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Elementary school pupils knowledge and misconceptions about birds

Authors:
Milan Kubiatko at J. E. Purkyne University Faculty of Education
Milan Kubiatko
  • J. E. Purkyne University Faculty of Education
Muhammet Usak at LEUKOS BV
Muhammet Usak
  • LEUKOS BV
Eva Pecusova
Eva Pecusova
Eva Pecusova
  • This person is not on ResearchGate, or hasn't claimed this research yet.
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Abstract

In this study, we focused on investigation of students’ knowledge and misconceptions about birds. The main goal was to find out elementary school pupils’ perceptions about birds. Pupils’ knowledge and misconceptions were evaulated by the self-constructed knowledge test. The test consisted of 30 questions, twelve of which were open-ended and rest of them were multiple choice questions. We prepared the questionnaires with respect to Slovakian elementary science schools’ curriculum concerning birds. The partipant students, 719 of them in total, vary seven Slovakian elementary schools. Their ages range from ten to sixteen. Statistical procedure was based on the comparison of results between boys and girls, between respondents from village and from town, between pet-owners and non-pet owners and among pupils of classes from 5 to 9 grades of Slovakian elementary schools. The overall view on results showed that Slovakian elementary school pupils had serious problems with birds. The wrong ideas are occurring in all dimensions and all age groups of pupils showed incorrect answers. Questions were distributed in five dimensions: 1. Identification of birds 2. Reproduction of birds 3. Food of birds 4. Birds senses 5. Bird migration. Girls achieved statistically significant higher score in comparison with boys. Pupils, who went through the curriculum about birds at elementary school was more successful in comparison with pupils, who did not yet. The effect of residence and pet was not significant on results.
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mean score
2.87
0.11
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14.09***
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5.12*
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2.58*
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2.20
2.94*
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2.35
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0.21
0.79
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0.23
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0.44
1.29
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4.32**
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0.81
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3.75**
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identif ication of birds
reproduct ion of birds
f ood of birds
birds senses
migrat ory of birds
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... ird identification. With respect to gender differences, results are not conclusive. Research has revealed that boys had higher wildlife knowledge than girls (Huxham, Welsh, Berry, & Templeton, 2006), but there were no differences in knowledge about birds between males and females, as reported by Prokop, and Prokop, Kubiatko, and Fančovičová (2007). Kubiatko et al. (2011) found that Slovak girls were more knowledgeable about birds than boys. However, Randler (2008) reported a higher level of animal knowledge in girls, but the difference was minimal. ...
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