Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Drawing for Science Education pp 147–154Cite as

Changes in Children’s Knowledge about their Internal Anatomy Between First and Ninth Grades

  • Chapter

Abstract

Effective teaching in science requires insight into students’ personal understanding of natural phenomena (Bennett, 2003). Students come to school with numerous personal experiences and beliefs as well as personal knowledge about how the world works. Such personal knowledge may be regarded as their own scientific ideas (Colburn, 2000). Children’s own ideas tend to persist after formal instruction because they are based on their everyday experience of these natural phenomena.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Ausubel, D. (1968). Educational psychology: A cognitive view. New York, NY: Holt, Rhinehart and Winston.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bahar, M., Ozel, M., Prokop, P., & Usak, M. (2008). Science student teachers’ ideas of the heart. Journal of Baltic Science Education, 7(2), 78–85.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bennett, J. (2003). Teaching and learning science. London: Continuum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cerrah Özsevgeç, L. (2007). What do Turkish students at different ages know about their internal bod parts both visually and verbally? Journal of Turkish Science Education, 4(2), 31–44.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clements, W., & Barrett, M. (1994). The drawings of children and young people with Down’s Syndrome: A case of delay or difference? British Journal of Educational Psychology, 64(3), 441–452.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Colburn, A. (2000). Constructivism: Science education’s “Grand Unifying Theory”. Clearing House, 74, 9–12.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cuthbert, A. J. (2000). Do children have a holistic view of their internal body maps? School Science Review, 8, 25–32.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dempster, E. R., & Reddy, V. (2007). Item readability and science achievement in the TIMSS 2003 study in South Africa. Science Education, 91, 906–925.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dempster, E. R., & Zuma, S. C. (2010). Reasoning used by isiZulu-speaking children when answering science questions in English. Journal of Education, 50, 35–39.

    Google Scholar 

  • Desautels, J., & La Rochelle, M. (1998). The epistemology of students: The “Thingified” nature of scientific knowledge. In B. Fraser & K. Tobin (Eds.), International handbook of science education (pp. 115–126). Great Britain: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Driver, R., Squires, A., Rushworth, P., & Wood-Robinson, V. (Eds.). (1994). Making sense of secondary science: Research into children’s ideas. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Duit, R., & Treagust, D. (1998). Learning in science– from behaviourism towards social constructivism and beyond. In B. Fraser & K. Tobin (Eds.), International handbook of science education (pp. 3–25). Great Britain: Kluwer Academic Publishers

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Enochson, P. G., Redfors, A., Dempster, E. R., & Tibell, L. (2012, October 29–November 3). Ideas about the human body among secondary students in South Africa and Sweden. Paper presented at the XVth Symposium of the International Organisation of Science and Technology Education (IOSTE), Yasmin Hammamet, Tunisia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fleer, M., & Hardy, T. (1993). How can we find out what 3 and 4 year olds think? New approaches to eliciting very young children’s understanding in science. Research in Science Education, 23, 68–76.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gao, L. (1998). Cultural context of school science teaching and learning in the peoples’ republic of China. Science Education, 82, 3–13.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garcia-Barros, S., Martínez-Losada, C., & Garrido, M. (2011). What do children aged four to seven know about the digestive system and the respiratory system of the human being and of other animals? International Journal of Science Education, 33(15), 2095–2122.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gess-Newsome, J., & Lederman, N. G. (1993). Preservice biology teachers’ knowledge structures as a function of professional teacher education: A year long assessment. Science Teacher Education, 77(1), 25–45.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guichard, J. (1995). Designing tools to develop the conceptions of students. International Journal of Science Education, 17(2), 243–253.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hendry, D. G., & King, R. C. (1994). On theory of learning knowledge: Educational implications of advances in neuroscience. Science Education, 78, 223–253.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCaslin, M., & Hickey, D. T. (2001). Educational psychology: Social constructivism, and educational practice: A case of emergent identity. Educational Psychologist, 36, 133–140.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meachum, S. J. (2001). Vygotsky and the blues: Re-reading cultural connections and conceptual development. Theory into Practice, 40, 190–197.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mintzes, J. J. (1984). Naive theories in biology: Children’s concepts of the human body. School Science and Mathematics, 84(7), 548–555.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Manokore, V., & Reiss, M. (2003). Pupils’ drawings of what is inside themselves: A case study in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe Journal of Educational Research, 15, 28–43.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nakhleh, M. B. (2011). Using external representations as a research tool. Workshop held at the 19th conference of the Southern African Association for Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education (SAARMSTE), Mafikeng.

    Google Scholar 

  • Novak, J. D., & Musonda, D. (1991). A twelve-year longitudinal study of science concept-learning. American Education Research Journal, 8, 117–153.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ören, F. S. (2011). An analysis of pre-service teachers’ drawings about the digestive system in terms of their gender, grade levels, and opinions about the method and subject. International Journal of Biology Education, 1(1), 1–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Prokop, P., & Fancovicová, J. (2006). Students’ ideas about the human body: Do they really draw what they know? Journal of Baltic Science Education, 2(10), 86–95.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reddy, V., van der Berg, S., Janse van Rensburg, D., & Taylor, S. (2012). Educational outcomes: Pathways and performance in South African high schools. South African Journal of Science, 108. Retrieved June 9, 2013, from http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajs.v108i3/4.620

  • Reiss, M. J., & Tunnicliffe, S. D. (2001). Students’ understanding of human organs and organ systems. Research in Science Education, 31, 383–399.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reiss, M. J., Tunnicliffe, S. D., Anderson, A. M., Bartoszeck, A., Carvalho, G. S., Chen, S- Y., Jarman, R., Jónsson, S., Manokore, V., Marchenko, N., Mulemwa, J., Novikova, T., Otuka, J., Teppa, S., & Rooy, W. V. (2002). An international study of young people’s drawings of what is inside themselves. Journal of Biological Education, 36(2), 18–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Teixera, F. M. (1998). What happens to the food we eat? Children’s conceptions of the structure and function of the digestive system. Proceedings of the second conference of European researchers in didaktik of Biology, University of Göteborg, Sweden.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tunnicliffe, S. D., & Reiss, M. J. (1999). Students’ understandings about animal skeletons. International Journal of Science Education, 21, 1187–1200.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Umalusi. (2010). Evaluating the South African National Senior Certificate in relation to selected international qualifications: A self-referencing exercise to determine the standing of the NSC. Pretoria: Higher Education South Africa.

    Google Scholar 

  • Umalusi. (2014). What’s in the CAPS package? Natural sciences (pp. 24–92). Pretoria: Umalusi Council for Quality Assurance in General and Further Education and Training.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vygotsky, L. (1986). Thought and language (A. Kozulin, Ed.). Cambridge: The MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • White, R., & Gunstone, R. (1992). Probing understanding. London: Falmer Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pinetown and Pietermaritzburg, South Africa

    Michèle Stears

  2. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pinetown and Pietermaritzburg, South Africa

    Edith Roslyn Dempster

Authors
  1. Michèle Stears
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Edith Roslyn Dempster
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Maryland, USA

    Phyllis Katz

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Sense Publishers

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Stears, M., Dempster, E.R. (2017). Changes in Children’s Knowledge about their Internal Anatomy Between First and Ninth Grades. In: Katz, P. (eds) Drawing for Science Education. SensePublishers, Rotterdam. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6300-875-4_13

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6300-875-4_13

  • Publisher Name: SensePublishers, Rotterdam

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-6300-875-4

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation