A SURVEY OF MISCONCEPTIONS AND ALTERNATIVE CONCEPTIONS FROM ONLINE SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL BIOLOGY RESOURCES ON THE CONCEPT OF EVOLUTION
Dr. BELLO, Zakariyau Adebayo; Ayilara Taibat Tayo (MRS); Dr (MRS) Atotileto Z.B; Ibrahim Babatunde Alao Department of Integrated Science, Kwara State College of Education Ilorin.P.M. B 1527 Ilorin, Nigeria
Zakbay26@gmail.com
Department of Biology, Kwara State College of Education Ilorin.
P.M. B 1527 Ilorin, Nigeria
Department of Integrated Science, Kwara State College of Education Ilorin.
P.M. B 1527 Ilorin, Nigeria
Atotiletob@gmail.com
Laboratory Technologist
Department of Biology, Kwara State College of Education Ilorin.
P.M. B 1527 Ilorin, Nigeria
Abstract
The proliferation of e-learning in recent time due to COVID 19 pandemic has mount more pressure on the need for online resources consumption. Literature has it that difficult topics in biology were the most online resource visited frequently which the concept of evolution falls into difficult topic to teach and to learn in Biology.Studies have established that misconceptions and alternative conceptions held by students are major barriers to meaningful learning. The survey type of descriptive research method was adopted in the study. Multistage sampling procedure was used to select 90 online Biology resources which were grouped into three categories based on ownerships i.e. educational institutional, corporate organization, and blogger websites. Three instruments, namely; Misconceptions in Online Biology Resource Content Analysis Template (MOBRCAT), and Alternative Conceptions in Online Biology resources Content Analysis Template (ACOBRCAT) and a questionnaire, “Students’ Frequently Visited Biology Websites (SFVBW)” were the researcher designed instruments used for data gathering. Data collected were analyzed using inter -rater analysis and percentages. The findings of the study were that:misconceptions and alternative conceptions existed in the contents of senior school online resources on Evolution on websites hosted by bloggers (100%), and none on educational institution websites and corporate organization websites. This implies that online resources are also a source of misconceptions and alternative conceptions of Biology concepts, which could contribute to students’ poor performance in Biology. It was therefore recommended that Biology students, teachers, and researchers need to be sensitive and selective on the categories of websites that hosted online Biology resources.
Keywords: Alternative Conceptions, Biology Resources Misconceptions, e-Learning,Evolution, and Online Biology Resource .