Are Storks Homosexuals? Persistence of Misconceptions Among University Students

Abstract

The misconceptions about different scientific phenomena are persisting from childhood till adulthood and no method managed to transform it into the correct form. The study is focused on finding out the misconceptions about common facts of zoology and also human body. The respondents were 112 university students. Among these respondents were 22 science major students and the rest of the respondents were non-science majors. The number of females was 82. All respondents are potentially future teachers at elementary schools, so there is a great chance/ possibility they will teach pupils and present them the kinds of information which are investigated in this study. Research tool contained 7 items, most of them were from the field of zoology and one from the field of human anatomy. Obtained data were analysed by the proportional ratio of correct and incorrect answers and the chi-square test was used for the determination of differences between groups of variables gender and field of study. There was not found a significant difference between males and females and science major students often answered some items more. There were found many misconceptions about common facts of zoology and human body. Key words: animals, human body, misconceptions, persistence, university students.