The Influence of the Mass Media on Australian Primary Students’ Understandings of Genes and DNA

The Influence of the Mass Media on Australian Primary Students’ Understandings of Genes and DNA Jennifer Donovan, BSc, Grad Cert Ed (Tertiary Teaching) This thesis is presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of The University of Western Australia. Graduate School of Education, University of Western Australia Submitted December, 2012. Declaration This thesis contains published work, and/or work prepared for publication, some of which has been co-authored. The bibliographical details of the work and where it appears in the thesis are outlined below. The student must attach to this declaration a statement for each publication that clarifies the contribution of the student to the work. This may be in the form of a description of the precise contributions of the student to the published work and/or a statement of percent contribution by the student. This statement must be signed by all authors. If signatures from all the authors cannot be obtained, the statement detailing the student’s contribution to the published work must be signed by the coordinating supervisor. The following two papers have been published from this thesis. Both draw from a number of chapters, but neither appears in their entirety anywhere in this thesis. The first paper considered a subset of the media data, the second paper considered a subset of the participant data. Both papers were co-authored by the student and supervisor, with the following percentage contributions: Conceptualization: Student 80%, Supervisor 20% Data collection and analysis: Student 100% Writing first draft: Student 100% Editing and preparation of final submission: Student 80%, Supervisor 20% Donovan, J., & Venville, G. (2012). Blood and bones: The influence of the mass media on Australian primary children’s understandings of genes and DNA. Science and Education. DOI: 10.1007/s11191-012-9491-3 (online first, in press). Donovan, J., & Venville, G. (2012). Exploring the influence of the mass media on primary students’ conceptual understanding of genetics. Education 3-13, 40(1), 75-95. Student Signature ....................................................................................................... Coordinating Supervisor Signature ............................................................................ This thesis has been formatted according to the guidelines of the American Psychological Association (APA) (5th Edition), but with Australian English spelling. Tables have been formatted on an individual basis to enhance readability. i Acknowledgements In reflecting on this doctoral journey, I want to acknowledge the many and varied influences that have led me here. Although my parents are deceased, I acknowledge the parts they played: from my father comes my scientific curiosity, capacity to ask endless questions, the desire to seek answers, the skills of scientific debate, the ability to see more than one side of an issue, and my love of reading and critical evaluation of knowledge. From my mother I gained my meticulous organisational skills, tenacity to persist, and, dare I say, my perfectionist streak that is reflected in this thesis. My scholastic career featured inspirational primary school teachers in England and high school teachers in Australia. I am fortunate to have been a foundation student at what became and still is a highly respected school, Rossmoyne Senior High, staffed by excellent teachers. In particular, thanks to my English teacher, Mr Sainsbury, for the advice to study biological sciences at University rather than languages. He said it would improve my career options, in the knowledge that “the ability to write well will always be useful.” How right he was! My career as a teacher involved learning on the job at Mercedes College under the guidance of wonderful mentors such as Biology teacher Penny Hussey and English teacher Gem Ballantyne. My transition to tertiary teaching occurred under the influence of members of the Australasian Society for Human Biology (ASHB), in particular, the mentorship of Professors Charles Oxnard, Neville Bruce, and Len Freedman from UWA. Other significant mentors in this transition time were Professors Denis Goodrum, Mark Hackling, and Adrienne Kinnear from ECU, and Dr Sue Fyfe from Curtin. My first published journal article was written with Dr Lutz Slomianka and I thank him for teaching me the protocols of academic writing, especially the caution not to make the findings sound too exciting to be believable. Thanks to networking with Dr Vaille Dawson, my career as a researcher began with Professor John Wallace at Curtin, from whose trust in me I learned so much. He was the first to suggest I should do a PhD, and while my life circumstances at the time were not conducive, I never