Revisiting learning difficulties in biology

When students from Scottish schools were surveyed 15 years ago about their difficulties in learning biology, two main topic areas stood out as high in perceived difficulty: water transport in plants and genetics. In the inter im, curricular changes have been made in which cognisance was taken of thes e findings. The present study was a revisit to ascertain the changes in stu dent perception. The water transport problems are found to have largely dis appeared, but the genetics difficulties have remained. This paper tries to locate the root causes of this by interviewing and teachers, and by consult ing examiners' reports. Pointers emerge which are capable of lead to possib le solutions.