Undergraduate student conceptions of climate change impacts on animals
Undergraduate student conceptions of climate change impacts on animals
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DOI：
10.1002/ecs2.3706
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发表时间：
2021-08
期刊：
影响因子：
2.7
通讯作者：
E. Holt;Ashley B. Heim;J. Sexton;Krystal Hinerman
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
E. Holt;Ashley B. Heim;J. Sexton;Krystal Hinerman
气候变化是一个关键的环境问题，是美国生态学会四维生态教育框架中推荐的核心概念。有限的工作描述了K-12学生对气候变化的生物影响的概念，但缺乏研究来探讨本科生对这一主题的概念。我们的目标是描述本科生对气候变化的生物后果的概念，并描述这些学生对动物对气候变化的反应的概念如何与公认的科学思想相一致。我们使用了一个解释性的定性研究设计，并采访了13名本科生谁是在生物学或普通生态学课程的入门注册。通过对同一数据集进行两次独立的编码，我们分别解决了每个研究目标。在这项研究之前，我们确定了气候变化的三个一般生物结果，这些结果得到了外部专家的证实：动物的生长和生存，繁殖或分布的变化。我们的学生受访者作为一个整体提到了所有这三个结果，大多数人在他们的回答中提到了所有这三个。此外，我们发现，大多数学生的想法与科学概念，而三分之一的学生的想法包含一些科学概念，但不完整。在我们的样本中，只有一小部分概念被认为是与公认的科学思想不一致的替代概念。这些发现对于教授气候变化的教育工作者来说很重要，因为它们表明本科生带着富有成效的资源来到我们的课堂;然而，我们的研究结果也确定了学生可能会挣扎或进入教室的概念。
Climate change is a critical environmental issue and is a recommended core concept in the Ecological Society of America’s 4‐Dimensional Ecology Education framework. Limited work describes K‐12 students’ conceptions of the biotic impacts of climate change, yet research is lacking to explore undergraduate students’ conceptions on this topic. Our goal was to describe undergraduate student conceptions of the biotic outcomes of climate change, and characterize how these student conceptions of animal responses to climate change align with accepted scientific ideas. We used an interpretive qualitative research design and interviewed 13 undergraduate students who were enrolled in either an introductory biology or general ecology course. Through two independent codings of the same dataset, we separately addressed each of our research goals. Prior to this study, we identified three general biotic outcomes from climate change, which were confirmed by outside experts: changes to an animal’s Growth and Survival, their Reproduction, or their Distribution. Our student interviewees as a whole mentioned all three of these outcomes, and most individuals mentioned all three in their responses. Additionally, we found that most student ideas were aligned with Scientific conceptions, while a third of student ideas contained some scientific conceptions but were incomplete. Only a small percent of conceptions voiced in our sample were identified as alternative conceptions that did not align with accepted scientific ideas. These findings are important for educators who teach climate change, as they suggest that undergraduate students come to our classes with productive resources; however, our findings also identify concepts where students may struggle or enter classrooms with a more incomplete understanding.