The Persistence of Misconceptions about the Human Blood Circulatory System among Students in Different Grade Levels

Abstract

In this paper, it is aimed to investigate the persistence of misconceptions in the topic of the human blood circulatory system among students in different grade levels. For this reason, after discussions with biology educators, two tests consisting of open-ended questions were developed by the researcher and administered to students in four different grade levels. The first test was administered to 319 5th and 7th grade students in elementary school and the second one was administered to 400 1st and 4th year university students studying in the departments of elementary school teaching, science education and biology education. Data were analyzed using qualitative methods and a number of misconceptions were detected in different grade levels. According to the results of the study, the distributions of the percentages of students' misconceptions demonstrate a decreasing trend from elementary school students to university students without totally disappearing. The reason of this situation might be the persistence of misconceptions that are difficult to overcome. Due to their functionality, students continue to possess certain misconceptions. Hence, this characteristic of misconceptions should be considered while planning teaching activities in teacher education programs.

Examining Secondary School Students’ Misconceptions About the Human Body: Correlations Between the Methods of Drawing and Open-Ended Questions

“…Arnaudin and Mintzes (1985) similarly reported that about 40% of primary school children thought that the human heart is three-chambered (amphibian-type). A majority of children (55.9%) thought that the function of the heart is blood purification which is in agreement with other researchers (Arnaudin & Mintzes, 1985;Özgür, 2013;Özsevgeç, 2007).…”

“…Research on misconception is important because these incorrect understandings are strongly held and often very difficult to change (Mintzes & Wandersee, 1998;Özgür, 2013;Vosniadou, 2001). Thus, it is crucial to establish a valid method(s) to examine misconceptions in order to obtain the best picture about what children really know about biological phenomena.…”

Turkish University Students' Opinions towards Blood Donation

“…This finding can be supported by the results of a body of research in the literature which asserted misconceptions in various populations [14,16,22]. In his study related to circulatory system in biology education, Özgür [40] identified that students thought clean blood circled in the left side of the body whereas dirty blood circled in the right side of the body. In the present study, several similar results were also obtained.…”

Results from a Study for Teaching Human Body Systems to Primary School Students Using Tablets

“…The heart's internal structure it is often depicted with three cavities (atriums or ventricles) instead of four (Arnaudin & Mintzes, 1985;Windschitl, 1995). The role of the heart is also misunderstood; students think that it produces or filters the blood (Ozgur, 2013). The circulatory system is regarded as a closed system; the amount of blood remains constant and the blood is moving in both directions inside the veins (Chi, Chiu & DeLeeuw, 1991).…”