Abstract:
Despite the increasing scientific knowledge, cultural beliefs and attitudes of preservice
biology teachers towards persons with genetic conditions still seems to be
negative and the stigmatisation attached to it is worrisome. It was therefore the
purpose of this study to explore pre-service biology teachers‘ knowledge, beliefs and
attitudes towards persons with genetic-related conditions in the Central Region of
Ghana. A descriptive survey design was employed in this study. An intact sampling
technique was used to sample 162 final year pre-service biology teachers from OLA
and Fosu Colleges of Education who participated in the study. A five-point Likert
Scale item questionnaire was used to elicit information from pre-service biology
teachers to answer the research questions. The data was processed using SPSS
version 20. The influence of pre-service biology teachers‘ knowledge on their attitude
towards persons with genetic-related conditions was determined through correlational
analysis. The study found out that the final year pre-service biology teachers had
moderate knowledge on genetic-related conditions, positive cultural beliefs and
positive attitudes towards persons with GRCs. Correlational analysis of their
knowledge against their attitude showed that their knowledge had a little influence on
their attitude. The study recommended that further studies should involve all preservice
biology teachers
Description:
A thesis in the Department of Science Education,
Faculty of Science Education, submitted to the School of
Graduate Studies in partial fulfilment of
the requirements for the award of the degree of
Master of philosophy
(Science Education)
in the University of Education, Winneba
JULY, 2021
