Learning at stations on the secondary level in biology education: the determination of toxic plants

Abstract

The importance of plants for humans is unquestionable and every one of us should have basic knowledge about plants. Learning stations are a very useful tool for understanding the meaning of plants for people. The purpose of the study was to describe the effect of learning stations in practice, their use and whether or not they might help change misconceptions and build accurate content knowledge about toxic plants. The quasi-experimental design was used and the research sample consisted of a control group and an experimental group. The knowledge test (pretest/posttest) focused as a research tool on the ability to identify toxic plants, gain the occurrence of plants and decide about the toxicity of plants. The effect of learning stations was significant, with the students from the experimental group achieving a higher score after the implementation of the independent variable in all categories (naming of plants, occurrence and toxicity).

Keywords:

• Basic knowledge about plants
• learning stations
• quasi-experimental design
• secondary level in biology education
• Toxic plants

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Milan Kubiatko

Milan Kubiatko is an assistant professor at J. E. Purkyne University, Faculty of Education in Usti nad Labem, Czech Republic. Research field lies in the area of science education. The investigation purposes are focused on the attitudes toward science subjects and also in the examination of conceptions of pupils and students about different scientific phenomena.

Jana Fancovicova

Jana Fancovicova is an associate professor at Trnava University, Faculty of Education in Trnava, Slovakia. Research field lies in the area of science education and biology. She is focused on the behavioral aspects of people, anatomy and botany. Anatomy and Botany. Her current projects are focused on the practice activities with living organisms.