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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Concepts of conservation: a study of the understandings of first-year science students |
Authors: | Parkinson, J. Stears, M. |
Year: | 2008 |
Periodical: | Africa Education Review |
Volume: | 5 |
Issue: | 1 |
Pages: | 1-19 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | South Africa |
Subjects: | nature conservation students attitudes curriculum secondary education |
External link: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/18146620802121485 |
Abstract: | This article examines the conceptions first-year science students at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South African, hold of conservation, as expressed in an assignment based on assigned reading and classroom discussion. Using an interpretive framework, it categorizes these student conceptions broadly into those that are 'environmentally-oriented' and those that are 'human-oriented'. It further attempts to determine whether those conceptions that originated outside the assigned reading and what was taught in class, could plausibly have originated from the school curriculum. Data were obtained by analysis of students' posters as well as analysis of selected school curricula. The results show that the school curricula as conceptualized in the Curriculum Statements foreground a particular view of conservation that may influence the beliefs that first-year students bring to their university courses. The article then explores the implications of the findings for conservation in South Africa. One aspect that is foregrounded as contributing to students' conceptions of conservation is the lack of experiential learning at school level. App., bibliogr., sum. [Journal abstract] |