Children Ideas for "Animal" Compared to Teachers' Conceptions (original) (raw)
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Alternative Conceptions of High School Students about Animal Classification: Vertebrate Animals
Journal of Turkish Science Education, 2011
_______________________________________________________________________________ ÖZET Bu çalışmada, lise öğrencilerinin omurgalı hayvanların sınıflandırılması konusundaki alternatif kavramlarının ve bu kavramların altındaki düşüncelerinin belirlenmesi amaçlanmıştır. Çalışmanın örneklemini 2009-2010 öğretim yılında, Erzurum il merkezindeki 4 farklı lisede öğrenim gören toplam 256 öğrenci oluşturmuştur. Veriler, araştırmacı tarafından geliştirilen, ilk üçü açık uçlu, sonraki 16'sı ise çoktan seçmeli olmak üzere toplam 19 maddelik test formu kullanılarak toplanmıştır. Ayrıca test uygulamasının hemen ardından rastgele seçilen toplam 20 öğrenci ile teste verdikleri cevaplar doğrultusunda yarı yapılandırılmış mülakatlar yapılmıştır. Verilerin analizi sonucunda, öğrencilerin omurgalı hayvanlarla ilgili çok sayıda alternatif kavrama sahip oldukları görülmüştür. Öğrencilerin, hayvanları sınıflandırırken; onların dış görünüşlerini, yaşam alanlarını, beslenme ve hareket şekillerini ve organlarının görev benzerliklerini dikkate aldıkları, yani çoğunlukla yapay sınıflandırma kriterlerine dayalı analojik yaklaşımları kullandıkları belirlenmiştir. Ayrıca günlük konuşma dili ile bilimsel terminoloji arasındaki uyumsuzlukların da alternatif kavramların gelişmesine neden olduğu sonucuna ulaşılmıştır.
Pre-service Teachers' Conceptual Structures and Reasoning Patterns on Animal Classification
Universal Journal of Educational Research, 2016
The main purpose of the study was to investigate pre-service teachers' perceptions of the criteria used to classify animals. In this regard, it was also aimed at exploring conceptual structures and reasoning patterns shaping the pre-service teachers' perceptions. The participants of the present study were 324 pre-service teachers attending science education and biology education departments in Turkey. With the aim of gaining insight into pre-service teachers' perceptions of animal classification, qualitative research method was followed in which the participants were interviewed. In addition to qualitative data, quantitative data were also collected by classification forms and in this way it was aimed to bring variety to analysis results and reinforce them. As a result of the study, the conceptual structures shaping the pre-service teachers' perceptions leading to their evaluations are subsumed under the categories of "morphological, anatomic and physiologic characteristics", "behaviour", "habitat" and "systematic". In light of the findings of the current study, it can be argued that some characteristics of animals were given greater priority while classifying them and this leads to development of some erroneous information and alternative conceptions. More holistic evaluation of the characteristics of animals may allow the development of a better perception of animal classification.
Teaching animal categorization in preschool-ers using typical -non typical educational en-viroments
2012
The aim of this research study is to present the goals, the content and some evaluation elements of a teaching intervention for preschool children concerning animal categorization. The intervention combines typical and non typical educational characteristics and takes place both in the school class and in a zoological museum. More specifically, we will present the cognitive objectives of the intervention which are the following: (a) the familiarization of children with various samples of animals, (b) the movement of children’s ideas from using anthropomorphic or functional criteria to the use of morphological criteria for classification of animal samples, (c) the identification of new samples of animals with one of the constructed categories of animals and (d) the creation of a new class of animals in case of the animal sample does not fit in any of the constructed categories. In this study we will focus on the characteristics of teaching activities which take place during the visit...
