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Exploring plant and animal content in elementary science textbooks
Abstract
Student knowledge about plants is typically less than student knowledge about animals. Textbooks are a commonly-used curriculum material in elementary grades and contain embedded cultural ideologies that may impact instruction. This study analyzed two nationally-syndicated elementary science textbook series to explore their presentation of plant and animal content. The results indicated that the amount of animal content was greater than plant content in each series. An even greater difference was found in the number of plant and animal examples used within the textbooks. There were more than twice as many animal examples as plant examples in both textbook series, and the most repeated animal examples were more likely to correspond to scientifically-appropriate classification categories. The study also identified differences in the plant and animal topics covered in the textbooks; the topic of plant parts was the plant topic with the highest coverage in each textbook series, while for animals, the topics of animal needs, adaptations and types had the highest coverage depending on the textbook series. This study suggests there may be an ideology favoring animals within these elementary science textbooks and that teachers need to supplement their instruction with additional plant information to facilitate student learning about plants.
... The term 'Plant Blindness' was coined by Wandersee and Schussler (2001) describing the phenomenon that people tend to overlook plants in their everyday lives. Meanwhile many studies already confirmed a discrepancy in the recollection (Schussler and Olzak 2008;Schussler et al. 2010) and visual recognition (Balas and Momsen 2014;Zani and Low 2022) of plants compared to animals. At the same time, people tend to categorise plants as non-living organisms (e.g. ...
The term ‘Plant Blindness’ describes people tending to overlook plants, even though they have an enormous importance for life on earth, especially because of their ability to photosynthesise. Many attempts have been made to counteract plant blindness in biology education. However, so far there is no comprehensive tool to assess the degree of plant awareness (instead of plant blindness) in students. Here, plant awareness is conceptualised in four domains: (1) visual perception of plants, (2) categorising plants as living organisms, (3) knowledge about plants, and (4) attitudes towards plants. We present results from the two developed scales ‘Plants as living organisms’ and ‘Knowledge about plants’. To test the new scales, 345 Austrian secondary school students took part in a questionnaire study. A confirmatory factor analysis indicates sufficient model fit. Results show that students consider plants as ‘less alive’ than animals but ‘more alive’ than bacteria. Those who attribute the characteristics of life to plants have more knowledge about plants, indicating that both domains of plant awareness might have a common basis. The development of a plant awareness questionnaire will eventually provide a powerful tool to investigate the effectiveness of learning environments fostering plant awareness, a prerequisite to reach the sustainable development goals.
... We divided the organismal context (O; see S2 Table) into (1) general context (i.e., storyline) and (2) the context in which evolution was explained (i.e., explanatory parts). For the general context, we rated which kingdoms were mentioned within the whole book and counted the number of examples per kingdom (i.e., a reference to a species, class, or identifiable group of living organisms such as vertebrates, reptiles, or Taraxacum officinale, more specific than the generic term animal or plant; [84]). Concerning the evolutionary context, we rated (a) which evolutionary content (i.e., evolutionary processes [e.g., natural selection, isolation] or phylogenetic lineages) was used, (b) which kingdoms were used to explain evolution (unicellular organisms [unspecified, eukaryotes, bacteria], animals [including humans], fungi and plants), and (c) whether the examples were real (i.e., could be assigned to a species or genus without a doubt), realistic (i.e., were based on a real species, but could not be assigned to a species or genus without a doubt), or fictitious (i.e., were made up and not based on any real species). ...
In science, certain theories led to a paradigm shift in human being’s approach to explain nature, such as the theory of relativity, the quantum theory, and the theory of evolution. The latter explains the emergence of biodiversity on Earth and all living beings’ relatedness, including humans. Accordingly, evolutionary theory is a central part of scientific literacy. However, scholars have demonstrated that misconceptions emerging in childhood hinder learners from grasping evolutionary processes. Implementing evolution in early science education could enhance scientific ideas as a basis for subsequent learning at school. Currently, children’s literature that deals with evolution is increasing and may enable more children to encounter evolutionary theory before entering school. This explorative study aimed to analyze how children’s books about evolution approach explaining this complex topic to young children in terms of covered contents, underlying concepts and use of language. We conducted (1) a text-based qualitative content analysis of 31 children’s books in the categories of organismal context, evolutionary principles, and misconceptions, and (2) a computer-supported content analysis of 33 word labels concerning (a) scientific terms and (b) verbs expressing evolutionary change. Although evolution is a universal concept, children’s books seem to promote specific contexts such as animal and human evolution. Even though the principle of selection requires an understanding of complex interactions between individuals and environmental factors, this principle was more frequent than the principles variation and inheritance. Phylogenetic history was covered more often than basic evolutionary processes, and evolutionary change was mainly mentioned at the species level over long periods. Besides, most books conveyed misconceptions such as transformationist, teleological or anthropomorphic reasoning. Consequently, books covering evolution may bias children’s first ideas concerning this topic or introduce unscientific ideas. Based on our results, we propose implications for early evolution educators and education researchers.
