High school students' understanding of food webs: Identification of a learning hierarchy and related misconceptions

Abstract

Developing an understanding of the nature of food webs is an important topic in today's biology curricula. The relationships represented in a food web are rule-like in nature. Hence, it should be possible to construct a learning hierarchy for this concept. A hierarchy leading to the ability to determine how a change in the size of one population can affect another population in the same web but not on the same chain was hypothesized. Data from 200 subjects were extremely consistent with the hierarchy. A second major focus related to the identification of specific misconceptions held by subjects for food webs. The need to identify students' misconceptions of important concepts has been expressed widely in the recent science education literature. In the present article, an argument is presented for the usefulness of learning hierarchies in this work. Specific misconceptions and the frequencies of their Occurrence are reported.

How effective is instructional support for learning with computer simulations?

“…Students frequently display problems in understanding predator-prey relationships (Gallegos et al 1994). For example, they often reveal difficulties in understanding the two-sided dependency of predator and prey (Griffiths and Grant 1985). Computer simulations as educational tools for modeling dynamic predator-prey relationships have been established to facilitate visualizations of how various factors of population dynamics interact (Cook 1993;Lutterschmidt and Schaefer 1997).…”

Students' misunderstandings and misconceptions in college freshman chemistry (general and organic)

“…In most of these studies the major issues of concern are the elucidation and treatment of students' misconceptions and alternative conceptions, assuming the former to be more amenable to change because they are likely to be less firmly rooted (Griffith, Thorney, Cooke & Normore, 1988). Although studies based on the diagnosis-prescription-remediation model resulted in equivocal conclusions, it appears that achievement and the leaming of superordinate skills are positively influenced by appropriate remedial settings (Griffith & Grant, 1985;Yeany & Miller, 1983). The overthrowing of misconceptions by students is a constructive process which depends on their reasoning abilities and their ability to generate logical relationships among evidence and alternative conceptions (Lawson & Thompson, 1988).…”

Concepciones de los estudiantes de educación básica sobre ecosistema.

“…-Las interacciones que se abordan entre los componentes bióticos, se dan más a nivel de individuo que de población (Leach et al 1996b;Grotzer & Basca 2003;Griffiths & Grant, 1985), lo que se dificulta razonar acerca de los controles y el equilibrio en el sistema.…”

“…Por ejemplo, la mayoría de los estudiantes dibujan las cadenas alimenticias como cíclicas, no lineares y ubican a los descomponedores en la parte superior de la pirámide de energía y argumentan que dicha posición se debe a que estos descomponen a todos los organismos de los niveles inferiores, lo cual indica que no se establecen diferencias entre los diversos tipos de pirámides (de números, biomasa y energética). Resultados similares fueron registrados por Adeniyi (1985), Griffiths & Grant (1985) y Eilam (2002). Ellos plantean que los estudiantes consideran que los animales que están en los niveles superiores se alimentan de todos los que están en los niveles tróficos anteriores y por esta razón tienen más energía.…”

“…Al respecto, diversos autores coinciden en que algunas nociones ecológicas relacionadas con los ecosistemas, son persistentes al cambio y dificultan el aprendizaje (Adeniyi, 1985;Çetin, 2003;Eilam, 2002;Gallegos, Jerezano, & Flores, 1994;Griffiths & Grant, 1985y Reiner & Eilam, 2001). …”