two major activities described in the text. For biotechnology education, various kinds of inquiry activities and teaching materials need to be developed.