... Efforts should be directed to include more native biodiversity references and more allusions to plants and specimens from different taxa, in school textbooks, comics, books, or also media (television series, films, online games, etc.), avoiding the exclusive use of charismatic big mammals (e.g. Brownlee, Parsley, and Sabel 2021;Schussler et al. 2010). Using local flagship species could also be an effective strategy to counteract scarce knowledge of local biota (Verissimo, MacMillan, and Smith 2011), although there is a risk of losing sight of the native biological richness that surrounds them. ...
Species literacy is an important aspect of biodiversity education. This study assesses the ability of secondary students (12/13 years old; n=944) to list wild animals and plants and aims to determine whether this is linked with their interest in nature, their preferences towards animals and plants and different groups therein, the school type (public or private), per capita income and the size of the students’ hometowns. We have observed that students claim to have a very high interest in nature, but they spontaneously recall a worrisome proportion of exotic species (especially animals), as well as domesticated ones (mainly plants). Besides, they present several “Plant Awareness Disparity” (PAD) symptoms. However, the smaller their hometown is, the more wild native species they list, especially animals, although most PAD symptoms prevail in their answers. Our findings suggest that citizens living in more rural environments may have a higher contact with nature, resulting on a higher spontaneous listing of wild native species. Nevertheless, special efforts must be conducted to counteract PAD as well as “Native Species Awareness Disparity” (NSAD) wherever they live.
... The focus of botanical information in textbooks is most frequently on the structure of a plant, a form of propagation (with or without seeds), and plant family characteristics. Information on the growth of food plants is given less frequently [51]. Here, a broader focus could be used to improve students' knowledge. ...
School gardens can be places of biodiversity and suitable learning environments for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). In particular, vegetable patches where students can make their own experiences in food growing are very apt to connect local acting and global thinking, which is one of the main concerns of ESD. Working in a school garden could be a chance to overcome the lack of perception and knowledge about plants and their life cycles, which is described as “plant blindness”. Concerning the impact of school gardening, studies often investigate teachers’ perspectives only. Therefore, in our study, we focused on students. Participants were mainly fifth and sixth graders in middle and grammar school (mean age 12.3 years, n = 2107). With a paper-pencil test, we investigated their knowledge about the growth of 10 selected crop plants and asked them to rate school garden design elements referring to their importance and suitability for taking over responsibility for nature. In addition, we asked for character traits necessary for a successful school gardener. The results showed that about 40% of the students are convinced that carrots and radishes grow in bunches underground, and nearly 50% thought kohlrabi is growing underground as well. Girls performed better than boys. Increasing age and experience in gardening had a positive effect on the answers. In the students’ opinion, fruit trees, birdhouses, and vegetable patches are the most important elements in school gardens. The liking of nature and patience were highly scored skills for successful school gardening. The influence of experiences in gardening on the answers showed the important role that school gardening could play to gain hands-on knowledge about plant growth and thus offer quality education for every student. This would not only contribute to the reduction of plant blindness but answer the requests of ESD and the goals postulated in the Agenda 2030.
... mengabaikan isi terkait tumbuhan (Hershey, 2002). Contoh paling dominan di dalam kelas guru cenderung banyak menggunakan contoh hewan untuk menjelaskan konsep biologi seperti evolusi, dan ekosistem (Schussler et al., 2010). ...
