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Journal of Science Education and Technology, Vol. 8, No. 2, 1999

Alternative Conceptions in Biology-Related Topics of

Integrated Science Teachers and Implications for Teacher
Education
Se Yuen Mak,1 Din Yan Yip,1 and Choi Man Chung1

This paper reports a study of the alternative conceptions held by junior secondary science
teachers enrolled in an in-service teacher training program. The subjects completed a written
instrument which probed their understanding of biological concepts in the integrated science
curriculum. The subjects, particularly the nonbiology graduates, were found to show serious
misunderstanding in concepts concerning diversity of life, photosynthesis and respiration,
reproduction, and detecting the environment. This finding supports the assertion that our
science teachers, being graduates in specific areas, are inadequately prepared to teach a
broad and balanced junior science curriculum. To strengthen the subject matter knowledge
and pedagogical skills of prospective and practicing junior science teachers, a number of
provisions are suggested for teacher training programs, undergraduate science courses, and
school-based activities.
KEY WORDS: Alternative conceptions; subject matter knowledge; science teachers; biological concepts.

nating from teachers are relatively unexplored. One

possible reason for this lack of interest is the unfounded assumption that secondary school teachers
should have acquired adequate subject matter knowledge and they should be competent in translating
their knowledge into curriculum materials for instruction in the classroom. Based on the small number
of studies available (e.g., Bishop and Denley, 1997;
Douvdevany et al., 1997; Yip, 1998) and the authors
classroom observation of practicing teachers, the validity of the above assumption is untenable. This
problem is particularly serious concerning the teaching of integrated science in Hong Kong which is offered to all students in their first two or three years
of secondary education (equivalent to grades 7 and
8 in the U.S.). About 50% of the integrated science
teachers are nongraduates who may have only received science education up to the Certificate level
or advanced levels (equivalent to grade 11 or 13,
respectively) (Holbrook, 1989). The remaining integrated science teachers are university graduates specializing in either Biology, Chemistry, or Physics;
some may have even focused their study in quite

INTRODUCTION
Research on childrens understanding of science
concepts in the past few decades has shown that children possess numerous ideas that are at variance with
scientific knowledge even after formal instruction
(Sanders, 1993; Driver et al., 1994; Wandersee et al.,
1994; Garnett et al., 1995). Based on the nature and
sources of origin, we find it useful to categorize childrens informal ideas in science into the following
three main groups:
(1) informal ideas formed from everyday experiences of children;
(2) incomplete or erroneous views developed by
children during classroom instruction; and
(3) inadequate subject matter knowledge of
teachers.
Alternative conceptions of the first and second
groups have been extensively studied but those origi1

Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Faculty of Education,

The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.

161
1059-0145/99/06000161$16.00/0 1999 Plenum Publishing Corporation

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narrow areas such as biochemistry, microbiology, and
nutritional science. This means that many science
teachers may have to teach extensively outside their
areas of specialization in the junior science curriculum.
As teachers can be a major source of childrens
informal ideas in science, their incompetence in subject matter knowledge will affect students basic understanding of science concepts. Moreover, a conceptual change in orientation of science learning demands the teacher to have a sound understanding of
the subject matter (Tobin et al., 1994). What teachers
need to know of the subject content should extend
beyond the cognitive level and specific topics of the
curriculum (Shulman, 1987). The role of a teacher is
not to deliver the information described in a textbook. He or she should be able to use the text critically and carefully tailor the lessons to the learning
styles, the studying habits, and the abilities of the
students (Dunn, 1990; Frazer, 1994). The teachers
goal is not to convince students to accept a statement
of scientific authority passively, but to guide them in
identifying their informal ideas, challenging their own
understanding, and constructing a conceptual framework from existing knowledge (Gagne, 1977). The
achievement of this goal requires the teacher to possess in-depth and meaningful understanding of the
subject matter.
A number of studies have been reported on the
assessment of elementary or pre-service science
teachers knowledge in subject matter (e.g., Lawrenz,
1986; Smith, 1987; Linder and Erickson, 1989; Kruger, 1990). However, relatively little research has
been done on in-service secondary science teachers.
In view of this deficiency, the present study is
launched to explore whether practicing secondary
science teachers in Hong Kong possess adequate discipline knowledge for teaching the junior secondary
science course.
This study was designed to investigate the subject matter knowledge of science teachers on the major topics covered in the first two years of the secondary integrated science curriculum in Hong Kong
(CDC, 1986). This involves assessing teachers understanding and misunderstandings on key concepts, exploring the possible causes of conceptual problems,
and suggesting remedial strategies. The results will
provide empirical data to guide teacher educators to
develop future Post-graduate Diploma in Education
(PGDE) programs and other training courses with a
balanced treatment of education theories, instructional skills, and subject knowledge. The outcome of

