Understanding mitosis in secondary school in Slovenia

Teaching experience show that students have trouble understands thematic of the cell and genetics. The purpose of our research was to evaluate students' knowledge of the cell and genetics. Next to evaluation of students’ knowledge we also tested a successfulness of a method of teaching the mitosis by letting students to sort the pictures with 15 different phases of mitosis. 99 first¬-year high school students were included in the research. First the students answered a questionnaire containing 37 questions followed immediately by sorting the mitosis pictures. After that, a class on mitosis was given to students, followed by a 10-question questionnaire and sorting of the same 15 pictures of mitosis. We found out that the students don't have satisfactory knowledge about the cell and genetics. The questions were often unanswered or the answers were only partially correct. Students' knowledge of the mitosis improved after the class of mitosis was given. We also found out that the method of teaching mitosis by sorting pictures of mitosis is a successful method of teaching this topic