Examining Secondary School Students’ Misconceptions About the Human Body: Correlations Between the Methods of Drawing and Open-Ended Questions

Abstract

Students of various age groups manifest numerous explanations that differ from what is known to be scientifically correct. Misconceptions about the human body are one of the best studied areas of students’ understanding of scientific phenomena. To explore misconceptions, researchers have at their disposal various methods which can lead to different results. In order to find an effective, cheap and representative diagnostic instrument, correlations between scores obtained by open-ended questions and drawings on the example of the human circulatory system were examined. Open-ended questions provide a more complete understanding of student learning but are harder to evaluate objectively in comparison with drawings, particularly in cross-cultural research. Correlations among scores obtained by these two methods in the present research were moderate, which suggests that drawings reflect students’ understanding of the circulatory system, albeit not perfectly. Although drawings probably never provide a complete understanding of children’s ideas about science, this cheap and time effective method is recommended particularly in cross-cultural research, where standard, comparable conditions are hard to achieve. Keywords: circulatory system, human heart, human body, students’ ideas.

Understanding Pre-Service Teacher Conceptual Knowledge of Human Nutrition Processes Through Drawings

“…Another objective of the research was to identify whether the alternative conceptions about functional aspects related to human nutrition, which have been relatively well documented in children (Carvalho et al, 2004;Dempster & Stears, 2014;García-Barros et al, 2011;López-Manjón & Postigo, 2009;Teixeira, 2000), are also present among the students. The results of the present research showed that the most common mistakes were related to the urinary system, demonstrating the close relation between the drawings and the written answers, in contrast to previous reports (Fančovičová & Prokop, 2019;Prokop & Fančovičová, 2006). The pre-service teachers confused the urinary system with the digestive system and believed that some organs of the digestive system such as the intestines or pancreas were part of the urinary system.…”

“…Numerous studies have been undertaken to determine the conceptual understanding that students have of the human body's functions and structure (Bahar et al 2008;Carvalho et al, 2004;Cuthbert, 2000;Fančovičová & Prokop, 2019;García-Barros et al, 2011;Manokore & Reiss 2003;Prokop et al 2009;Reiss & Tunnicliffe, 2001;Reiss et al, 2002;Rowlands, 2004;. Although different techniques have been used (surveys, questionnaires, two-tier diagnostic tests, interviews, etc.…”

The utility of 3D, haptic‐enabled, virtual reality technologies for student knowledge gains in the complex biological system of the human heart

“…Open‐ended responses were scored by their respective rubric and closed‐ended responses were scored in a binary fashion (in/correct). The drawing (question 1) and tracing (question 30) items are particularly useful assessments to illuminate students' respective external and internal anatomical misconceptions (Reiss et al, 2002), especially those of the heart (Fančovičová & Prokop, 2019). Further, both the drawing and labelling of the heart (of question 1, at the macro‐level) and tracing of pulmonary circulation (question 30, at the micro‐level) provided greater visualization to how students are constructing knowledge from use of the technology, among a large sampling of students (Gurel et al, 2015) in both form and function and systems thinking.…”

5th-grade Students' Misunderstandings and Misconceptions about Fungi

“…[181] body systems (Fančovičová & Prokop, 2019;Çuçin, Özgür, & Güngör-Cabbar, 2020), enzymes (Bretz & Linenberger, 2012; and genetics (Gül & Özay-Köse, 2018b;Shaw, Horne, Zhang, & Boughman, 2008). It was also revealed that they have misunderstandings and misconceptions on these issues.…”

“…These studies interpreted the findings that biology is considered hard by students because it contains many abstract concepts. Thus, this situation causes students to have learning difficulties that also result in many misunderstandings and misconceptions (Adıgüzel, & Yılmaz, 2020;Elmesky, 2013;Erdoğan-Karaş & Gül, 2020;Fančovičová, & Prokop, 2019;Rogayan, & Albino, 2019).…”