Solving problems in genetics to improve attitudes to science

Abstract

Attitudes as scholar content are diffi cult to teach and their level of acquisition is diffi cult to assess. In this study we focus on attitudes about Science as knowledge and towards Science as academic subject. We present the results of a comparative investigation carried out with students of fourth level of Obligatory Secondary Education (15-16 years) who approached Genetics from two different perspectives, a traditional methodology for the control group and a didactic unit based on the resolution of problematic situations, «Am I like this by pure chance?», for the experimental one. At the end of the teaching-learning process the control group maintained its initial attitudes while the experimental one showed realistic and more favourable attitudes about and toward Science.