유전학에서의 우성의 개념과 생물교과교육

The Concept of Genetic Dominance and Biology Education

Teaching the concept of genetic dominance is challenging in several aspects. The metaphor of dominance not only promotes several misconceptions but also misleads cultural perspectives of inheritance. The concept of genetic dominance itself has provoked much debate. It is clear now that a certain phenotype is expressed by complex interactions between the two alleles as well as interactions among many genes in the cell. In addition, environmental factors influence the phenotype. It is therefore especially important for students to understand the complex and dynamic relationships between genotypes and phenotypes. The science textbooks currently being used in middle schools, however, introduce the concept of dominance as the law of dominance . No other biology or genetics textbooks used at the college level describe the law of dominance as one of Mendel s laws. The concept of dominance should rather be understood as an operational definition than be given as a natural law. Before revising textbooks for the 8th Curriculum, we need to redefine what to teach and how to deliver it for better understanding of inheritance.