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What do Brazilian school children know about birds in their country?

Bartoszeck, A; Vandrovieski, W; Tratch, V; Czelusniak, F; Tunnicliffe, SD; (2018) What do Brazilian school children know about birds in their country? European Journal of Educational Research , 7 (3) pp. 485-499. 10.12973/eu-jer.7.3.485. Green open access

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Abstract

Children have a basic knowledge of birds that they observe during their everyday life either in their garden, other gardens, round the house, walking in the local area or in the yard on school gardens. A total of 515 children, aged 3 to 16 (249 girls and 266 boys) enrolled in southern Brazilian public preschools, primary school and secondary schools, were invited to participate in this exploratory study. A semi-structured interview was conducted with 206 pupils asking to name which birds they knew, where they had seen these birds, which ones live around home, which they had seen further away. Additionally, they were asked which birds they knew from a list and the source of this knowledge where they had learned about the birds. They were asked to draw on a sheet of paper a representation of what the word “bird” meant to them. Results show the importance of everyday observations rather than beyond formal education in the children knowledge. Children from the earliest years notice birds in their everyday lives, and build a bank of knowledge, gradually acquiring an understanding of adaptation to a variety of habitats. Children notice birds in their lives to differing extent and sources according to the culture in which they are immersed. Experiences of seeing or finding out about birds are encapsulated for many children in the form of narratives and contribute to their mental models of birds and their habitats on which they will drew in formal science later (Biology and Environmental Education). Educational implications are discussed.

Type: Article
Title: What do Brazilian school children know about birds in their country?
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.12973/eu-jer.7.3.485
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.12973/eu-jer.7.3.485
Language: English
Additional information: EUJER is an Open Access journal, all articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. This licence allows authors and readers to use all articles, data sets, graphics and appendices in data mining applications, search engines, web sites, blogs and other platforms by providing appropriate reference (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Keywords: Children, birds, mental model, drawings
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10053028
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