Young children’s understanding of plant life: a study exploring rural–urban differences in their drawings

Villarroel, José Domingo; Antón, Álvaro; Zuazagoitia, Daniel; Nuño, Teresa

doi:10.1080/00219266.2017.1385505

Cited by 21 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Prokop et al, 2007b) or interviews (Gelert, 1962) to examine students' understanding of various biological phenomena. The method of drawing in science education was also commonly used, either in combination with other methods (interviews: Dikmenli, 2010;Strommen, 1995;Teixeira, 2000;Villarroel & Infante, 2014;written responses: Çelikler & Aksan, 2014;Özsevgeç, 2007), or alone (Bartoszeck, Machado, & Amann-Gainotti, 2008;Patrick & Tunnicliffe, 2010;Prokop et al, 2007b;Reiss & Tunnicliffe, 2001;Tunnicliffe & Reiss, 1999, Villarroel, 2016Villarroel et al, 2018).…”

Section: Problem Of Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Fančovičová

Prokop

2019

JBSE

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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.

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Section: Problem Of Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Fančovičová

Prokop

2019

JBSE

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“…Further research might consider the study of the drawings that children of the same age range carry out on different themes to confirm whether the same model of occurrence of symmetry is found. Moreover, this study mentions nothing regarding the influence that cultural and contextual variables might have in the kind of symmetrical patterns that young children draw, a topic that previous research has proved to have an impact on children's graphical expression [47]. In addition, further research should also examine the opportunities that continuous symmetry measures offer to analyse quantitatively the symmetry of the motifs that young children display in their pictures [59,60].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…The process of pinpointing symmetries in the children's drawings was based on the examination of the pictorial motifs appearing in their pictures. A pictorial motif, in accordance with previous research linked to the analysis of the content of young children's drawings [22,29,47], is considered to be the graphical representation of a certain entity, both physical (e.g., a tree) or abstract (e.g., a decorative pattern), which displays a distinctive level of independence in the picture. Thus, for instance, a flower appearing in a picture is regarded as a pictorial motif as it represents a particular physical entity, which, plausibly, looks to be singled out from the other parts of the drawing.…”

Section: Regarding the Encoding Criteria On Symmetrical Motifsmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…Of special relevance in this context is the phenomenon of the spontaneous depiction of symmetrical motifs by young children. Drawing is a natural activity for most children that allows them to communicate and demonstrate their understandings, even when oral expression might not be as easy, as well as providing parents, educators and researchers with a window into children's view of the world [45][46][47]. Accordingly, studying the fact that young children instinctively represent symmetrically arranged pictorial motifs should provide developmental information in connection with the conceptualisation of symmetry in early years.…”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Symmetrical Motifs in Young Children’s Drawings: A Study on Their Representations of Plant Life

2018

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Young children love drawing; this is without question. Besides that, drawings are also of interest to scholars and educators, since they seem to provide food for thought regarding children’s conceptual development during their early education. Different approaches are taken when it comes to analysing children’s drawings but insufficient attention has been given to the issue of the spontaneous depictions of symmetrical motifs in young children’s drawings. This pictorial phenomena might not go unnoticed by parents and teachers but the fact is that the scientific community has no reliable data regarding how children under 8 naturally draw symmetrical patterns to express themselves graphically. Accordingly, the present study analyses 116 drawings undertaken by children between 4 and 7 on a well-known natural issue in early childhood such as plant life. Pictorial motifs displaying both cyclic and dihedral symmetries were found in the pictorial sample under examination and the data gathered is put in perspective with the gender and educational level variables. The results of the study show that symmetry, particularly, dihedral symmetry, is a very common pictorial practice in the sample and, also, that the occurrence of symmetrical motifs displays a relationship with the independent variables considered in the study.

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“…The initial contact with the students took place in their normal classroom and various steps were taken to ensure their comfort and well-being, such as the use of stuffed animals. They have been used in previous studies [20,21] with similar accommodation and preparatory sessions to support the participation of very young children in a research activity. Below is a description of the background to these phases, an explanation of the material used and the procedure followed.…”

Section: Interviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental Awareness and Its Relationship with the Concept of the Living Being: A Longitudinal Study

2018

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Abstract:There is currently a growing theoretical discussion about the foundations that underlie the development of environmental awareness and nature care in early childhood. The aim of this study is to analyze how the environmental concerns of young children emerge and evolve during early childhood and whether these concerns are connected to an understanding of the biological notion of the living being. This study is designed to address methodological limitations of previous studies through a longitudinal axis and an extensive age sample. A sample of 178 children between the ages of four and nine participated at two different testing times for a period of one year. The methodology includes the categorization of various images of living beings and inert entities in order to analyze their understanding of living organisms. Dilemmas involving environmental, moral and socio-conventional situations are presented to examine and compare how young children view transgressions against plant life. The results reveal that young children's judgments about environmental behaviors may arise before the development of an understanding of the concept of the living being. It is therefore proposed that this type of understanding does not support environmental awareness. Previous research indicates that complex biological concepts may be successfully introduced at the preschool age, provided that suitable educational interventions are designed for the initial stages of education. In this regard, there is evidence that a basic understanding of the issue of the ecological interactions among organisms may be achieved in the preschool years.

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Young children’s understanding of plant life: a study exploring rural–urban differences in their drawings

Cited by 21 publications

References 36 publications

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

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

Symmetrical Motifs in Young Children’s Drawings: A Study on Their Representations of Plant Life

Environmental Awareness and Its Relationship with the Concept of the Living Being: A Longitudinal Study

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