Understanding Early Elementary Children's Conceptual Knowledge of Plant Structure and Function through Drawings
Open accessAbstract
This study examined children's drawings to explain children's conceptual understanding of plant structure and function. The study explored whether the children's drawings accurately reflect their conceptual understanding about plants in a manner that can be interpreted by others. Drawing, survey, interview, and observational data were collected from 182 students in grades K and 1 in rural southeastern United States. Results demonstrated the children held a wide range of conceptions concerning plant structure and function. These young children held very simple ideas about plants with respect to both their structure and function. Consistent with the drawings, the interviews presented similar findings.
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Anderson et al. (2014) found that young children held simplistic conceptual understandings about plants and plant life.
“Anderson, Ellis, and Jones (2014) collected drawings, conducted interviews with, and observed “182 students in grades K and 1 in rural southeastern United States” (p.375), finding that young children held simplistic conceptual understandings about plants and plant life.”
From Differences of Mean Scores on the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT) for Classical Christian Schools Compared to Non-Classical Christian Schools (2019) · cites this paper as Anderson et al., 2014
The Methods (Study Context; Data Sources) describe 182 kindergarten and first-grade students at a rural southeastern U.S. school, with drawings collected and a subset of 20 children interviewed. The Conclusions report that drawings most often showed simple plant needs, but interviews sometimes revealed more advanced knowledge; describing the children’s understandings as uniformly simplistic overstates the finding. The listed data sources are drawings, surveys, and interviews, not observations of all 182 students. (LLM, conf=0.85)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredAnderson et al. (2014) found that young children perceive the world simplistically and concretely with direct connections to their experiences and sensory information.
“Findings included that young children perceive the world simplistically and concretely with direct connections to their experiences and sensory information”
From Differences of Mean Scores on the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT) for Classical Christian Schools Compared to Non-Classical Christian Schools (2019) · cites this paper as Anderson et al., 2014
The Introduction says children develop understandings through direct, concrete experiences that involve their senses. But the Conclusions and Implications describe the study’s findings as a spectrum from concrete images to abstract representations of plants, not a finding that young children perceive the world uniformly simplistically. (LLM, conf=0.85)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredAnderson et al. (2014) found that more complex understandings of the components of air, water, and sunlight were not found among respondents in their study.
“More complex understandings of the components of air (carbon monoxide, oxygen, etc.), water, and sunlight were not found among respondents in this study.”
From Differences of Mean Scores on the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT) for Classical Christian Schools Compared to Non-Classical Christian Schools (2019) · cites this paper as Anderson et al., 2014
In Results and Discussion, ‘The Surveys,’ the paper reports that a majority of students did not understand components of air, supporting that part of the claim. But some identified carbon dioxide (13%) or oxygen (37%), and an interviewee explained a role for sunlight in making plant food. The paper does not establish that complex understandings of air, water, and sunlight were absent from all respondents; it also says carbon dioxide, not carbon monoxide. (LLM, conf=0.88)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredAnderson et al. (2014) found that young children in kindergarten and first grade had already begun to ask questions and explore the world around them long before entering formal scholastic activities.
“Anderson et al. (2014)found that young children in kindergarten and first grade had already begun to ask questions and explore the world around them long before entering formal scholastic activities.”
From Differences of Mean Scores on the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT) for Classical Christian Schools Compared to Non-Classical Christian Schools (2019) · cites this paper as Anderson et al., 2014
At this level of cognitive development, young children's perceptions and explanations of the world often do not reflect scientific explanations (Anderson et al., 2014).
“At this level of cognitive development, young children's perceptions and explanations of the world often do not reflect scientific explanations (Anderson et al., 2014, p. 376).”
From Differences of Mean Scores on the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT) for Classical Christian Schools Compared to Non-Classical Christian Schools (2019) · cites this paper as Anderson et al., 2014
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Cites
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Vaughan, C. A. (2019) · Journal of Research on Christian Education · doi:10.1080/10656219.2019.1704326 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
- Authors
- Anderson, J. L., Ellis, J. P., & Jones, A. M.
- Affiliations
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US)
- College of Charleston (US)
- Corresponding author
- Anderson, Janice L.
- Venue
- CBE—Life Sciences Education
- Published
- 2014-09
- Volume
- 13
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 375-386
- ISSN
- 1931-7913 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4152200
- OpenAlex
- W2120202748
- Cited by
- 121
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 29 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 3
- FWCI
- 22.29
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc-sa
- Locations
- CBE—Life Sciences Education (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Carolina Digital Repository (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- UNC Libraries
- Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Science Education and Pedagogy
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Animal and Plant Science Education
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History and Philosophy of Science › Evolution and Science Education
- Keywords
- children's drawings, plant structure and function, conceptual understanding
- MeSH terms
- Child, Concept Formation, Data Collection, Humans, Plants, Students, Plant Physiological Phenomena, Knowledge, Comprehension
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