Alternative Conceptions in Animal Classification Focusing on Amphibians and Reptiles: A Cross-Age Study

Abstract

This study examined students' alternative conceptions of reptiles and amphibians and the extent to which these conceptions remain intact through the elementary (grades 4 and 6), junior, and senior high school years. We administered multiplechoice and free-response instruments to a total of 513 students and interviewed at least 20 students at each educational level to get an in-depth view of their original conceptions. Then, we developed and administered a two-tier multiple choice diagnostic instrument to assess various levels of students' understanding of amphibians and reptiles (N = 1267). The results showed that most students were able to classify snakes as reptiles, whereas fewer than 30% of the students across different ages classified sea turtles as reptiles; the remaining 70% classified sea turtles as amphibians. More students were able to correctly classify frogs as amphibians than toads. In most instances, students correctly classified "prototypical" representatives of the two animal classes more readily than less exemplary representatives, a finding that supports previous research (Trowbridge, J.E. and Mintzes, J.J. (1988). Alternative conceptions in animal classification: A cross-age study. alternative views of sea turtles as amphibians remained intact throughout the school years. Interview data indicated that students classified sea turtles as amphibians largely because sea turtles are able to live in terrestrial and aquatic habitats. Semantically, "amphi" means living on land and in water. When asked to distinguish between reptiles and amphibians and to classify several species into those two groups, a wide range of alternative conceptions emerged and the origin of those alternative conceptions are discussed. Similar results were obtained when we applied a two-tier multiple-choice diagnostic instrument to assess students' understanding of amphibians and reptiles.KEY WORDS: alternative conceptions, animal classification, two-tier diagnostic instrument Studies that address students' alternative scientific conceptions span a period of some thirty years (Wandersee, Mintzes & Novak, 1994). Within the biological sciences, recent research efforts have produced a remarkable picture of how students understand a wide range of concepts (Barrow, 2002;Carlsson, 2002;Jewell, 2002;Nazario et al., 2002) and the most recent bibliography (Duit, 2002) lists several hundred publications in the areas of: behavior, biodiversity, biotechnology, ecology, evolution, genetics, growth and development, health and disease, homeostasis, human biology, the life concept, physiology, neurobiology, and the senses.

Factors Affecting Students’ Attitudes Toward Toads

“…If students were to rate their attitude toward amphibians, they could be wrongly thinking about turtles -reptiles or only frogs -the prototypical species for amphibians (Yen et al, 2004). The instrument was in a form of a questionnaire and consisted of two parts.…”

Effects of Keeping Animals as Pets on Children's Concepts of Vertebrates and Invertebrates

“…These alternative conceptions may resemble the ideas of previous generations of natural philosophers; they are products of direct observation, everyday language, the mass media and peer culture and they are found frequently amongst teachers as well as students (Munson, 1994;Yen, Yao, & Chiu 2004).…”

Pupils’ understanding of mammals: an investigation of the cognitive dimension of misconceptions

“…Randler et al (2007) found an increase in knowledge about animals with the age of respondents, but in their research there was no signi cant di erence in results between genders. Yen et al (2004) showed that pupils and students had problems with amphibians and reptiles in their research. The turtle was classi ed as an amphibian by a signi cant percentage of students; the reason was due to its aquatic and terrestrial habits.…”