1988 Volume 29 Issue 2 Pages 55-60
Regarding lower secondary school students' ability to understand the biological names of familiar plants and animals (24 varieties) in relation to their living environment (the proportion of those students who knew the habitats and correspondingly knew the vernacular names of organisms). We examined the differences between one student group which had direct experiences with the plants and animals (experiences of catching and handling) and the other group without direct experiences. These results are clarified as follows: 1) The group of students who had direct experiences significantly exceeded the group without direct experiences. It was clarified that the understanding of the biological names was associated with knowing the habitats. 2) The degree of students' direct experiences with plants and animals based on how common or familiar they are was categorized according to 3 types-high, middle and low. 3) In the case of animals, where the degree of the students' direct experiences was high, many indicated middle or higher degrees of ability to understand their names. However, in the case of plants, where the degree of the students' direct experiences was high, the ability to understand the names, comparatively, tended to be quite low. 4) Since it is possible to easily allow students greater contact with familiar plants and animals in their natural environment, I think that from the standpoint of achievement, having students comprehensively and correctly understand nature in this way would serve the goal of science education as an extremely effective educational aid.