This study aims to identify cases of plant blindness in students of the Biology Education Study Program, University of Borneo Tarakan. The research was carried out pre and post the Plant taxonomy course. This research is a descriptive study, where the measurement of the level of student's plant blindness presents 20 types of plants around the University of Borneo Tarakan. The results showed that 15 types of plants could not be recognized well, with a truth level below 50%. However, after taking the plant taxonomy lecture, students recognized all 20 plant species with a level of truth above 90%.Keywords: Plant Blindness, Biology Education
... Despite their importance, plants and their relevance are often overlooked, which is described as "Plant blindness" [1]. Plant blindness affects learning on several ways: Teachers devote little time on teaching about plants [2], schoolbooks contain less information about plants than about animals [3] and students are less interested in plants than in animals [4]. In addition, studies prevailed that students have difficulties in understanding various aspects of plant reproduction such as the connection between flowers and fruits [5]. ...
Understanding plant reproduction is an important goal in science education since plants build the basis for many ecosystems. The presented project analyses the representation of this topic in Austrian biology textbook s in secondary schools. This analysis is embedded in a multi-perspective research project, investigating educational aspects of plant reproduction following the Model of Educational Reconstruction. The textbook analysis includes 18 different biology textbook series from the 5 th grade in which plant reproduction is typically taught in Austria. The textbook analysis focuses on the representation of core ideas of plant reproduction and on aspects relevant for the development of students' conceptions, such as the use of terms, examples , and metaphors. Results show that all textbook s represent plant reproduction in much detail, including all processes of sexual reproduction. The results also indicate potential difficulties for students, such as the use of misleading terms , examples, or metaphors. Moreover, only few book s include the advantages and disadvantages of the different pollination mechanisms and most book s discuss the variety of plants and pollinators insufficiently. This could lead to difficulties in understanding how mechanisms and adaptions developed from an evolutionary perspective. The presented results provide direct implications for teaching plant reproduction and for a beneficial use of textbook s.
Η αναπαραγωγή στους φυτικούς οργανισμούς συνοδεύεται συχνά από σημαντικό αριθμό διαισθητικών ιδεών των μαθητών που ανιχνεύονται στο πεδίο της έρευνας διεθνώς. Πολλές διδακτικές προτάσεις που προτείνονται για την τροποποίηση αυτών των ιδεών περιορίζονται στη μακροσκοπική παρατήρηση ανθέων ή και τη χρήση κατάλληλου εποπτικού υλικού, προκειμένου οι μαθητές να αναγνωρίσουν την ικανότητα των φυτών για εγγενή πολλαπλασιασμό και να συσχετίσουν τον κύκλο γονιμοποίησης με τα μορφολογικά χαρακτηριστικά τους. Με δεδομένο ότι στο Ελληνικό σχολείο εντοπίζεται πολύ μικρός αριθμός προτάσεων εργαστηριακής διδασκαλίας στο πεδίο αυτό, στο παρόν άρθρο αναπτύσσεται μια διδακτική πρόταση που περιλαμβάνει τόσο τη μικροσκόπηση του άνθους του φυτού Λίλιουμ σε στερεοσκόπιο όσο και την in vitro εκβλάστηση γυρεόκοκκων των φυτών Ρόκα, Βιβούρνο και Σπάρτο.
This research attempts to provide novel insights into plant awareness disparity (plant blindness), through a systematic and critical examination of the educational and ethnobiological literature. The low interest and awareness for plants is well documented in urban societies and has serious implications for biodiversity conservation and sustainable land‐use. This study is significant because it provides a comprehensive analysis of the characteristics of human‐plant relations in different societies, which does not currently exist in the academic literature. The findings suggest that people's plant awareness develops where they have frequent interactions with plants that have direct relevance to their lives. The inattention to plants, known as ‘plant blindness’ or ‘plant awareness disparity’, is an established concern amongst biologists, but there has been no comprehensive and critical examination of the investigative literature to date. This study aims to address this, with a narrative review of experimental studies published in indexed journals from 1998 to 2020. Data were extracted using a suite of relevant search terms, characterised using key words and subjected to a thematic content analysis; 326 studies were shortlisted for review, with the majority in the subject areas of biological education, ethnobiology and biological conservation. The prevalent research methods were interviews and free‐listing exercises (ethnobiology) and questionnaires and tests (education). The most common characteristics of plant awareness disparity were a deficit of knowledge or identification skills, followed by an attention or memory advantage for animals compared to plants, preference for animals and low interest in plants. There was no concrete evidence of innate plant awareness disparity; instead, diminished experience of nature in urbanised societies appeared to be the cause. Virtually, all the 87 studies that found evidence of plant awareness disparity were undertaken in urban populations in high‐income countries. By contrast, there were 109 studies of extensive botanical knowledge based on rural communities dependent on biological resources, where individual expertise was found to be proportionate to the extent of wild plant collecting. We conclude that a decline in relevant experience with plants leads to a cyclical process of inattention that could be addressed through first‐hand experiences of edible and useful plants in local environments. This research attempts to provide novel insights into plant awareness disparity (plant blindness), through a systematic and critical examination of the educational and ethnobiological literature. The low interest and awareness for plants is well documented in urban societies and has serious implications for biodiversity conservation and sustainable land‐use. This study is significant because it provides a comprehensive analysis of the characteristics of plant awareness disparity in society, which does not currently exist in the academic literature. The findings suggest that people's plant awareness develops where they have frequent interactions with plants that have direct relevance to their lives.
