Abstract
In a longitudinal study of pupils’ understanding of conditions for life, growth and decomposition, 23 pupils were interviewed nine times from the age of 9 to 15 years. At the age of 15, the pupils listened to what they had said four years earlier and described how their own understanding had developed. The pupils’ ideas were challenged by studying plants in sealed transparent boxes and by studying leaves and soil from the ground. When they saw that the plants survived in the boxes, they used a ‘cycle model’ to explain how the organisms maintained life-supporting resources. Most pupils thought that soil was the end point for decomposition. As the pupils became older, they developed more diverse conceptions but only a few pupils seemed to understand the exchange of gases between organisms and their environment. Conceptions developed at an early stage seemed to be used as a basis for later concept building. Some features could be followed in the interviews from 9 to 15 years of age.
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© 1999 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Helldén, G. (1999). A Longitudinal Study of Pupils’ Understanding of Conditions for Life, Growth and Decomposition. In: Bandiera, M., Caravita, S., Torracca, E., Vicentini, M. (eds) Research in Science Education in Europe. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9307-6_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9307-6_4
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