Comparison of Misconceptions about Human Digestive System of Turkish, Albanian and Bosnian 12th Grade High School Students

Abstract

Information that is different from scientific knowledge, consistent and resistant to change, can be expressed as misconceptions. Misconceptions are one of the critical factors that prevent students from understanding in Biology education. This study was conducted in Kosovo with high school 12th-grade students of three different ethnic origins. It is aimed to determine the misconceptions that students have about “Digestive System in Human” comparatively. The study was carried out with 150 12th grade students in Kosovo in the 2016/2017 academic year. The research was carried out with qualitative research techniques as a data collection tool consisting of student drawings and explanations, and true/false items used. A descriptive analysis made. The findings showed that the students had many misconceptions about the human digestive system. Some Turkish students have drawn the digestive system with the kidney and intestine compared to other ethnic groups. Albanian and Bosnian students generally draw the digestive system after the stomach for separate solids for liquids. This misconception may be related to the concept of image (prima de perception) (Bachelard, 1938). Also, cultural misconceptions stemming from language encountered. Bosnian students use the concept of "boiling" instead of "digestion".

Teaching digestive system: Spanish pre-service teacher’s learning difficulties and alternative conceptions

“…As in previous studies (Cardak, 2015;Sasmaz & Ormanci, 2014), it is also necessary to highlight the poor anatomical knowledge that our pre-service teachers have on their arrival at university, not being able to identify and connect the main structures or organs that form part of this system, and even stating that digestion begins in the mouth and ends in the stomach, completely forgetting the rest of the structures or organs involved in this process. But what is really surprising and worrying is that all these alternative conceptions that we have been able to identify among our pre-service teachers have already been described in previous studies carried out with primary and secondary education students (Ahi, 2017;Allen et al, 2019;Aydin & Ural, 2018;Carvalho et al, 2004;Cucin et al, 2020;Teixeira, 2000), which indicates that these ideas have become so deeply rooted in students' minds that, despite years of schooling, they persist over time and are resistant to change, becoming misconceptions and contributing to the strengthening of the difficulties that students present when learning science (Halim et al, 2018;Lazarowitz & Lieb, 2006;Mintzes et al, 2005).…”

“…A review of the literature indicates that, at the most basic levels of education, there is a general tendency to consider digestion as an exclusively physical process in which food is broken down to separate good substances from bad; that it is also chemically modified and reduced to components that can be absorbed by the body is not considered (Cakici, 2005;Carvalho et al, 2004;Rowlands, 2004;Teixeira, 2000). Logically, these explanations are more precise at higher educational levels, referring to the decomposition of food by physical and chemical actions into substances that can be assimilated by the organism; however, many of these definitions still contain or hide inaccuracies of greater or lesser scope, such as the omission of the stage of absorption and transport of nutrients into the bloodstream and tissues (Cucin et al, 2020;Ozsevgec et al, 2012). Another widespread idea is to consider the stomach as the central organ of the digestive process, where all the digestion of ingested food and the absorption of nutrients would take place, assuming that digestion begins in the mouth and ends in the stomach, and consequently relegating the role of the intestines to mere reservoirs where waste substances would be stored, but in no case with digestive activity (Gungor & Ozgur, 2009;Ozgur & Pelitoglu, 2008).…”

An Educational Model for Teaching About Technological Systems

“…In relation to the behavioural aspect, flows of resources are described as a concept of energy and matter related to ecosystems and systems in the body (Akçay, 2017;Çuçin et al, 2020). There are also examples of studies that identify misconceptions in relation to learning about systems in the human body such as circulation and cell systems (see, e.g., Çuçin et al, 2020).…”

Teaching Seventh Graders About the Digestive System Using Formative Assessment to Evaluate Comprehension Levels

“…For this purpose, new lesson plans were created for the experimental group students and a special education program including formative assessment strategies was implemented in these sections. The strategies applied to the experimental groups were designed and created by the researcher in a way to eliminate the common misconceptions about the digestive systems in students For example, There are misconceptions that the digestive system is depicted as a pipe with two ends, the digestion of proteins begins in the mouth because digestion begins in the mouth, the systems in our body work in separate sections independently of each other, and all the nutrients taken into the body must be digested (Çuçin, Özgür, & Güngör Cabbar, 2020).) The formative assessment strategies were not applied to the students in the control group; instead they were taught in accordance with the outcomes projected in the 2014 Science program.…”