Exploring plant and animal content in elementary science textbooks

Schussler, Elisabeth E.; Link‐Pérez, Melanie A.; Weber, Kirk M.; Dollo, Vanessa H.

doi:10.1080/00219266.2010.9656208

Cited by 49 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Although it has been shown in some research that plants are neglected organisms in the curriculum (Tunnicliffe 1999), in textbooks (Honey 1987;Schussler et al 2010) and even in students' minds (Gatt et al 2007;Patrick and Tunnicliffe 2011), teachers may benefit from considering that students have their own explanations of plant structure, physiology and life functions contained in their mental models. In order to teach about biological phenomena effectively, teachers may benefit from paying special attention to plants and to the way students see and interpret them.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the Macmillan series the greatest differences were between the different types of plants (7.9%) and animals (21.4%). Thus students may presume that plants do not have to, or cannot, adapt to different or changing environments (Schussler et al 2010). This observation is also true for the curriculum and textbooks in Poland.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…In many countries, plants also seem to be neglected in both the science curriculum and in biology textbooks compared to the coverage allocated to animals (Honey 1987;Schussler et al 2010). For example, in research carried out by Shussler (2010), a selection of elementary school textbooks (provided by Harcourt Science and Macmillan McGraw-Hill Science), were analyzed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Children’s ideas about the internal structure of trees: cross-age studies

Rybska

Tunnicliffe

Sajkowska

2016

Journal of Biological Education

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Trees are important to the environment owing to their ecological services. However, many aspects of their form and function are poorly understood by the public. From their earliest years, children have an elementary knowledge about plants which they gain from their everyday observations, their parents and other people and from their kindergarten and primary schooling. However, studies carried out in Brazil and England have shown that many children hold a number of alternative conceptions about the internal structure of trees. The goal of this research was to investigate Polish children's understanding of trees' internal structure. This cross-age study involved 5-year-old children from kindergarten (n=57, 26 boys and 31 girls) and 7-year-old children (n=105, 57 boys and 48 girls) and 10-year-old children (83 children, 36 boys and 47 girls) from primary school. Participants were asked to draw the internal structure of a tree. The results of the study showed that there were some significant differences in the responses between age groups and between the genders. Nevertheless, there were some ideas that were shared among all age groups indicating that they might be resistant to change. The study also identified some alternative conceptions about the internal structure of plants and the influence of the media on children's ideas. These ideas, which to some extent replicate findings from England and Brazil, might be crucial for shaping proenvironmental attitudes of pupils in central European farmland countries where plants are important organisms not only for environmental but also for economic perspectives.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Children’s ideas about the internal structure of trees: cross-age studies

Rybska

Tunnicliffe

Sajkowska

2016

Journal of Biological Education

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“…Additionally, students struggle to apply general biological concepts to plants (Uno, 1994) and have poor knowledge about their needs for growth (Schussler, Link-Pérez, Weber, & Dollo, 2010) and reproduction (Schussler & Winslow, 2007). This results in students with a restricted view of nature, which also likely results in students with less understanding for protection of the environment (Dillon et al, 2006)-arguably the most pressing concern of our times.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using students’ interest in useful plants to encourage plant vision in the classroom

Pany

Lörnitzo

Auleitner

et al. 2019

Plants People Planet

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Societal Impact Statement The phenomenon known as “plant blindness” leads to a restricted view on nature, which may in turn result in people and society having less understanding of important environmental and conservation issues. Biology educators must tackle this problem directly. By exploring students’ interests in useful plants (spice plants and stimulant herbal drugs), we present a route by which educators could counteract plant blindness by taking students’ plant‐related interests into account when preparing a teaching unit. We reveal that educators must carefully select the plant materials used as examples in the classroom to effectively encourage plant vision in students. Summary The term “plant blindness” describes the phenomenon that many people tend to overlook plants in their everyday life. Therefore, they often do not understand key biological concepts to their full extent and may develop a more restricted view of nature. Here, we provide a possible method of counteracting plant blindness in schools by capitalizing on students’ interest in useful plants to impart botanical content in biology lessons. We investigated 172 students aged 10–18 years old in order to explore the links between students’ individual interests in spice plants and stimulant herbal drugs and their situational interest during an inquiry‐based botany teaching unit by using a questionnaire and additional semi‐structured interviews. Data analysis shows that, for students with low and medium individual interest, stimulant herbal drugs and spice plants can be used to generate higher situational interest. Furthermore, students with initially high individual interest should get the opportunity to follow their own questions concerning a plant group before working on a structured learning task. Using study objects from different subgroups of useful plants for introducing botanical content in biology lessons, and giving highly interested students time and space to follow their own interests, seems to be a promising way to counteract plant blindness and, thus, to help enable students to develop a more comprehensive view of nature.

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“…A prominent reason for this fact is a phenomenon called "plant-blindness", described about twenty years ago (Bozniak 1994;Wandersee and Schussler 2001). Plant blindness leads people to overlook plants in everyday life and therefore they do not gain knowledge about them (Wandersee and Schussler 1999;Schussler, Link-Pérez, Weber and Dollo 2010). Furthermore, studies on students' interest in biological topics show that botanical issues are the most boring for students (Elster 2007;.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Uncovering patterns of interest in useful plants. Frequency analysis of individual students’ interest types as a tool for planning botany teaching units

Pany

Heidinger

2014

Mult.J.Edu.Soc.Tec.Sci.

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The paper presented examines how useful plants can help counteracting "plant blindness" -a phenomenon leading people to overlook plants in everyday-life. Recent research indicates that people are most likely interested in useful plants, hence this group of plants could be used to trigger interest in botanical content in general. This study has investigated the structure of interest in five subgroups of useful plants (medicinal plants, stimulant herbal drugs, spice plants, edible plants, and ornamental plants). For this purpose, the FEIN-questionnaire (Fragebogen zur Erhebung des Interesses an Nutzpflanzen = Questionnaire acquiring interest in useful plants) was filled in by N = 1,299 pupils from grade 5 to 12. Data analysis shows (for all age groups and both genders) that medicinal plants and stimulant herbal drugs trigger high interest while spice plants, edible plants and ornamental plants raise only lower interest. However, mean values do not allow conclusions on an individual level (e.g. in a school class). In order to gain information about the interest structure in a specific target group teachers deal with in practice, we have analysed the interests on an individual level using frequency analysis of different interest types. Results show that stimulant herbal drugs seem to strongly polarize students, whereas medicinal plants are interesting for almost the whole sample. Eventually, medicinal plants turned out to be well suited to introduce botanical content by means of plants catching the interest of as many students as possible. Therefore, medicinal plants should be established as flagships counteracting plant blindness.

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Exploring plant and animal content in elementary science textbooks

Cited by 49 publications

References 7 publications

Children’s ideas about the internal structure of trees: cross-age studies

Children’s ideas about the internal structure of trees: cross-age studies

Using students’ interest in useful plants to encourage plant vision in the classroom

Uncovering patterns of interest in useful plants. Frequency analysis of individual students’ interest types as a tool for planning botany teaching units

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