3.3. The Differences between English and Turkish Samples
Related to the Nature of Curricula. Some of the incorrect
responses of students even though they were seen more
than 10% of the student sample were not considered as
alternative conceptions (see Table 4). Incorrect responses
not regarded as alternative conception were seen in items in
which the number of chromosomes is shown with a formula.
In items where the number of chromosomes is displayed
with formulas or symbols, while the incorrect response
proportion of the Turkish students is not higher than 10%, the
proportion of incorrect responses of the English students is
considerably high and this appears as a notable finding.When
the reason for this finding was sought, it was found that in the
educational curriculum of the English students, haploid and
diploid concepts are used for number of chromosomes but