Biology Teachers’ Perception of Value of Biology Learning

This study aimed to identify three hypotheses. (1) Korean biology teachers believe that zoology, botany, and genetics are more related to human life than other biological subjects. (2) Korean biology teachers believe that zoology, botany, and genetics are more important than other biological subjects. (3) Korean biology teachers make more effort to teach zoology, botany, and genetics than other biological subjects. Fifty in-service secondary biology teachers participated in this study. All participants were students of Med. program in Korea. This study employed survey methodology. The survey questionnaire involves three sections, which are: (1) demographic data, (2) 7-point Thurstone scale, and (3) open-response questions. In the scale section, participants evaluate biological concepts--zoology, botany, genetics, evolution, and ecology-- based on relevance, value, teaching, and learning. To identify the hypotheses, I used ANOVA to compare the score of each biological concept. For the open-responses, the main terms that teachers used for the responses were extracted and compared. Based on the results, I discussed education implications.