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 interim, curricular changes have been made in which cognisance was taken of these findings. The present study was a revisit to ascertain the changes in student perception. The water transport problems are found to have largely disappeared, but the genetics difficulties have remained. This paper tries to locate the root causes of this by interviewing students and teachers, and by consulting examiners' reports. Pointers emerge which are capable of leading to possible solutions.