Mak, Yip, and Chung

the study will also be useful for course designers in
the science faculties of tertiary institutes in planning
courses for potential science teachers.
A basic assumption in our study is that a
competent junior secondary science teacher should
be well versed in related science topics at a level
higher than that he or she is teaching (Harrison
and Pritchard, 1993; Lawson, 1994). Such an assumption is supported by the spiral curriculum model
of subject learning (Wellington, 1994). It is also a
prerequisite for a teacher to adopt the conceptual
change teaching orientation. This assumption provided the guideline for defining the scope of subject
matter knowledge expected of a competent science
teacher in our study. Due to the constraint in space,
this paper will focus on teachers mastery of biologyrelated concepts in the Hong Kong integrated science curriculum. Analysis of performance on physics-related topics has been reported in a separate
paper (Yip et al., 1998).

METHOD
The Instrument
The instrument aims to explore the nature and
causes of junior science teachers misconceptions of
biology-related topics in the junior science curriculum. It consists of a written test of 18 items, each
made up of a short statement on a particular biological concept. They are based on four major themes
related to biological science that are covered in the
first two years of the integrated science curriculum
in Hong Kong, i.e., diversity of life (classification),
photosynthesis and respiration, growth and reproduction, and detecting the environment. The teachers
were asked to read each statement carefully and point
out whether it is correct, partially correct, or incorrect, underline parts that they considered to be incorrect, and provide justifications for their answers. This
instrument is constructed on a design that has been
found to be effective in studying the conceptual difficulties of biology teachers (Yip, 1998).
The questions incorporate conceptual errors detected in students and teachers from various sources,
such as the biology subject reports of the Hong Kong
Certificate of Education Examination (HKCEE) for
Form 5 leavers (equivalent to grade 11), classroom
discourses noted by the authors through supervision
on classroom teaching and video-taped science lessons, and teacher-made tests for the junior integrated

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science course collected from teachers taking the

PGDE and M.Ed. courses of local universities.
The instrument was validated through two pilot
studies which served to identify suitable items for
probing teachers conceptual understanding. The first
pilot study involved a sample of 147 junior secondary
science teachers from 55 schools. They were required
to judge the correctness of a number of statements
in the draft instrument that assessed understanding
of biological concepts. The draft instrument was also
administered to a sample of 50 teachers enrolled in
Teaching of Integrated Science Course in the
PGDE program of the Chinese University of Hong
Kong. The teachers were asked to decide on the
correctness of each statement, make corrections if
necessary, and justify their answers. This was followed by a short discussion which elicited the teachers comments on the clarity and difficulty of the
questions. On the basis of the teachers performance
and feedback from these trial studies, items that were
too easy or too difficult were deleted while items that
were considered to be inaccurate or ambiguous were
revised to improve the clarity of expression.
The test items of the final instrument and their
answers were reviewed for accuracy in subject content and clarity of expression by a team of three
tertiary science educators who were experienced in
student assessment. The final instrument used in this
study gives a reliability index of 0.83, as measured by
the Cronbach alpha value, indicating a high internal
consistency among the constituent items.

he or she was confident in his or her answer. As the

subjects were given enough time to complete the test
and were free to consult references in case of doubt,
any wrong answers given by the subjects will be a
clear indication of lack of subject knowledge or the
existence of conceptual problems.

The Subjects
The subjects for this study comprised a group
of 28 secondary science teachers who were taking
a course of initial teacher training, the PGDE. All
subjects were university graduates with major either
in biology (9), chemistry (11), or physics (8). They
were practicing teachers with teaching experience
ranging from 1 to 5 years, and the majority had taught
integrated science for three years.