1998
This paper begins with a review of previous research into children's classification schema, specifically with regard to the concept of vertebrate/invertebrate, before citing the details of more recent findings with primary aged children. This research explores the concept of vertebrate/invertebrate and how ideas progress across primary and secondary school. Reasons for the apparent lack of awareness of form and function in animals is considered before making some suggestions for improvements that could be made in the science curriculum for primary schools. (Contains 18 references.) (NB)
When humans become animals: Development of the animal category in early childhood
Cognition, 2012
The current study examines 3-and 5-year-olds' representation of the concept we label 'animal' and its two nested concepts-animal contrastive (including only non-human animals) and animal inclusive (including both humans and non-human animals). Building upon evidence that naming promotes object categorization, we introduced a novel noun for two distinct objects, and analyzed children's patterns of extension. In Experiment 1, children heard a novel noun in conjunction with two non-human animals (dog, bird). Here, both 3-and 5-year-olds readily accessed animal contrastive and extended the noun systematically to other (previously un-named) non-human animals. In Experiment 2, children heard a novel noun in conjunction with a human and non-human animal. Here, 5-year-olds (but not 3-year-olds) accessed animal inclusive and extended the noun systematically to humans and non-human animals. These results underscore the developmental challenge facing young children as they identify the scope of the fundamental biological term 'animal' and its corresponding, nested concept(s).
Kindergarten Children’s Perception of Animals Focusing on the Look and Fear of Animals
The study is focusing on the finding out the children’s perceiving of animals from the view of look and fear. The additional aims were to find out the influence of gender and age on the perceiving of animals from the view of look and fear. The sample size was created by the 27 Czech kindergarten children from two kindergartens. The number of 5 years old children was 13 and rest was 6-years old children. The number of boys was 17 and number of girls was 10. The procedure included face-to-face closed interview with every children individually. The ten colored pictures with animals were presented to children. The questions were focused on the identification of animals, evaluation of animals according the look and the fear. There was not find out significant influence of gender and age on the results. In the conclusion of study are suggested some implications.
One animal among many? Children's understanding of the relation between humans and nonhuman animals
2012
How do children come to understand the relation between human and nonhuman animals? This relation is central to endeavors as diverse as scientific reasoning and spiritual practice. Recent evidence reveals that young children appreciate each of the two concepts-human and non-human animal. Yet it remains unclear whether they also appreciate that humans are indeed part of the animal kingdom. In this study, we adopt a cross-cultural, developmental perspective to examine children's interpretation of fundamental biological concepts, focusing on children from three distinctly different US communities (urban European Americans; rural European Americans and rural Native Americans (Menominee) living on ancestral tribal lands) that vary in their habitual contact with the natural world and in their cultural perspective on the human-nonhuman animal relation. Using structured interviews, we trace 160 children's understanding of concepts including 'human,' 'mammal,' and 'animal', and the relations among them. We include 5-to 6-year-olds (who have had relatively little formal science education) and 9to 10-year-olds (who are well into a Western-science curriculum). The results reveal a surprising convergence across all communities: At both ages, children in all communities largely deny that humans are animals. The younger children strictly maintain the uniqueness of humans; the older children accept that humans are mammals (and that mammals are animals) but nonetheless deny that humans are animals. The implications of this finding for our understanding of early cognitive and language development, early
Understanding Students Ideas about Animal Classification
EURASIA Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 2018
Classification is the arrangement of objects such as e.g. organisms, ideas, or information into groups. Its purpose is to make things easier to identify, describe, organize, find and study. Although classification itself is meant to help people to unify or clarify objects they are interested in, publications show that students might find it difficult to classify plants, animals and other organisms. The goal of the study has been to investigate Polish students' conceptions and attitudes towards animal classification and reveal the gaps between these and current scientific knowledge. The study has been conducted by surveys and in-depth interviews of 34 pupils, from primary schools. The research shows that students have similar conceptions about animal classification and also that children see the purpose behind animal classification but find it hard to apply in practice. Moreover, students were using different factors to distinguish animal classes from the ones used by scientific community. For example, they differentiated animals on the basis of: food they consume, respiratory system and utility for humans. Authors suggest that more stress should be put on these aspects during designing lessons about animal classification.
Children's ideas in classifying animals
Journal of Biological Education, 1991
Over much of this century taxonomy has maintained a prominent position in the school science curriculum. Despite this long history of instruction, performance on tasks requiring children to classify animals has often been found to be poor. This article reports on a study carried out with 12-, 14-, and 15-year old pupils, highlighting justifications made for their classifications. The pupils' attitudes to classification and its uses inside and outside school were also probed by means of a questionnaire. Results of the study show that children often have a restricted view of the concepts involved and that their experiences may need to be broadened. The study also shows that personalized uses for classification might improve performance as might a more general competence in observation.