Pupils\' Drawings of What is Inside Themselves: A Case Study in Zimbabwe

Manokore, Viola; Reiß, Michael

doi:10.4314/zjer.v15i1.26020

Cited by 8 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…This study replicates other similar studies conducted in other parts of the world (Reiss and Tunnicliffe 2001;Reiss et al 2002;Manokore and Reiss 2003) where children were asked to draw what was inside their bodies. The intention was not to use drawings as an assessment tool; rather we wanted to see what learners of this age had learnt about their bodies in an informal way.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 81%

“…The method used in this study was adapted from that developed by Reiss and Tunnicliffe (2001) and used in the international study conducted by Reiss et al (2002) and Manokore and Reiss (2003).…”

Section: Design and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While a large amount of research exists with regard to the use of drawings to probe learners' understanding of biological phenomena (Bahar et al 2008;Garcia-Barros, Martínez-Losada, and Garrido 2011;Manokore and Reiss 2003;Reiss and Tunnicliffe 2001), the number of South African studies is limited. Drawings are useful for investigating learners' understanding in different contexts and about a variety of phenomena.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 98%

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An analysis of children’s drawings of what they think is inside their bodies: a South African regional study

Dempster

Stears

2013

Journal of Biological Education

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The purpose of the study is to find out what a group of seven-year-old South African children understand of their internal anatomy. The research is based on the premise that young children obtain most of their science knowledge through personal experience. Drawings are used to determine the level of young children's knowledge of systems and organs. The study also investigates whether there are significant differences between boys and girls' understanding as well as between children from a range of schooling contexts. Teachers were instructed to ask children to draw what they think is inside their bodies, using the language that is most familiar to the children (English, isiZulu, or isiXhosa). The findings show that children are able to draw individual organs, but are unable to show relationships between them. There were significant differences between different schools, but these differences were not due to different contexts. At Grade 1 level, boys were better able to represent what they thought was inside their bodies than girls. The findings show that the informal knowledge children hold of what is inside their bodies appears to be acquired by informal means, outside the school.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 81%

Section: Design and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 98%

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An analysis of children’s drawings of what they think is inside their bodies: a South African regional study

Dempster

Stears

2013

Journal of Biological Education

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“…It is interesting to note that this kind of description has not been found in the European studies, while it seems to be a common idea among the South African students (Dempster & Stears, 2013). In a smaller study conducted in Zimbabwe (Manokore & Reiss, 2003), the explanatory model involving the lungs was also represented. In this study there was an interesting diversity in the non-scientific descriptions (B category) concerning answers on the drinking of water.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…Other studies have shown that it is difficult for students to see how the different organ systems are connected (Carvalho, Silva, Lima, Coquet & Clément, 2004;Clément, 2003;Manokore & Reiss, 2003;Prokop & Fancovicova, 2006). The specific questions asked in the data collection intend to obtain information about the level of detail in which students understand the organ systems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Ideas about the Human Body among Secondary Students in South Africa

Enochson

Redfors

Dempster

et al. 2015

African Journal of Research in Mathematics, Science and Technol

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In this paper we focus on how South African students' ideas about the human body are constituted in their descriptions of three different scenarios involving the pathway of a sandwich, a painkiller and a glass of water through the body. In particular, we have studied the way in which the students transferred ideas between the sandwich and the painkiller compared with the students' ability to explain the water pathway. The study surveyed 161 ninth-grade students in five different schools in South Africa. Data collection methods used were: drawings, written questions (open-ended items) and interviews with selected students. The questions emerged from the three scenarios-what happens in the body when you eat a sandwich, swallow a painkiller and drink a glass of water. We report that it is difficult for the students to transfer knowledge of the digestive system horizontally from the sandwich scenario to descriptions of the painkiller and water scenarios. The integration of three organ systems (digestive, circulatory and excretory) to describe the water scenario was even more difficult for the students than the horizontal transfer from the sandwich scenario. The students also showed a diversity of nonscientific descriptions, especially concerning the water scenario. The paper discusses why a large percentage of the students (∼50%) included non-scientific ideas in their decriptions of the water scenario.

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The Understanding of Human Anatomy Elicited from Drawings of Some Bangladeshi Village Women and Children

Tunnicliffe

Sarker²

2017

Drawing for Science Education

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This chapter is about conceptual development of a particular biological phenomenon. There has been research conducted on how learners build up an understanding of what is inside the human body. What the learners tell you or draw is their expressed mental model A number of studies have used drawings to elicit the understanding about phenomena because drawings are universal and are a useful too to elicit the understanding of learners of the inside of the human body, e.g. Reiss and Tunnicliffe, (1999), Cuthbert, (2000)Tunnicliffe and Reiss, 2001, Palov et al., (2007) The most studied organ in the human body is the skeleton e.g. studies by Carivita and Falchetti (2005), Guichard (1996). However, it is recognised that some subjects, particularly youngsters or adults with very limited writing and other literacy skills, in particular may have difficulty drawing an outline and in some research an outline of the human body shape has been used. An advantage of using drawings as an approach to discover the level of understanding about human anatomy is that drawings are universal whatever the spoken tongue, the age and educational background This study however was an investigation into the understanding of human organs and their arrangement of as understood by hitherto destitute country women at Sreepur Village in Bangladesh. We asked if they had attended school and, if at all, it had been for a minimum time in a primary school. Only 5% finish primary education in that country (2013). The women were provided with the outline of a human body and invited to indicate, by drawing, the internal organs in their approximate location. They were then asked from where they had acquired this knowledge. It was from peers and communities, not formal education. They understood the presence of the heart, bones and lungs and, unusually when compared with the Western data of learners, some knew about kidneys. Their knowledge reflects a public and utilitarian understanding of human anatomy. The sons of a few women were present in the village, attending the village school, and also drew. Some of the school children at the village completed drawings and interviews. Children who had had received education and the older children knew more organs than their mothers.

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Pupils\' Drawings of What is Inside Themselves: A Case Study in Zimbabwe

Abstract: Abstract

Cited by 8 publications

References 11 publications

An analysis of children’s drawings of what they think is inside their bodies: a South African regional study

An analysis of children’s drawings of what they think is inside their bodies: a South African regional study

Ideas about the Human Body among Secondary Students in South Africa

The Understanding of Human Anatomy Elicited from Drawings of Some Bangladeshi Village Women and Children

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