Students’ conceptions of plant reproduction processes This paper was presented at the ERIDOB conference 2020

Abstract

ABSTRACT Understanding plant reproduction is an important goal in biol ogy education. Unfortunately, various studies show that students have difficulties in connecting the stages of plant reproduction. Students’ conceptions of the processes of sexual reproduction (e.g. pollination and seed dispersal) remain unclear, although these conceptions appear crucial for understanding plant reproduction. Therefore, the current study focuses particularly on students’ conceptions of the processes o f plant reproduction. To assess students’ conceptions, we used open-en ded tasks and analysed the answers through qualitative content analysi s. In this contribution we present the results of the task ‘Open descr iption of plant reproduction’, which asked students to draw and descri be their ideas of plant reproduction. The task was completed by 228 Au strian students from secondary school (age 10–18). The results show th at students often describe only one of the processes involved in repro duction (either pollination or seed dispersal) but rarely describe the correct consecutive order of both processes. Moreover, many students from all age groups mix pollination and seed dispersal. This implies t hat it is necessary to address the confusion of these processes explic itly. The presented task can further help to easily assess students’ c onceptions in class and specifically address students’ difficulties an d needs.