Young Slovenian learners’ knowledge about animal diversity on different continents

Torkar, Gregor; Mavrič, Irma

doi:10.20876/ijobed.07914

Cited by 8 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…We noticed that animals were often displaced from their natural environment, as most stories took place in human-altered settings, and the few books that did portray natural landscapes usually displayed highly simplified habitats. This links to studies reporting misconceptions in children about the places where animals occur ( Strommen, 1995 ; Torkar, 2016 ). Moreover, animals regularly ate human food and were portrayed alongside species that they would never encounter in the wild.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 77%

Animal biodiversity and specificity in children’s picture books

Hooykaas¹,

Holierhoek²,

Westerveld

et al. 2022

Public Underst Sci

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While animal biodiversity is declining globally, cultural representations of animals are highly prevalent in society and play an increasing part in shaping children’s perceptions of animal diversity. We studied animal portrayals in children’s picture books in the Netherlands, and coded over 2,200 animals from 217 award-winning books. We found a strong bias toward vertebrates, mammals in particular. Mammals were featured more often than other animals, played more prominent roles in the story, and were visually and textually specified more strongly. Furthermore, exotic and domestic species outnumbered native species. Picture books currently are likely to reinforce children’s perceptions toward only a small part of animal biodiversity. While we realize that picture books have other primary aims, picture book makers could be inspired and encouraged to diversify and specify their portrayals of the natural world. This would broaden children’s perceptions of the animal kingdom and could help foster lasting connections to biodiversity.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 77%

Animal biodiversity and specificity in children’s picture books

Hooykaas¹,

Holierhoek²,

Westerveld

et al. 2022

Public Underst Sci

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show abstract

“…Again, the results of many studies conducted in different countries reveal that primary and secondary school students demonstrated deficiency in terms of biodiversity knowledge (Huxham et. al., 2006;Torkar, 2016;Köksal & Gebelek, 2019;Hooykass, et all, 2021). According to Buijs et al, (2008), determining students' biodiversity knowledge levels should be considered important as it determines their ways of taking responsibility for the environment.…”

Section: Rq1 What Is the Biodiversity Literacy Mean Scores Of The Par...mentioning

confidence: 99%

An Investigation of Secondary School Students’ Biodiversity Literacy Level

Efe

2022

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The quality of life sustained by human beings is largely possible thanks to the opportunities offered by the biodiversity resources in nature. It is widely accepted that the continuation of this lifestyle largely depends on the sustainable use of consumed and destroyed natural resources. Therefore, teaching biodiversity becomes an important element of science teaching. In this context, it is important to reveal the biodiversity literacy levels of the new generation. This study aims to investigate secondary school students’ biodiversity literacy levels. The descriptive survey method, one of the quantitative research methods, was used in the research. A total of 787 secondary school students studying at state schools during 2021-2022 academic year participated in the research. “Biodiversity Literacy Assessment Instrument” was used as a data collection tool in the study. Independent t-test was used to compare gender scores while one-way ANOVA was used to compare student scores based on their grades, students’ feelings about studying biodiversity, and understanding problems related to biodiversity. Tukey HSD test was used to determine the direction of significance in multiple comparisons. The findings revealed that while secondary school students’ scores for attitudes toward biodiversity were high, their biodiversity knowledge levels were low. Also, female students gained higher scores for “the conservation and importance of biodiversity”, “ethics and biodiversity” and “sustainability and biodiversity” sub-dimensions of biodiversity literacy scale in comparison to male students. Additionally, the study found that participant students’ biodiversity literacy scale scores differed based on students’ years of study. The study has implications for teaching biodiversity that include activities to help students take responsibility for the protection of biodiversity and the place of biodiversity in the national curriculum.

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“…To develop adequate mental representations about animals, it is first important to name animals correctly. To attain this aim, children's personal experience with animals, gained in a family environment (usually through television, books, and the Internet; see Torkar & Mavrič 2016) should be coupled with didactically modeled activities in kindergartens, such as studying some animals using a magnifying glass, examining enlarged images and photos of animals, and making models of animals by using different materials. Secondly, these mental representations have to capture basic knowledge about the appearance of animals and their feeding habits.…”

Section: Implications For Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

Mental Representations of Preschool Children About Different Animals

Miscevic-Kadijevic

2017

JBSE

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Adequate mental representations of animals are important for children’s personal development, because they result in their appropriate treatment of such animals, which would not, for example, compromise either animals’ or children’s safety. By using a convenient sample of 101 six- to seven-year old children, this research examined these representations regarding animals’ names, feeding habits, body coverings, and dangerousness. The representations were assessed using a questionnaire referring to 18 animals, and the research focused on the frequency of correct responses and gender differences in these responses for each animal. It was found that whereas the naming of animals was very successful, the mental representations of animals’ feeding habits and body coverings were less mature, including some misconceptions not found in previous studies. In addition, the participants’ explanations about why animals are dangerous or harmless revealed that their mental representations about different animals were correct to a moderate degree. Finally, gender differences in the mental representations were almost missing. Some implications for school or kindergarten work with children are given (e.g., reducing misconceptions about and fear of some animals). Keywords: didactically modeled activities, mental representations of animals, preschool children, preschool education.

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Young Slovenian learners’ knowledge about animal diversity on different continents

Cited by 8 publications

References 22 publications

Animal biodiversity and specificity in children’s picture books

Animal biodiversity and specificity in children’s picture books

An Investigation of Secondary School Students’ Biodiversity Literacy Level

Mental Representations of Preschool Children About Different Animals

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