Analysis of Results
The answer to each item consists of two parts.
The first part requires the subject to highlight the
part(s) of the statement that is incorrect by underlining the relevant words or phrases. The second part
is a justification of the subjects choice. To ensure
that the subjects responses were interpreted correctly, some subjects were interviewed later to clarify
their justification. An item is considered to be answered correctly only when the incorrect part is highlighted, together with a proper explanation. Thus a
wrong response for an item would indicate that the
subject holds an erroneous or inaccurate idea. Not
only does the response show whether a subject holds
a proper view of the specific concept concerned or
not, the elaboration provided by the subject may also
reveal the subjects thinking processes and the causes
of misconception.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Table I summarizes the performance of the
whole group and subgroups on individual items, expressed as % of correct responses over the number
of subjects in each group. The three subgroups refer
to teachers who majored, respectively, in biological
science, chemistry, or physics in their undergraduate studies.
Table II compares the subject matter knowledge
of different subgroups according to their performance in the four main themes of the junior science
curriculum. In each row, the means of the same homogeneous group are underlined together and the
P-value indicates the statistical significance level of
the performance of heterogenous groups.

Conducting the Test

The teachers were given the test paper at the
beginning of the course. They were asked to answer
the questions at home and return them to their supervisor at the next lesson which was a week later. After
answering each item, the subject had to state whether

Diversity of Life (Classification)

The first item states that Amphibians are vertebrates that can live both on land and in water (Item
C1). Although the diagnostic features of amphibians

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Table I. Performance on Individual Items
Item number
Diversity of life

Biology
group
Chemistry
group
Physics
group
Whole
group

Photosynthesis and respiration

Reproduction

Detecting the environment

C1

C2

C3

P1

P2

P3

P4

P5

P6

R1

R2

R3

D1

D2

D3

22

78

100

44

89

89

67

78

11

89

100

100

56

33

33

78

22

11

36

45

100

27

55

73

45

36

18

18

18

36

25

50

25

38

25

50

13

13

38

38

13

38

13

28

29

57

79

25

61

64

54

43

39

50

39

32

18

14

50

14

is basic knowledge in the classification of vertebrates,

only 29% of the subjects could point out that the
statement was wrong or imprecise (Table I), and that
amphibians should be characterized by a smooth and
moist skin, or a life cycle with an aquatic fish-like
larval stage. Being able to live both on land and in
water is not a distinctive feature of amphibians as
some amphibians are basically aquatic (e.g., the
newts) and some terrestrial (e.g., the toads). On the
other hand, this feature is also shown by some members of all other vertebrate groups, such as the mudskippers, turtles, alligators, penguins, and seals.
The performance was unsatisfactory through all
three groups of subjects, including the biology-major
teachers. When cued by probe questions in the interview, many of the subjects, especially the biology
specialists, could however correctly state the diagnostic features of amphibians. This suggests that the failure of some subjects may not have been due to inadequate knowledge, but was probably caused by a
tendency to use imprecise descriptions when teaching
this topic. Following the spirit of a spiral curriculum,
science teachers have to introduce some difficult concepts in a simplified form at the lower secondary
level, which will be further elaborated as the students

go into higher levels. If this is not done cautiously,

there will be a risk of introducing simplified but imprecise concepts to the students, and such inaccurate
ideas will be resistant to change and may adversely
affect the effective learning of the proper concepts
at a later stage.
The second item consists of the correct statement
that Grass is a flowering plant that produces seeds
for reproduction (Item C2). The performance is satisfactory in that slightly more than half of the subjects
(57%) answered it correctly. Scrutiny of the individual groups shows that only about half of the chemistry
and physics groups were successful while the biology
group did much better (78%). As the flowers of grass
are small and inconspicuous, many nonbiology
subjects thought that flowers were absent in grass
although they knew that grass produced seeds. This
misconception is also commonly found in the Certificate biology students.
For the statement All living plant cells contain
cell wall, vacuoles and chloroplasts (Item C3), most
subjects (79%) were able to point out that not all plant
cells possessed chloroplasts. This is a fundamental
concept that should have been learnt in the junior
science course as well as the Certificate biology

