Young Children's Inductive Inferences Within Animals Are Affected by Whether Animals Are Presented Anthropomorphically in Films.

Children are exposed to anthropomorphized animals in a variety of contexts. The literature that analyzes this phenomenon suggests that exposure to anthropomorphic media may strengthen children's anthropocentric representation of animals. There is an as yet unexplored difference between anthropomorphized and realistic depictions of multiple animal species presented simultaneously in films. The anthropomorphized animals all behave like humans, so they are more behaviorally similar to one another than animals depicted realistically. We asked whether witnessing multiple species depicted anthropomorphically or realistically influences the way 5-year-old children perceive internal commonalities among animals. One group of children (n = 37) watched a cartoon presenting multiple species of anthropomorphized animals, the other group (n = 38) watched a nature documentary that also presented multiple species. Both groups extended a novel internal feature from an animal to a variety of items including diverse animal species. Children watching a cartoon made significantly stronger projections to non-human animals than children watching the documentary. Children's projections to humans and inanimate objects did not differ between the groups and were uniformly low. One of the possible explanations of the results is in terms of children's essentialist expectation that behavior is caused by internal properties.

What Can We Do for Amphibians and Reptiles at Schools? Between Personal Conceptions, Conceptual Change and Students' Pro-Environmental Attitudes.

Students' conceptions and conceptual change are deeply investigated phenomena, and the results of such studies can be implemented in the didactic process. For this research, amphibians and reptiles were chosen, because they are animals which are significant for ecosystems but at the same time are often confused with each other. The goal of this study was to investigate students' conceptions about both groups, and on the basis of the results to design a teaching sequence (TS) which could lead to conceptual and attitudinal change. Authors used questionnaires and in-depth interviews to investigate conceptions and the results of the intervention. The significant correlations show that students tend to classify animals as amphibians or reptiles according to their skin and their living environment. Students' conceptions about animals indicate a tendency of being focused on purposefulness towards environment and evolution, and therefore can be considered an essentialist approach. The alternative conceptions did not change much after intervention, and results did not differ between age or gender groups. On the other hand, conceptions after intervention were more developed, and students asked more diverse questions about evolution and environmental protection, indicating their growing interest in these animals and attitudinal change.

Teaching about Water Relations in Plant Cells: An Uneasy Struggle.

University students often struggle to understand the role of water in plant cells. In particular, osmosis and plasmolysis appear to be challenging topics. This study attempted to identify student difficulties (including misconceptions) concerning osmosis and plasmolysis and examined to what extent the difficulties could be revised during a plant physiology course. A questionnaire was developed to monitor university students' conceptual knowledge before and after a course, and both qualitative and quantitative data were obtained. The data were analyzed using the constant comparison technique and descriptive statistics. Students were found to come to university with many misconceptions that had accumulated during their education. These misconceptions are extremely difficult to change during the traditional course, which comprises lectures and practical exercises. Students' misconceptions originate from commonly used sources such as textbooks, which are perceived as being reliable. Effective teaching of water relations in plant cells could include such didactic methods as "questioning the author," which allow teachers to monitor students' knowledge and help students acquire a more scientific understanding of key concepts.