article How Do Elementary School Pupils Perceive Deserts?
Petr Trahorsch, Dominika Trhlíková
information
year: 2021
issue: 4
fulltext: PDF
online publishing date: 17/2/2022
DOI: 10.14712/25337556.2021.4.4
ISSN (Online): 2533-7556
Toto dílo podléhá licenci Creative Commons Uveďte původ 4.0 Mezinárodní License.
abstract
The aim of the present study is to identify children‘s conceptions of the desert and the main misconceptions associated with this biome. The secondary aim is to discover what factors play a key role in shaping children‘s conceptions of the desert. The study is based on the conceptual framework of cognitive psychology, psychodidactics and the subject didactics of geography. A combination of the analysis of children‘s drawings and interviews was used to fulfil the stated aims. A total of 66 children‘s drawings of the desert were analyzed, from which 20 of their authors were selected for a subsequent interview, which focused on the causes of the outline of individual elements. The research participants were 11-year-old elementary school pupils. The results of the study suggest that children‘s conceptions of the desert (lower secondary school students) are very similar: pupils imagine a sandy desert with minimal rainfall and a clear or partly cloudy sky; a typical animal for them is a camel, typical plants are a cactus and a palm tree. The interview showed that the main reasons for shaping children‘s conceptions of the desert are the media and personal experience; secondarily, it influences the formation of children‘s conceptions and school teaching/learning. At the end of the article, recommendations for teachers on how to work with children‘s conceptions of the desert are presented; it seems appropriate to combine several sources of information, especially different types of visuals showing the differentiation of this biome.
keywords
desert, children‘s conceptions, misconceptions, children‘s drawings
fulltext (PDF )
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