Table II. Comparison of Performance in Different Subject Groups

Comparison of means
F-value

Biology
group

Diversity of life

6.22

0.006

2.00

1.81

Photosynthesis and respiration

8.23

0.002

3.78

2.36

1.25

Reproduction
Detecting the environment

31.30
3.31

0.0001
0.05

2.88
2.22

0.55
0.82

0.50
1.00

Overall achievement

15.05

0.0001

10.89

5.55

3.75

Section

D4 D5 D6

Chemistry
group

Physics
group
1.00

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course. An interesting feature is that all biology

and chemistry teachers were successful on this item
while only 25% of the physics teachers were correct
(Table I). Many of the physics-major subjects were
not able to relate the differential roles of the plant
parts to the specific functions of their tissue composition, although they were fully aware that some organs
such as the roots and woody stems cannot carry out
photosynthesis.
The overall performance of the biology- and
chemistry-major subjects in this section is comparable
and is higher than that of the physics-major group
(F 6.22, P 0.006) (Table II). As the concepts
covered in the three questions should have been
learnt by all science teachers in school at the junior
science and Certificate biology levels, we can only
conclude that many of the physics-major subjects
have forgotten what they had learned before, or that
they had not mastered the concepts in the first place.
This situation is highly undesirable as these teachers
are not equipped with adequate subject matter
knowledge for them to teach for conceptual construction, and they may even convey their informal ideas
to the students during teaching. Unlike the biology
and chemistry teachers, most of the physics
teachers did not take advanced level biology. The
stronger grasp of the concepts of classification of the
biology and chemistry teachers suggests that studying
biology at the advanced level may have contributed
to a consolidation and refinement of simpler concepts
learned at the earlier stages. This effect lends support
to the value of a spiral curriculum in facilitating conceptual development and construction.

deep concern for the quality of science teaching in

the lower secondary level.
Slightly more than half of the subjects (61%)
could point out the fallacy in Item P2 which states
that Green plants primarily use the green part of
sunlight for photosynthesis. They demonstrated in
their justification the knowledge that chlorophyll uses
the red and blue wavelengths but reflects or transmits
green light, thus giving rise to the green color of the
pigment. The color of chlorophyll is therefore related
to the physical property of differential absorption of
light wavelengths by the pigment. It is interesting to
note that there is a distinct difference in performance
among the three subject groups, with the biology
group performing best and the physics group doing
most poorly. It appears that the physics-major teachers, though familiar with optical principles, had problems in applying this knowledge in a biological
context.
The next item (P3) consists of the statement
In photosynthesis, water provides the hydrogen and
oxygen for the synthesis of carbohydrate. This item
assesses understanding on the process of photolysis
of water in which the hydrogen atoms are used for
synthesis of carbohydrate while the oxygen is released as a by-product. Most of the subjects in the
biology and chemistry groups were successful in this
item while the physics group performed rather poorly
(Table I). Although the knowledge on photolysis of
water is beyond the integrated science level, it is
within the requirement of the Certificate level biology
which should have been studied by all science teachers when they were in school. The poor performance
of the physics group suggests that many of them may
have forgotten what they had learned in secondary
biology or that they had not learned this well. With
this lack of understanding, it is doubtful whether
these teachers can present a simplified mechanism
of photosynthesis accurately and competently at the
integrated science level.
About half of the subjects in all the three subgroups demonstrated the erroneous idea that the water absorbed by a plant was mainly used in photosynthesis (Item P4). When some of these subjects were
asked to elaborate on their answers in the follow-up
interview, many of them were able to point out that
over 99% of the water absorbed by a plant was used to
compensate for the water loss through transpiration.
The co-existence of the two conflicting views among
the subjects suggests that they had not developed an
integrated picture of the processes of water absorption, water consumption and water loss in the plant.

