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School Students’ Conceptions about Biodiversity Loss: Definitions, Reasons, Results and Solutions

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Abstract

Environmental degradation stemming from anthropocentric causes threatens the biodiversity more than ever before, leading scholars to warn governments about the impending consequences of biodiversity loss (BL). At this point, it is of great importance to study the public’s conceptions of BL in order to identify significant educational implications. However, a review of the literature reveals a relatively small body of research about the public understanding of BL. In this qualitative study, we thus strived to elicit Turkish school students’ conceptions about BL using a written questionnaire including open-ended questions with respect to the definition of biodiversity as well as reasons for, results of and solutions to BL. The sample consisted of 245 school students in a relatively small city. A two-staged content analysis was run on the responses. The results showed that school students most commonly preferred species-focused definitions of biodiversity and understood BL through such various conceptual patterns as, ‘balance of nature’, ‘forest’, ‘global warming’, ‘hunting’ and ‘indirect conservation’. At the end of the paper, the possible educational implications and future perspectives were discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Science Education Department, Abant Izzet Baysal University School of Education, Bolu, Turkey

    Ahmet Kilinc

  2. Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey

    Namik Kemal Yeşiltaş

  3. Ahi Evran University, Kirşehir, Turkey

    Tezcan Kartal & Ümit Demiral

  4. Aksaray University, Aksaray, Turkey

    Baris Eroğlu

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  1. Ahmet Kilinc
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  2. Namik Kemal Yeşiltaş
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  3. Tezcan Kartal
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  5. Baris Eroğlu
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Correspondence to Ahmet Kilinc.

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Kilinc, A., Yeşiltaş, N.K., Kartal, T. et al. School Students’ Conceptions about Biodiversity Loss: Definitions, Reasons, Results and Solutions. Res Sci Educ 43, 2277–2307 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-013-9355-0

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