forgot his absolute faith that I could do it. He suggested I work with Grady Venville, creating a collegial union that has changed the course of my life. It was with Grady that I learned and experienced data collection, analysis, and the writing and publishing of papers in educational research. Despite my having moved to Queensland, when I decided the time was right to do a PhD, there was no other choice ii in my mind as supervisor. Had Curtin offered a place before UWA, we would have happily included our mutual mentor, Professor David Treagust, but UWA offered first, so Grady was solely charged with steering my doctoral journey. It has been a wonderful experience, full of joy, intellectual challenge and delight, and far less frustration and difficulty than I anticipated. This has been due to Grady’s patience, rapid response, and excellent constructive feedback. In addition, her willingness and trust to know when to leave me alone to work things out and when to intervene, and faith that we could work almost entirely by email as I travelled around Australia during this time was essential to my success. She inspired me to produce an elegant thesis, and I trust this has been achieved. She deserves no less. To all these, and doubtless others unnamed, I owe gratitude for being in this place in my life. To my future employer, the University of Southern Queensland, particularly Dean of Education Nita Temmerman and Assistant Dean Karen Trimmer, go thanks for appointing me for 2013 as early as August 2012, freeing me from the tyranny of job applications so I could concentrate on completing this thesis before I take up that position. To the University of Western Australia, particularly staff in the Graduate School of Education, Graduate Research School, and the Scholarships Office, go thanks for support and assistance. I am immensely grateful for the University’s initial scholarship, later upgraded to an APA, and finally for the completion scholarship that made this doctoral journey financially possible. Finally, my heartfelt thanks go to my partner in life, Adrian Rice. Our union allowed me to believe that a PhD was now possible. I have seen other relationships fail under the stress of one partner completing a PhD, and others fail due to living too closely together. Adrian has not only survived the PhD journey, he has survived it with us living and travelling together in a fifth wheeler van for four years. Far from being a distraction, travel, sightseeing and indulging my love of photography has been perfect brain refreshment, returning me to my work with renewed vigour. Adrian has taken sole responsibility for all the physical effort that travel involves and for most of the mundane tasks of life. He has been my best friend, my naïve reader, my thoughtful critic, and my champion throughout it all. Thank you my beloved, I could not have completed this journey without you. iii Table of Contents Declaration i Acknowledgements ii List of Tables and Figures viii Publications arising from this Thesis xii Abstract xiii Chapter 1 – Introduction and Genesis of this Research 1 Aim of the Research 2 Rationale 3 Why genetics? 3 Why consider the media’s influence 5 Scientific literacy 8 Purpose and Research Questions 13 Significance and Originality of the Study 14 Overview of the Thesis 17 Chapter 2 – Literature Review 19 Domains and Context of the Research 19 Aspect 1: Background Context – Learning and Conceptual Change 19 Knowledge 24 Conceptions and Misconceptions 25 When are Students Ready to Learn? 27 Summary of the Background Context 29 Aspect 2: First Domain – Possible Influence of the Mass Media 29 Do the Mass Media Influence People? 29 How Might the Mass Media Exert an Influence? 31 iv What is the Nature of the Influence of the Mass Media? 35 The Extent of the Influence of the Mass Media 42 Summary of Domain 1 – Mass Media Influence 45 Aspect 3: Second Domain – Specific Concepts of Genetics 45 Incidence of Key Genetics Concepts in Current Curricula 45 How and When Students Might Develop Key Concepts 50 What Misconceptions are Known to Exist? 56 Summary of Domain 2 – Specific Genetics Concepts 62 Aspect 4: Drawing the Literature Together 62 In Students 62 In Adults 63 Chapter Summary 65 Chapter 3 – Methodology 67 Introduction 67 Rationale for the Mode and General Design of the Research 67 Overview of the Design 69 Specifics of Research Design 72 Participants 72 Developing the Research Instruments 74 Data Collection 79 Analysis of Data 82 Research Question 1 – Media Exposure 83 Research Question 2 – Students’ Expressed Knowledge of Genetics 90 Research Question 3 – Students’ Perceptions of Information Sources 94 Research Question 4 – Interconnections 95 Synthesis of Data 97 v Trustworthiness 97 1. Triangulation 97 2. Descriptive validity 98 3. Avoidance

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