Agricultural Students’ Knowledge of Photosynthesis and the Contextual Factors That Influence It

Abstract

This research aimed to assess the knowledge of photosynthesis among students in agricultural education and understand the influence of the contextual factors on it. In photosynthesis, biomass is produced, so understanding these processes is essential for successful agriculture. The research sample consisted of 330 students in agricultural education in Slovenia. Data were collected with a knowledge test and a contextual questionnaire. Better knowledge of photosynthesis was positively related with higher awareness of the importance of biology as a science and of photosynthesis. There was no significant relation between the knowledge of photosynthesis and positive attitudes toward biology lessons. The average achievement on the knowledge test of photosynthesis was 56%: the highest on the item about energy and the lowest on the item about the primary purpose of photosynthesis. Between these two achievements was the knowledge of reactants and products in photosynthesis, and the knowledge concerning chlorophyll. Considering these results, improvements should be made in teaching. For this population, more experimental and less theory-based lessons were suggested. The findings could benefit biology and science teachers in agricultural education and help improve national curriculum for biology in agricultural programmes.

Effectiveness of the Conceptual Change Method on Understanding Plant Mass Increase

“…It showed that people of all ages (from pupils to adults) held similar misconceptions about photosynthesis, and that the amount of science education they had received did not directly influence their misconceptions (Amir & Tamir, 1994;Anderson, Sheldon, & Dubay, 1990;Cañal, 1999;Eisen & Stavy, 1992;Waheed & Lucas;. More recent research showed similar results about the knowledge of photosynthesis (Duschl, Schweingruber, & Shouse, 2007;Gobec & Strgar, 2019;Köse, 2008;Näs, 2012;Marmaroti & Galanopolou, 2006;Ross, Tronson, & Ritchie, 2006;Skribe Dimec & Strgar, 2017;Svandova, 2014;Yenilmez & Tekkaya, 2006). This showed that improvements that had been suggested as a consequence of findings in previous research were either not implemented in teaching and learning processes or were not effective.…”

“…In Slovenia, secondary school students in agricultural education (vocational programmes of Country Farmer and Gardener, and technical programmes of Agricultural-Entrepreneurial Technician and Horticultural Technician) lacked satisfactory knowledge of photosynthesis and also held characteristic misconceptions about it (Gobec & Strgar, 2019). One of their misconceptions that is of great importance for agricultural production was the concept of increasing the mass of plants.…”

“…Questions 1-4 were formed based on the results of prior research (Eisen & Stavy, 1988;Parker et al, 2012) that had shown misconcep-ISSN 1648-3898 /Print/ ISSN 2538-7138 /Online/ tions about the concept of increasing the mass of plants. Questions 5 and 6 were used in the survey by Marmaroti and Galanopoulou (2006), and Gobec and Strgar (2019). Questions 5 and 6 were compiled into a new item (item 7) which acted as a control question.…”

“…The survey questionnaire contained five statements, assessing students' attitudes towards biology and photosynthesis because attitudes are an essential factor in learning science (George, 2006;Nasr & Soltani, 2011;Osborne et al, 2003;Partin & Haney, 2012). These statements have already been used in The Relevance of Science Education study (The ROSE questionnaire, n.d.) and in the research of Gobec and Strgar (2019). The questionnaire used a 5-point Likert scale, ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5).…”

“…For students, photosynthesis is one of the most challenging biology topics (Gobec & Strgar, 2019;Marmaroti & Galanopolou, 2006;Stavy, Eisen, & Yaakobi, 1987;Svandova, 2014;Waheed & Lucas, 1992). One of the reasons for this is that it is an abstract process that cannot be observed with the naked eye (Brown & Schwartz, 2009;Russel, Netherwood, & Robinson, 2004).…”