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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
The present research compared the knowledge of primary school children and pre-service primary teachers about various native mammals of the Iberian Peninsula (IP-Portugal and Spain) and the African Savannah. For this purpose, a questionnaire was administered to 420 children and 215 pre-service teachers from these countries asking for the identification of animals through photos and whether they had native status on the IP. The pre-service teachers performed better than the children. The Savannah animals were better identified than those of the IP. The results were similar in both countries, even though the Spanish performed a little better. Children from both countries had more difficulty identifying the native status of the animals, with a high percentage of them thinking that Savannah animals lived in the wild on the IP. This error was less frequent among the pre-service teachers but, even so, with a percentage for certain animals that can be considered of concern. This issue is absent in the training courses in both countries, a conclusion based on an analysis of the syllabuses. The importance of improving knowledge of native fauna though formal and informal learning is discussed as a way to promote a conservationist attitude with direct repercussions on the recognition of the importance of local or regional biodiversity.
Description
Keywords
Native fauna Pre-service teachers Primary school children Savannah mammals
Citation
António Almeida, Beatriz García Fernández, Orlando Strecht-Ribeiro: Primary school children and pre-service teachers’ knowledge of iberian native and african savannah mammals. Journal of Baltic Science Education 12/2019; 18(6):833-847.DOI: 10.33225/jbse/19.18.833