Civilization is dependent upon plants for survival. Plants permeate our every moment and our relationship with them will dictate how we will manage the threats of climate change and ecological collapse defining the Anthropocene. Yet, despite the significance of plants and the critical role they have played in shaping ecosystems, civilizations, and human cultures, many people are now disconnected from the botanical world. Students are presented with little plant content, particularly identification, compared with animal content. Consequently, we are producing few plant scientists and educating fewer scientists about plants. This drives a self‐accelerating cycle we term the extinction of botanical education. A process of knowledge erosion, that in this instance contributes to our separation from the natural world, makes us blind to the biodiversity crisis and inhibits our ability to restore it. We argue that neglecting the importance of plants within education threatens the foundations of industries and professions that rely on this knowledge. Furthermore, this extinction of botanical education creates an existential threat: Without the skills to fully comprehend the scale of and solutions to human‐induced global change, how do we as a society combat it? We present key research agendas that will enable us to reverse the extinction of botanical education and highlight the critical role plants play on the global stage. Civilization is dependent upon plants for survival and our relationship with them will dictate how we will manage the global impact of humanity which defines the Anthropocene. We document and define a self‐perpetuating educational cycle that we term the extinction of botanical education and its impact on the science of botany and potential ramifications for society to reverse and stabilise human included global change.
Current biology curricula in secondary schools do not theorise the whole organism, and instead constitute the learning of levels of organisation above and below the organism. The whole organism is the most concrete and accessible level for students, and where they can find meaning of new biological knowledge. Furthermore, the nature that students experience in their immediate world is likely to consist of other organisms. Consequently, there are two problems with the whole organism's absence in biology curricula: Firstly, without a theory of the whole organism students are likely to connect new knowledge to their own intuitive theories of the organism. Secondly, students will struggle to connect with nature around them if they cannot explain organisms in a scientific manner. This article calls for the skill of reading organisms to be a priority of biology curricula, which is the ability to interpret, predict, and rationalise about the behaviour of organisms seen in nature. It is proposed that this skill depends on two complementary theories of the organism: the processual nature of organisms, and life history strategies. Additionally, by commencing curricula with these theories, students will have a frame of reference to make meaning of the rest of the course.
This paper explores the production of introductory financial accounting textbooks in the UK. Despite being a pervasive pedagogical device (see Brown and Guilding, 1993, Accounting Education: an international journal, 4(2) pp. 211-218), there has been little research carried out which examines the role or contents of textbooks in accounting education. This is a surprising gap in the literature when one considers the numerous concerns that have been expressed regarding the content of accounting education, the values which it projects and the type of student which it produces. Drawing on contemporary research into textbooks, this paper considers accounting textbooks to be 'cultural artifacts' which may reflect the cultural, ideological, and political interests of particular groups in society. In this regard, introductory financial textbooks have the potential to reinforce cultural homogeneity through the advancement of shared attitudes. This study is based upon 12 semi-structured interviews with both textbook authors and commissioning editors. Results indicate that the contents of textbooks are the product of complex social and cultural relations. Whilst conflicts and negotiations may characterize the production process, the knowledge that is considered most 'legitimate' tends to be mandated, either directly or indirectly, by professional accounting bodies through course accreditation requirements. Furthermore, this knowledge reflects wider cultural issues and assumptions regarding the structure of society and of how it should be organized.
Previous studies have suggested that pupils have a general preference for studying animals rather than plants. Oft-stated opinions by pupils in the classroom tend to reinforce this view. However, it is not clear if this represents opinions of animals and plants per se, or simply of the animals and plants with which the pupils are most familiar in the school context. By getting pupils to concentrate on living specimens of two unfamiliar organisms (Arabidopsis thaliana and Mellitobia digitata), it was hoped to gain an improved understanding of the reasons for pupils' views without reference to their existing prejudices based on familiar animals and plants. Conclusions only relate to the student sample (162 girls aged 12-17 from one school), but may give pointers to key areas which would benefit from more detailed studies aiming to establish general trends. Overall, the animals were found to be of much greater interest to the students than the plants. The key characteristic that seemed to generate most interest in animals was movement.
EnglishThis paper presents the results of a study of the development of pupils’ knowledge of the process of photosynthesis and the related biological processes of respiration, breathing and digestion. The information already known to primary pupils untutored in biology was assessed and the changes effected by teaching were monitored in the secondary school.The results indicate that concepts which are wrong but which are nevertheless meaningful to the learner may escape detection by the usual methods of testing and are highly resistant to replacement by correct information. The formation of wrong concepts may predate formal instruction or may arise during the course of instruction as a result of the inappropriate use of subsuming information.
he ability of A level students to recognise and name common wild flowers was shown to be very poor. Traineeteachers performed little better and nearly a third of the practising A-level biology teachers tested were able toname only three or fewer wild flowers.Although opportunities exist at primary level for children to learn about the environment, most enter sec-ondary school with a poor knowledge of the organisms around them, particularly plants. At secondary level thedecrease in the importance of whole organism biology in the curriculum, declining opportunities for fieldworkand the concentration of A-level fieldwork on techniques and course assessment allow little time for training inidentification skills. Many A-level students feel that being able to recognise and name organisms is not important. In teaching students to be responsible citizens and to care about their environment, a knowledge of atleast the common organisms around them is vital.Initiatives are needed to engage the interest of primaryschool children and to provide more opportunities for fieldwork at secondary level, including time to teach students to recognise organisms. Training for teachers would be valuable and the role of organisations outside formal education in educating the wider public is also recognised.
This research addressed the following questions: (1) Which science topic do junior high school students prefer to study—plants or animals? (2) Is their preference related to the variables of grade level and sex of student? Public school students from grades 7, 8, and 9 in Avoca, New York participated in the study. Findings show that 9th grade students have a greater interest in biological science topics than do students in the other grades studied. Girls are more interested in biological science topics than boys are. Girls also showed a significant preference for animals over plants. As a group, junior high school students revealed that they prefer animal study over plant study. About half of the student responses categorized as “biological science” did not express a clear-cut preference for either plants or animals. A caution about generalizability is expressed. Interviews of students suggest that the following characteristics of animals are important determinants of preferences: Animals move, eat, have eyes for sight, communicate by sound, exhibit behaviors that are fun to watch, have short and observable live cycles, interact with humans, can learn, have mates, give birth, and raise their young. It was obvious that most students think of mammals when they hear the term “animal.”
Traditional science teaching has relied on 'chalk and talk'. In recent years, 'authentic science' has become an alternative slogan that many educators easily adopted into their pedagogic discourses, for it was associated with 'getting students to do the real stuff'. However, authentic science when it is not accompanied by reflection on representations of knowledge more generally, can also mean to enculturate (and worse, indoctrinate) students to a particular epistemology. In this article, the author provides two examples of invisible ways in which students of ecology are enculturated to particular ideologies. The unreflected matter-of-factness of the discursive and mathematical representations in lectures and textbooks makes the world appear to be typologically decomposable (into variables) which have clear, mathematically fully determined relationships (topologies). In this way, school science has a certain likeness with indoctrination. The author concludes by suggesting that science (or mathematics, history etc.) courses need to have built in moments in which students can critically examine disciplinary knowledge representations and the way these are constituted.
Photocopy of typescript. Thesis (Ph. D.)--Cornell University, Sept., 1976. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 130-133).