Prospective Teachers’ Misconceptions About Classification of Plants and Changes in Their Misconceptions During Pre-Service Education

Abstract

This study reported herein aimed to reveal prospective teachers’ misconceptions about classification of plants and the effect of pre-service education program on their correct conceptions of this biological issue. Prospective teachers majoring in Elementary School Classroom Teacher Education constituted the target population of this study during the fall semester of the 2012-2013 academic years from Turkey. In order to reveal the difference between the misconceptions of prospective teachers who are at the beginning and at the end of their university education, the research was conducted as a cross-sectional study (78 first and 84 fourth class). The results showed that the prospective teachers in both groups have misconceptions and considerable confusion over the concepts of without-seed plants, seedy plants, vascular plants, non-vascular plants, gymnosperm plants, angiosperm plants, fruit and vegetable. In addition, the pre-service education did not seem to have an important effect on correction of prospective teachers’ misconceptions about classification of plants. In this context, prospective teachers are graduated with misconceptions about classification of plants. Key words: biology, classification of plants, misconceptions, prospective teachers.

Using an augmented reality application for teaching plant parts: A case study in 1ˢᵗ-grade primary school students

“…Such misconceptions are likely to be transmitted to their students. If they are not corrected in time, they will also perpetuate incorrect knowledge in the next generation (Yangin et al, 2014).…”

Promoting student interest in plant biology through an inquiry-based module exploring plant circadian rhythm, gene expression, and defense against insects

“…For example, students often view plants as static, not recognizing the dynamic interactions between plants and other organisms or the dynamic processes within plants, or do not recognize the role of genes and gene expression in plants as affecting the phenotype and behavior of plants ( 1 , 6 ). These misconceptions in students are often exacerbated by the prevalence of these misconceptions among science teachers ( 3 , 7 , 8 ), as well as the general lack of interest in plants often exhibited in students, a phenomenon referred to as “plant awareness disparity” ( 9 – 13 ).…”

Development of Biological Macromolecules Three-Tier Test (BM-3T) to Identify Misconceptions of Prospective Science Teachers

“…The misconceptions of prospective science teachers in the field of chemistry include the topic of chemical bonds (Fatokun, 2016), chemical kinetics (Çam, Topçu, & Sülün, 2015), acids and bases (Safo-Adu, 2020), and intermolecular forces (Widiarti et al, 2019). In the field of biology, prospective science teachers experience misconceptions on the topics of plant classification (Yangin et al, 2014), evolution (Karataş, 2020), and photosynthesis (Karakaya et al, 2021), and respiration (Susanti, 2018). Nevertheless, research on the misconceptions of science teacher candidates on biological macromolecules topic is still rarely reported.…”

“…Students who give wrong answers and certain the answers are categorized as misconceptions. Misconceptions are also referred to as alternative conceptions, naive beliefs, preconceptions, alternative frameworks, erroneous ideas, multiple private versions of science, personal models of reality, spontaneous reasoning, spontaneous knowledge, common-sense concepts, underlying sources of error, and children science (Yangin et al, 2014).…”