Photosynthesis and Respiration

Most subjects (75%) considered the statement
The main function of chloroplasts is to absorb light
energy for photosynthesis (Item P1) as correct (Table I). They failed to realize that chloroplasts are
also important in providing the enzymes and other
substrates for photosynthesis. They were not capable
of discriminating the roles of chloroplasts and chlorophyll in photosynthesis and tended to treat them as
synonyms, indicating a poor understanding of the
mechanism of photosynthesis. These subjects thought
that light absorption by chloroplasts was sufficient
for photosynthesis to occur. The striking difference
in performance between the biology group (44%)
and the nonbiology groups (27% for the chemistry
teachers and 0% for the physics teachers) raises a

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The subjects may have learned biological concepts
such as photosynthesis and transpiration in isolation
according to the syllabus layout. This compartmentalization of concepts, which is also common in other
areas of biology learning (Yip, 1998), prevents the
subjects from developing a holistic view of water relationships in the plant.
Less than half of the subjects considered wrongly
that the air exhaled during exercise contained a
higher percentage of carbon dioxide than that exhaled at rest (Item P5). In the Certificate and advanced level biology courses, students are required
to learn that despite a much larger amount of carbon
dioxide produced by the body during exercise, the
concentration of carbon dioxide in the exhaled air
remains constant due to a corresponding increase in
the rate and depth of ventilation. However, the biology group scored much higher that the nonbiology
groups (Table I), indicating that the latter subjects
did not secure a good understanding of this concept.
Although this concept is not required in the integrated science curriculum, teachers lacking the formal knowledge may propagate erroneous ideas to
their students when considering the breathing mechanism during vigorous exercise.
Nearly all subjects were wrong by asserting that
proteins in the diet were mainly used for growth
and repair of body tissues (Item P6) and that under
normal conditions, proteins should not be an important source of energy for the body. They argued that
during fasting, the body would first mobilize the glycogen reserve for energy supply, followed by the lipids stored in the adipose tissue; it was only during
prolonged starvation that the body would use structural proteins, such as the skeletal muscle, as an energy source. This line of thinking indicates that the
subjects did not have a good understanding of the
roles of body proteins and dietary proteins as an
energy source. In the subsequent interview, when
prompted by probing questions, many of the subjects
were able to point out that proteins, together with
carbohydrates and lipids, are energy-rich substances
and they contain about the same amount of energy
per unit mass as carbohydrates. Under normal circumstances, proteins in the diet are first used in the
body for growth and repair of body tissues. Any excess is then deaminated in the liver, forming various
carboxylic acids which are either oxidized to release
energy or stored as carbohydrates or lipids. In an
adult, a very small amount of proteins is required for
tissue repair and most of the dietary proteins will be
ultimately used to provide energy for body activities.

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Comparison of the overall performance in this
section shows that the mean score of the physics
group is exceedingly low, being only about one-third
of the biology group (F 8.2, P 0.002) (Table II);
the mean score of the chemistry group lies somewhere in between. Considering the central position
of photosynthesis and respiration in understanding
other biological concepts, the poor knowledge of the
nonbiology teachers in these areas warrants special
attention from science educators.

Reproduction in Living Organisms

The majority of biology-major teachers (89%)
were able to point out the fallacy in the statement
that After fertilization, the ovule of a flower develops into the embryo of the seed (Item R1), whereas
only a small number of the chemistry- (18%) and
physics-major teachers (13%) were successful (Table
I). The nonbiology teachers had difficulty in distinguishing between the ovule, ovary, and ovum in a
flower, although this knowledge is further elaborated
in the Certificate and advanced level biology courses.
Probably because of this lack of understanding, many
nonbiology teachers tend to teach this topic in a
didactic way that emphasizes rote learning, a style
noticeable in our observation of classroom teaching
of novice junior science teachers.
A similar concept is assessed by Item R2 which
states that An apple is a fruit developed from the
ovary of the flower. All biology teachers could point
out that the apple is developed from the receptacle
of the flower, but only a small number of the nonbiology teachers could answer this item correctly (18%
for the chemistry teachers and 38% for the physics
teachers). The idea of the apple as a false fruit is
not required at the junior science level. However,
considering that the apple and pear are familiar to
childrens everyday experience, it is highly desirable
for the teacher to possess such a knowledge so that he
or she can make appropriate responses to students
questions on these fruits.
All biology-major subjects spotted the fallacy in
the statement Pollen grains are the male gametes
of flowering plants (Item R3) and pointed out that
pollen grains should be considered as the carrier of
male gametes. The performance of the nonbiology
teachers was however rather poor (18% for the
chemistry teachers and 0% for the physics teachers). In a previous semester of the PGDE program,
the biology-major subjects had participated a course

