Branches of plant blindness and their relationship with biodiversity conceptualisation among secondary students

ABSTRACT

Although citizenship’s literacy in biodiversity is a promising way of confronting its loss, the unawareness about this topic is generalised particularly regarding plants. The latter phenomenon, named Plant Blindness (PB), not only refers to the inability to notice and identify the surrounding plants, but also to the lack of knowledge about the basics of plant biology and to the subsequent ignorance of the value of plants. Hence, the aim of this research has been to assess whether secondary students experience PB and to analyse if this phenomenon can be interrelated with their conceptualisation and attitudes towards biodiversity.

For this purpose, 63 secondary students took a mixed closed- and open-ended questionnaire on different aspects of biodiversity and plant biology. The results revealed that, despite conceptualisation of biodiversity and plant literacy increased during secondary education, most students presented PB ‘symptoms’. Moreover, some of the dimensions studied were interrelated, such as comprehension of biodiversity and different aspects of plant knowledge. Therefore, these results indicate that PB has multiple branches which are not only related to plant topics sensu stricto, but also include biodiversity; which can provide novel insights into the appropriate approach to the plant blindness issue from an educational perspective.

KEYWORDS:

• Plant blindness
• biodiversity education
• phenomenography
• species literacy
• compulsory and post-compulsory secondary education

Acknowledgments

This study has been partially supported by the Basque Government through the Science, Technology and Mathematics Education Research Group (STEMERG, IT1349-19) and conducted in the framework of the Campus Bizia Lab program (Campus Living Lab for Sustainability) driven by the Sustainability Directorate of the Vice-Chancellor's Office for Innovation, Social Commitment and Social Action from the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU).

Disclosure Statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.