CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING OF HOMEOSTASIS

Year 2015, Volume: 4 Issue: 1, 1 - 27, 13.06.2015

Michal Zion Sara Klein

https://doi.org/10.20876/ijobed.12279

Cited By: 9

Abstract

Analyzing students' perceptions is essential to the development of studying scientific concepts. In particular, this research investigates students' conceptual understanding of a fundamental biological principle: homeostasis. Homeostasis is difficult to understand as it is both tangible and abstract. The correct perception of homeostasis is necessary to obtain a comprehensive understanding and an in-depth diagnosis of the health of the human body in a variety of physiological conditions such as aging and disease. In order to help students achieve a conceptual understanding of homeostasis, we defined the following eight characteristics: process dynamics, physiological balance, control and regulation, feedback mechanism, environments, dependency between events within a system or a process, multisystems, and levels of organization. The primary goal of this study was to investigate students' perceptions of homeostasis, after studying these characteristics. For this purpose, 93 biology majors in 12^thgrade  studied the characteristics of homeostasis. An analysis of the students' responses shows their correct scientific perceptions of the characteristics of homeostasis, but also reveals a great variety of erroneous perceptions. Our results suggest that the division of a scientific principle into its component characteristics may help the teachers in identifying their students' thinking and conceptual understanding of homeostasis.

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Keywords

Characteristics of homeostasis; Erroneous perceptions; Fundamental concept; Homeostasis; Student's perceptions

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