ABSTRACT
In this chapter we focus on genetics and the classical didactic question: what to teach? We discuss the didactical problems related to the transformation of genetics from academic science into the genetics of school biology, and the central question of how to deal with the relationship between classical (Mendelian) genetics and molecular genetics. In particular, we discuss how to deal with the relation between different ways of understanding the gene concept in those research traditions, and the risk of evoking genetic deterministic beliefs in students if genetics is taught unreflectively. We elaborate some proposals regarding how to deal in the classroom with different models for understanding genes and their functions in relation to students’ alternative ideas. Then, we provide suggestions from educational research about how to teach genetics in secondary biology by including a nature of science perspective and building on ‘big ideas’ of genetics through a learning progression in a way that has the potential to bring a more complex understanding of genetics to students, counteracting genetic deterministic beliefs.
