고등학교 생물 ‘생명의 연속성’ 단원 분석

Analysis of STS instructional materials on the “Continuity of Life” unit in high school biology Ⅱ

Recent advances in biotechnology has centered around the field of genetics. Although the likely benefits of biotechnology is obvious, it is assuring that the potential risks has to be carefully weighed. It also rasied new social and ethical issues in everyday life experiences. Thus, biology education especially in the units on biotechnology and genetics should emphasize social implications of the technology. In this study, the “Continuity of Life” unit in high school biology Ⅱ curriculum was analyzed in the context of Science, Technology and society(STS). The unit, “Continuity of Life”, describes basic genetic phenomena and evolution of life. five different high school biology Ⅱtextbooks were chosen and inquiry content dimension, and the inquiry process dimension. Analyses of the inquiry content dimension showed that 40.6% of inquiry activities in the unit were devoted to the evolution part and those for cell division, reproduction and development, and Mendelian genetics were at most 8.7%, 13.0%, and 16.0%, respectively. In the inquiry process dimension. ‘interpreting data and formulating generalization’ and ‘observation and measuring’categories consist of 81.1%. The other categories, ‘seeing a problem and seeking ways to solve it’ and ‘building, testing, and revising the theoretical model’ were under represented. In the context dimension, the scientific context consists of 73.0% and the proportion of the other three categories, individual context, the social context, and the technical context was only 26.1% in total. In conclusion, the analysis of inquiry activities on the “Continuity of Life” unit in five textbooks composed based upon the Sixth Curriculum of High School Education failed to show intimate relationship between science and society and simply concentrated on description and explanation of scientific facts. Provided the fact that the BiologyⅡ is used in the highschool class for students who want to be future natural science majors of who show special interests in natural science, it is important for students to understand the ethical and social issues that recent biotechnology raised and to become scientifically literate and responsible persons.