ABSTRACT

Plants are crucial parts of ecosystems but are traditionally considered boring and difficult by students. It is therefore not clear whether factual knowledge about plants contributes to building positive attitudes and interest in botany. We investigated whether factual knowledge about monocotyledonous plants is associated with secondary students’ attitudes toward and interest in plants. Furthermore, we examined whether self-reported plant cultivation experiences and gender differences exist in attitudes toward plants. Factual knowledge about monocotyledonous plants significantly correlated with attitudes toward plants and these attitudes were greatly influenced by interest in botany, ecology, evolution, and zoology, but not with other, more distant biological disciplines (e.g. microbiology, or health and nutrition). Females received better scores in knowledge and attitudes toward plants, but interest in plants was similar between males and females. We suggest that (1) factual knowledge in botany is essential in building positive attitudes toward plants and that (2) inter-connections between botany with zoology, ecology and evolution may help with elimination of plant blindness and building positive attitudes toward plants.

摘要

植物是生态系统的重要组成部分，但传统上被学生认为是无聊和困难的。因此，不清楚关于植物的事实知识是否有助于建立对植物学的积极态度和兴趣。我们调查了关于单子叶植物的事实知识是否与中学生对植物的态度和兴趣有关。此外，我们检查了对植物的态度是否存在自我报告的植物栽培经验和性别差异。关于单子叶植物的事实知识与对植物的态度显着相关，并且这些态度受到对植物学、生态学、进化和动物学的兴趣的极大影响，但不受其他更远距离的生物学学科（例如微生物学或健康和营养学）的影响。女性在对植物的知识和态度方面得分更高，但男性和女性对植物的兴趣相似。我们建议 (1) 植物学的事实知识对于建立对植物的积极态度至关重要；(2) 植物学与动物学、生态学和进化之间的相互联系可能有助于消除植物盲目性和建立对植物的积极态度。