UK Primary and Secondary Science Teachers’ Attitudes and Knowledge About Local Biodiversity, 2022-2023

Stagg, Bethan Claire (2024). UK Primary and Secondary Science Teachers’ Attitudes and Knowledge About Local Biodiversity, 2022-2023. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Service. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-856895

Plants are essential for the survival of life on Earth. Humans rely on plants for food, medicine, and raw materials. Plant science plays a crucial role in food security, climate change adaptation and mitigation. Yet there is a widespread tendency in modern society to ignore plants, or fail to recognise their importance, a phenomenon known as plant blindness. Plant blindness has led to the 'green skills gap' in research and industry, as well as the neglect of plants in education and environmental conservation.

The PhD research investigated the efficacy of a suite of novel teaching approaches for plant topics with adults and children, based on gamification, the creative arts and digital learning. It considered how these contributed to a theory and practice of learning to address plant blindness, alongside the existing literature. The findings were published as seven articles in academic journals from 2013 - 2020, with a further three studies currently under consideration.

The post-doctoral phase of this work will focus on three areas. First, the dissemination of the research findings to a non-academic audience, including teachers and outdoor learning practitioners, through a programme of online courses and articles to increase awareness about plant blindness and to promote effective, evidence-based teaching approaches. The programme includes the first MOOC (open access course) about plant blindness, building on the success of a previous MOOC about sustainable food systems, which had more than10,000 enrolments. A plant blindness network with the British Ecological Society will provide a shared platform for experts in education, research, and industry to raise the profile of plants in policy and practice.

Second, an academic contribution, in the form of a conference paper, a review paper and a themed section in a science education journal. The aim is to advance our understanding of how instructional design influences interest development in this field. The term 'plant blindness' was introduced nearly 25 years ago but the literature to date has focused on its characteristics and the impacts of lone interventions. There is now a need for a synthesis of these findings and recommendations for practitioners.

Finally, the development of a novel area of research, which broadens the PhD inquiry to investigate attitudes and attention deficits for other categories of biodiversity. Evidence suggests that the human bias against plants extends to certain other groups of organisms, particularly invertebrates. There appears to be a preference for animals that closely resemble humans, although the perceived utility or threat, familiarity and ease of detection of the species are also important. As a result, a small number of 'charismatic' species receive a disproportionate amount of funding, conservation effort and public support, compared to less popular but ecologically important taxonomic groups.

There is a significant body of research about attitudes to biodiversity but huge variation in the quality and validity of methodological approaches. Few studies have compared attitudes across different categories of biodiversity, which could help to identify where the most negative attitudes or bias exist. There are common assumptions made about attentional deficits, which have not been subject to experimental testing. Many questionnaires are not designed to capture the complex structure of attitudes. These factors impede our understanding about attitudes to biodiversity and thus our ability to respond effectively.

The new research will focus on a methodological literature review and the design and piloting of a novel attitudinal questionnaire with 9-11-year-olds, an important age group for attitudinal development. This research will culminate in the development of a proposal for a significant piece of work, to refine the research instruments and use them to measure the impact of novel interventions on attitudes to biodiversity.

Data description (abstract)

Biodiversity topics feature in UK primary and secondary science and geography curricula, providing a valuable opportunity for increasing children’s ecological literacy. Studies in other countries have shown that teachers have poor species identification skills, but this topic has not been investigated for the UK. 152 geography and science teachers UK primary (5-11 years) and secondary (11-18 years) education completed an online survey from 10/12/22 to 30/8/23.

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