To what extent do Turkish high school students know about their body organs and organ systems?

Abstract

This study aimed to determine high school students' familiarity with body organs and knowledge about the systems to which organs belong. It also identifies their misconceptions and deficiencies and discusses their causes. The sample of the study consisted of 244 secondary students. The study used the descriptive survey method. The findings show that the heart, lungs, kidneys and stomach are the best known organs by the students, and that they most often identified organs in the circulatory, respiratory, urinary and digestive systems rather than other systems. In addition, there are no considerable differences between the ninth, tenth, eleventh grade classes and the twelfth grade students’ knowledge and misconceptions about organs and organ systems. The most basic misconceptions identified in this study is that a majority of the students who identified the small intestine, liver, pancreas, anus and intestine thought that these organs were parts of the excretory system. In Turkey's educational system, students are taught the urinary system as the excretory system. This leads students to think that these organs are not elements of the digestive system, but those of the excretory system, which is used to defecate the excretions. For this reason, this study will also discuss this situation.