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on students misconceptions in biology. In this course,

they had reviewed some alternative conceptions in
biology prevalent in the Certificate level students,
including the view that pollen grains are the gametes
of plants. The high success rate of the biology group
in this item suggests that the course on alternative
conceptions had facilitated their identifying their
own informal ideas and constructing their scientific
views accordingly.
Comparison of the means of performance in this
section indicates that the biology group outperforms
the nonbiology groups (F 31.30, P 0.0001)
(Table II). With an inadequate subject knowledge,
many science teachers may have to teach this area in
a didactic manner, emphasizing factual information
based on the textbook rather than concept development. This style of science teaching is often witnessed
by our observation in classroom teaching.

this knowledge is not required in the integrated science curriculum, the phenomenon of dark adaptation
is a common experience of young children and they
may raise questions about it when studying vision.
Only one subject could point out all the fallacies
embedded in the statement that Some people have
blue eyes because their pupil contains a blue pigment (Item D3). Most subjects stated correctly that
eye color is determined by a pigment in the iris rather
than in the pupil. But many of them claimed erroneously that blue eye color was due to the presence
of a blue pigment. The iris contains only a dark brown
pigment called melanin, and the different eye colors
are caused by the presence of different amounts of
the brown pigment, i.e., blue or green eyes are due
to the presence of a small amount of melanin while
brown eyes are caused by a large amount of melanin.
While this knowledge seems to be a trivial detail not
essential for conceptual development, it can be used
to facilitate the understanding of the nature of complete dominance in Mendelian inheritance. Considering a couple in which one is pure-line for brown eye
color and the other pure-line for blue eye color, their
children should all possess brown eyes. Since all children are heterozygous for eye color, the brown-eyed
allele must be dominant over the blue-eyed allele.
This effect can be explained by the fact that the
brown-eyed allele is responsible for the production
of the brown pigment in the iris while the blue-eyed
allele produces no pigment at all. If the blue-eyed
allele produces a blue pigment instead, a heterozygous person will not have brown eyes, but will have an
eye color derived from a mixture of the two pigments.
Concerning the function of the semicircular canals (Item D4), most subjects erroneously considered
that they were responsible for maintaining body balance (Table I). Only a few subjects could point out
correctly that their role is to detect body movement
so that the cerebellum is informed of the state of
body balance. The question appears to dwell on the
subtle difference in meaning of words and the subjects failure in this item might have been due to
carelessness rather than lack of knowledge. The posttest interview however confirms that many subjects
did not have an accurate idea of the role of the semicircular canals as a sensory organ in detecting the
environment. They had only a vague idea that these
structures were somehow involved in the maintenance of body balance, but failed to distinguish
whether it played a sensory, motor, or coordinating
role. Since the same conceptual problem is also common in the Certificate level students, it is very likely

Detecting the Environment

Only about one third of the subjects were able
to point out the fallacy in the statement that Light
is mainly refracted at the surface of the lens as it
passes through the eyeball (Item D1). This question
refers to a widespread alternative conception found
in the Certificate level students; one that is propagated in some popular local textbooks which often
stress the refractive power of the lens of the eyeball
when focusing on an object (Pang and Cheung, 1993;
Chan et al., 1995). As the refractive power of a surface
depends very much on the difference in density of
the media at the refracting surface, the degree of
refraction is much greater at the surface of the cornea
than at the lens surface. An interesting point noted
from the results is that the biology and physics groups
performed much better than the chemistry group
(Table I). The better performance of the former
groups can probably be related to the fact that this
concept is covered in biology and physics courses at
the Certificate or upper levels.
Most subjects considered that one could see
more clearly some time after entering into a dark
room because the pupil of the eye took time to dilate
(Item D2). Only very few subjects could point out
correctly that the poor vision at first is caused by
the low level of rhodopsin in the rod cells and dark
adaptation is the result of building up of the visual
pigment. Although this concept is studied in the advanced level biology course, only one third of the
biology teachers gave a proper justification. While

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that the teachers may have developed the imprecise
or inaccurate ideas about the function of the semicircular canals in school and they may serve as an agent
for propagating them to the students in the classroom.
Only about half of the subjects could point out
the fallacy in the statement There is an air-filled
tube connecting the inner ear to the pharynx of
Item D5 (Table I). The biology group had little difficulty with this item but less than half of the nonbiology groups were successful. The connection of the
middle ear with the pharynx through the Eustachian
tube is a simple fact learned in junior science and its
importance in equalizing the air pressure on both
sides of the tympanum is well covered in the Certificate biology curriculum. The poor performance of
the nonbiology teachers reveals how serious is the
problem of inadequate subject matter knowledge
among the integrated science teachers, considering
that many of them have been teaching integrated
science for three or more years.
Most subjects, including the biology teachers,
failed to point out the fallacy in Item D6 which states
that Sensitivity of smell is reduced if the brain gets
used to the same stimulus for some time. As the loss
of sensitivity to a repeated stimulus is an everyday
experience, these subjects were quite confident in
asserting that the statement was correct. It is therefore not surprising that, as observed in our classroom
visits, many teachers convey to their students the
wrong notion that the loss of sensation is due to
fatigue of the brain cells to a particular stimulus. The
loss of sensitivity of the body to a specific stimulus
can be explained in terms of adaptation of receptors,
which generate a lower frequency of action potentials
despite maintenance of the stimulus at constant
strength (Vander et al., 1994, p. 243). The drop in
frequency of the impulses is probably related to a
change in permeability of the cell membrane to sodium ions (Clegg and Mackean, 1994, p. 457). Some
receptors make the adaptive change very quickly,
such as the smell receptors in the nose, the taste
receptors on the tongue and the fine touch receptors
of the skin. Continuous transmission of an impulse
across the synapse of a sensory neuron also leads to
fatigue, being a result of the depletion of the transmitter substance.
Comparison of the means of performance in this
section indicates that the biology group has a higher
score than the nonbiology groups (F 3.31, P
0.05) (Table II). The lack of in-depth knowledge of
the nonbiology groups in this area suggests that these
teachers can only teach the concerned topics at a

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Mak, Yip, and Chung

recall level, or may even pass inaccurate ideas to their
students, and may not be able to promote conceptual
construction in the students.

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS

FOR TEACHER EDUCATION
There are strong reasons for offering a broad
and balanced science curriculum for all at the junior
secondary level (Nellist and Nicholl, 1986; Reid and
Hodson, 1987). The successful implementation of
such a program however requires our science teachers to be adequately prepared so that they would be
able to teach the subject with confidence. The findings
of the present study reveal that many novice science
teachers do not possess adequate knowledge in biological science for them to teach competently and
meaningfully in the junior science curriculum. This
problem is particularly serious for teachers who did
not specialize in biological science in their undergraduate studies, i.e., the chemistry and physics majors,
as they have to teach areas in which they are not
familiar or may even hold a variety of informal alternative ideas. The same problem may also apply to
the biology-major teachers when teaching topics that
are related to physical science.
Based on the subjects responses made in this
study, many science teachers show inadequate understanding of the following concepts that constitute an
important part of the integrated science curriculum:

the diagnostic features of amphibians and the

classification of grass;
the distinction between chloroplasts and chlorophyll;
the role of water in photosynthesis;
protein as source of energy;
the formation of seed and fruit from the flower;
the nature of the pollen grain;
the refraction of light at the surface of cornea;
the function of the semicircular canals.

These are basic biological concepts that form the

prerequisites of more complex biological principles.
Poor teaching in these areas at the junior science
stage will lead to the development of inaccurate ideas
by students which will adversely affect the learning
and understanding of more advanced concepts at a
later stage.
In order to teach the subject in an intelligible
and confident way, the teacher should possess a depth
of knowledge above that he or she is require to teach

