The aim of this dissertation was to contribute to domain-specific
science learning at the university based on the research traditions of
conceptual change and science learning and teaching. Previous research
has shown that students have prior conceptions about scientific
phenomena that often conflict with the scientific explanation and that
may thus hinder or even prevent the learning of complex concepts and
processes in the educational/school context. However, previous research
has mainly focused on studying the conceptions of younger students. This
thesis focused on the university level, and the aim was to explore
teacher education students’ conceptions of photosynthesis and medical
students’ conceptions of the central cardiovascular system. Teacher and
medical education students were chosen for examination because in both
study programs, learning certain biological phenomena is essential.
Additionally, text-based learning plays a significant role in both study
programs. In this study, the development of students’ conceptions
related to photosynthesis and the central cardiovascular system were
studied. In addition, the roles of different texts in learning and
medical diagnosing processes were investigated. The approach was both
longitudinal and cross-sectional, extending the view from the group
level to the single case level, including the recording of eye
movements. The results showed that university students have several
alarming misconceptions relating to particular scientific topics.
Moreover, among medical students, the level of biomedical understanding
seemed to be related to the level of clinical reasoning. However, a
high-level text that specifically pointed out typical misconceptions,
known as a refutational text, seemed to support learning more
effectively than did a traditional text. In addition, the eye movements
of medical students and internal medicine residents while reading a
patient case revealed that a so-called illness script pattern seemed to
be distinguishable, which highlights the importance of teaching
diagnosis processes by modelling the processes of experts. To conclude,
the need to develop science teaching and learning, which suggests both
educational and domain-specific understanding, is evident at the
university level. New teaching and learning practices, together with
innovative materials, are proposed based on the results of this
dissertation.