Taiwanese Students’ Alternative Conceptions of Animal Biodiversity

Yen, Chiung-Fen; Yao, Tsung‐Wei; Mintzes, Joel J.

doi:10.1080/09500690601073418

Cited by 36 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…what actually happened was that a large number of the participants did not know the meaning of invertebrate, this is the same as was found in previous research work (Trowbridge & Mintzes, 1985, 1988Yen et al, 2007).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 78%

“…And birds and mammals were the best known animals. This is consistent with children' ideas (Barrow, 2002;Braund, 1991Braund, , 1998Shepardson, 2002;Trowbridge & Mintzes, 1985, 1988Yen et al, 2007).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 74%

“…The class of birds is the most well-known group of living organisms, this is in agreement with Prokop et al (2007) Yen et al, 2007). Unlike aboriginal children in China who used mainly examples of the animals they saw on TV or in movies, this indicates that the aboriginal children either lacked confidence in their own life experience, or were misled by mainstream culture (Chen & Ku, 1998).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 52%

“…Students should understand from the very beginning of their education that success in conservation requires an understanding of the interactions between wildlife and human populations, so that they can confront the challenge of upholding and improving future quality of life. However, research carried out in this field in different countries shows that students, whether they are in elementary, secondary or higher education, have serious problems in recognizing what an animal is (Bell & Barker, 1982;Trowbridge & Mintzes, 1985), in classifying animals (Braund, 1991;Kattmann, 2001;Yen, Yao, & Mintzes, 2007) and in classifying different groups of animals (vertebrate/ invertebrate: Braund, 1998;Trowbridge & Mintzes, 1988). Several research studies have dealt with specific groups of animals, especially vertebrates (Tunnicliffe & Reiss, 1999), birds (Prokop, Kubiatko, & Fančovičová, 2007), amphibians and reptiles (Yen, Yao, & Chiu, 2004), while fewer have concentrated on insects or spiders (Barrow, 2002;Shepardson, 1997Shepardson, , 2002.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Preservice teachers' conceptions about animals and particularly about spiders

Jambrina

Vacas²,

Sánchez-Barbudo³

2017

EJREP

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 78%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 74%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 52%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Preservice teachers' conceptions about animals and particularly about spiders

Jambrina

Vacas²,

Sánchez-Barbudo³

2017

EJREP

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show abstract

“…Yen et al(2007) ․Tigers seem much closer to animals than plants. ․Many tigers were hunted before, so they remain as an endangered species.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

An Analysis of Science-gifted Elementary School Students' Ontological Understanding of 'Living Things'

Kim¹

2015

Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education

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This study aims to analyze science-gifted elementary students' understanding of 'Living Things' with ontological domains. As research subjects, this study selected 80 science-gifted students who belonged to Education Institute for Science-gifted Elementary Students at University of Education, and this study came to the following conclusions. Firstly, the gifted students thought of animals as living things most, out of which humans accounted for the highest rate. They were also found to evaluate the importance of living things depending on benefits and harms to humans. Secondly, when judging 4 domains of living things, animals, plants, static inanimate objects and dynamic inanimate objects, the gifted students did not have difficulty judging animals, plants and static inanimate objects, but 4 of them judged the moon, a dynamic inanimate object, as a living thing. In the aspect of reaction time, they spent more time judging plants than animals. This study classified their standards of judgement on living things into ontological categories. As a result, it was found that 31 and 33 out of them had standards of judgement corresponding to the category of matter and the category of process respectively, and only 16 of them had standards of judgement corresponding to the category of mental states. Thirdly, how to make a waterwheel and images of euglena and paramecium were shown to 10 of the gifted students who suggested simple movements as characteristics of living things. As a result, 7 of them changed their standards of judgement from the category of matter to the category of process, while 3 of them changed from the category of matter to the category of mental states.

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Is being familiar with biodiversity related to reasoning about ecology?

Hartley

Doherty

et al. 2018

Ecosphere

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Many science educators believe that student recognition of biodiversity is an important precursor to discovering patterns and understanding processes that define and shape ecological systems. We investigated (1) the total number, taxonomic categories, specificity, and diversity of backyard organisms that middle (MS) and high school (HS) students and teachers named, (2) how the number, specificity, and diversity of organisms that students and teachers named related to their overall performance on an ecology learning progression assessment, and (3) the types of information students used to sort and group organisms. Our sample population included 264 MS students, 374 HS students, and 108 teachers in five U.S. states (California, Colorado, Maryland, Michigan, and New York). We found that students were more likely to name vertebrates than plants or microorganisms, while teachers were more likely to name vertebrate and plants than microorganisms. Teachers named a higher total number (richness) and diversity of organisms and named more organisms in specific (e.g., bull snake) than general taxonomic categories (e.g., snake) than did students. Individual performance on the ecology learning progression assessment was positively correlated to the total number (richness), diversity, and specificity of organisms that students and teachers could name. The types of information students invoked to group organisms together varied by question context. Most students invoked information related to form/outward traits, habitat, function (e.g., decomposer), and taxa (e.g., fungi, plant, animal). Notably, some students invoked ideas about evolutionary relationships among organisms. This work corroborates previous findings about student familiarity with biodiversity and provides preliminary evidence that familiarity with local biodiversity is linked to reasoning about ecology.

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Taiwanese Students’ Alternative Conceptions of Animal Biodiversity

Cited by 36 publications

References 12 publications

Preservice teachers' conceptions about animals and particularly about spiders

Preservice teachers' conceptions about animals and particularly about spiders

An Analysis of Science-gifted Elementary School Students' Ontological Understanding of 'Living Things'

Is being familiar with biodiversity related to reasoning about ecology?

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