Session Information
09 SES 05 C, Interactive Poster Session
Interactive Poster Session
Contribution
The study is focused on the investigation of common misconceptions of lower secondary school pupils regarding to photosynthesis and plant respiration. These are abstract concepts and prove to be hard acquirable terms, not only for pupils. In this study misconceptions are understood as alternative student’s conceptions, children’s conceptions or misunderstanding.
People often hold misconceptions about natural phenomena for the whole life. To overcome misconceptions pupils must become aware of the scientific conceptions, the evidence that bears on the validity of their misconceptions and the scientific conceptions, and they must be able to generate the logical relationships among the evidence and alternative conceptions (Lawson, Thompson, 1988).
Researches of pupils’ and students’ misconceptions about photosynthesis and plant respiration are widely studied topics all over the world. Already in 1987 Haslam and Treagust published the research of misconceptions of australian students of Years 8-12 (13-17 years old). Purpose of their study was to descibe the development of a two-tier instrument to reliably and validly diagnose secondary students’ understanding of photosynthesis and respiration in plants. The results indicate that a high percentage of secondary students do not comprehend the nature and function of respiration and have little understanding of the relationship between photosynthesis and respiration in plants. Similar results were gained by Özay and Öztas (2003) by Turkish 14-15 years old students which used questionaire with seven open-ended questions, and Marmaroti and Galanopoulou (2006) by Greek pupils aged 13 which used a similar questionaire like Özay and Öztas. The results showed that pupils and students have conflicting, and offen incorrect, ideas about photoynthesis and respiration, even after teaching.
The main aim of the present pilot study is to find out level of lower secondary pupils’ misconceptions about photosynthesis and plant respiration with respect to the year of study, gender and attitudes towards biology.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Haslam, F., & Treagust, D.F. (1987). Diagnosing secondary students´ misconceptions of photosynthesis and respiration in plants using a two-tier multiple choice instrument. Journal of Biological Education, 21(3), 203-211. Lawson, A.E., & Thompson, L.D. (1988). Formal reasoning ability and misconceptions concerning genetics and natural selection. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 25(9), 733-746. Marmaroti, P., & Galanopoulou, D. (2006). Pupils’ understanding of photosynthesis: A questionnaire for the simultaneous assessment of all aspects. International Journal of Science Education, 28 (4), 383-403. Özay, E., & Öztaz, H. (2003). Secondary students´ interpretations of photosynthesis and plant nutrition. Journal of Biological Education, 37(2), 68-70.
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