ABSTRACT
Is it possible that learners’ ideas are sometimes so difficult to shift because they are somehow encoded in the genes? At first sight this seems a very naive question. Genetics may have a lot to do with eye colour or blood type, but it seems somewhat fanciful to suggest that, say, students may consider insects are not animals because this idea is somehow represented in their genes. It is not suggested here that specific alternative conceptions that learners hold are directly coded in their DNA. However, this chapter does suggest that our genetic inheritance may bias us to thinking in certain ways—and there is considerable research suggesting the starting points for some aspects of human cognition are innate (Abrahams & Reiss, 2012; Elman et al., 1998). Learning is an interpretive and iterative process (see the previous chapter) so even if we do not have genes for specific conceptions, any initial biases built into our cognitive systems will channel our thinking in particular directions, and may be the starting point for developing ideas that can influence the learning of canonical scientific ideas.
