ABSTRACT

Students around the world demonstrate a limited conceptual understanding of sexual reproduction. A lack of understanding of how the human reproductive system works has been linked with risks such as sexually transmitted diseases and unintended pregnancies. Our focus in this paper is to explore the level of knowledge of reproductive physiology and anatomy among postgraduate students of educational sciences. Administering a questionnaire to 65 educational sciences postgraduate students we traced (a) the level of their knowledge concerning the organs of the male/female reproductive system before and after they were shown pictures of internal/external genitalia and (b) the level of their knowledge concerning the organs where the production of sperm/egg cells and the fertilisation happen. About two-thirds of the students failed to name prostate and external female genitals such as the clitoris and labia, even after detailed pictures were provided to them. Moreover, about one out of five of students appeared to believe that egg cells are produced in the uterus, which – according to the majority of the students asked – seems also to be the organ where the fertilisation occurs. Relevant literature and possible implications are discussed.

摘要

世界各地的学生对有性生殖的概念理解有限。对人类生殖系统如何运作缺乏了解与性传播疾病和意外怀孕等风险有关。我们在本文中的重点是探讨教育科学研究生的生殖生理学和解剖学知识水平。对 65 名教育科学研究生进行问卷调查，我们追踪了 (a) 他们在看到内/外生殖器图片之前和之后对男性/女性生殖系统器官的知识水平和 (b) 他们的知识水平关于产生精子/卵细胞和受精的器官。大约三分之二的学生没有说出前列腺和外部女性生殖器的名字，例如阴蒂和阴唇，即使在向他们提供了详细的图片之后也是如此。此外，大约五分之一的学生似乎相信卵细胞是在子宫中产生的，据被问及的大多数学生认为，子宫似乎也是发生受精的器官。讨论了相关文献和可能的影响。