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(Douvdevany et al., 1997). Many junior science teachers however failed to demonstrate this level of knowledge in a number of concepts related to the integrated
science curriculum, e.g., the occurrence of chloroplasts in plant cells, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the exhaled air, the nature of the apple as a
fruit, the cause of blue eye color, dark adaptation,
and fatigue of sensation. Although these concepts
are above the requirement for junior science, mastery
of such knowledge will enable a teacher to deliver the
subject content more competently and make effective
responses to students questions and misconceptions.
The demonstration that many junior science
teachers do not have the competence to teach outside
their main subject specialism is in accord with the
conclusions made in other studies (Harrison, 1993;
Dennick and Joyes, 1994; Willson and Williams, 1996;
Bishop and Denley, 1997). This observation raises a
deep concern for the quality of junior science teaching as the teachers may serve as a direct agent for
passing or reinforcing informal ideas to their students. A further problem arising from the lack of
conceptual understanding of subject matter is that
many teachers tend to teach integrated science in a
didactic way that depends heavily on textbook information and focuses on low cognitive tasks. Thus science is often presented to students in a way that
promotes rote learning with little cognitive stimulation (Tobin and Fraser, 1989; Olson, 1990). Supporting evidence for this comes from our own observation
on classroom teaching of the science teachers who
attend the PGDE program and from the prevalence
of alternative conceptions in biology among the Certificate level students as reported in the annual reports of the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examinations.
As science teachers specializing in a single discipline may have to teach topics related to physics,
chemistry, biology, or earth science in an integrated
way, their knowledge of topics outside their area of
specialization is likely to be superficial, being based
mainly on textbooks or previous school experience.
What can be done to equip our science graduates
with adequate knowledge and skills for effective
teaching at the integrated science level? This is a
challenge as well as an issue faced by science educators in all countries that offer a broad curriculum of
science for all. There is no simple solution to this
problem. It has often been assumed implicitly by
science teacher trainers that science graduates from
universities should have possessed adequate subject
knowledge for them to teach their subject compe-

tently at the secondary level (Bishop and Denley,

1997). The results from this and other studies indicate
that this assumption is no longer tenable. Even the
biology-major teachers hold alternative views on
many of the biological concepts covered in the junior
science course. The expert knowledge acquired in
their degree studies may not enhance the teachers
understanding of the science concepts that they
learned in school or make them more competent
in teaching. This problem is even more serious for
graduate teachers not specializing in biology. Their
subject competency in biological concepts is limited
to what they learned in school which may have been
long forgotten or not learned well at all. The biologymajor teachers face a similar problem in that they
do not possess adequate knowledge on topics related
to physical science. The situation in Hong Kong is
even more intriguing as half of the junior science
teachers do not hold a science degree, but have only
qualifications at the Certificate level or less in science subjects.
Provisions should therefore be made in initial
teacher training courses such as the PGDE program
to strengthen the subject matter knowledge and pedagogical skills of prospective or practicing junior science teachers so that they can teach the subject meaningfully (Shulman, 1987). One effective way to
achieve this is to provide opportunities for teachers
to review areas of the curriculum in which they may
have conceptual difficulties, so as to strengthen their
subject knowledge, skills, and confidence in teaching
for conceptual change. The findings in this study and
other similar studies may provide the information to
guide the planning of such activities, which can be
in the form of lectures, workshops, or self-learning
packages (Open University, 1988).
The mixed-discipline peer review approach is a
recently developed strategy that provides a basis for
new science teachers to acquire and consolidate new
knowledge. It involves groups of science student
teachers with different specialism working together
and reflecting upon their own preconceptions (Willson and Williams, 1996; Bishop and Denley, 1997).
The alternative frameworks of teachers are diagnosed by constructing concept maps which is followed
by a process of peer group review.
It is also useful to inform teachers of what research has found about students alternative conceptions in integrated science. This knowledge will help
them diagnose the nature and sources of students
informal ideas and design effective instructional strat-

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egies for rectifying or preventing such misconceptions.
In view of the limited time available in the
PGDE program, other channels should be explored
for strengthening the subject matter knowledge of
novice science teachers. Undergraduate courses offered by science faculties, for instance, can be designed to equip potential science teachers with the
knowledge and skills for teaching the integrated science course. In view of the large proportion of science
graduates in Hong Kong that enter the teaching profession, science faculties should offer courses that
focus on consolidating and elaborating the science
concepts acquired in the secondary science curriculum. Such a program requires the cooperation and
collaboration of departments across different disciplines, including that of the faculty of education.
Another promising channel is to strengthen the
partnership between higher education institutions
and schools through the provision of INSET programs (Harrison, 1993; Bishop and Denley, 1997).
Senior science teachers, acting as mentors to student
teachers or novice teachers, can offer school-based
advice and experience on subject matter development.
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