Mehr von Prokop, Pavol; Tolarovičová, Andrea; Camerik, Anne M.; Peterková, Viera
Mehr von International Journal of Science Education

Export für Ihre Literaturverwaltung

Übernahme per Copy & Paste
Bibtex-Export
Endnote-Export

       

Weiterempfehlen

Bookmark and Share


High school students' attitudes towards spiders: a cross-cultural comparison

[Zeitschriftenartikel]

Prokop, Pavol; Tolarovičová, Andrea; Camerik, Anne M.; Peterková, Viera

Zitationshinweis

Bitte beziehen Sie sich beim Zitieren dieses Dokumentes immer auf folgenden Persistent Identifier (PID):http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-257041

Weitere Angaben:
Abstract Spiders are traditionally considered to be among the least popular of animals. Current evidence suggests that a negative attitude towards spiders could be influenced by both cultural and evolutionary pressures. Some researchers suggest that science education activities could positively influence students' perceptions of spiders. Their evidence is, however, ambivalent. Using a five-point score Likert-type questionnaire in which the items were developed in a similar way to four of Keller’s categories of attitude (scientistic, negativistic, naturalistic, and ecologistic) towards invertebrates, we compared the level of knowledge of and attitudes towards spiders of high school students from two countries, Slovakia (n = 354) and South Africa (n = 382). The students represented different cultures and followed dissimilar science education curricula. Only among the Slovakian students there was a statistically significant, but low correlation between knowledge and attitude (r = .30). The Slovakian students had less fear of spiders. The South African students scored higher in the categories of scientistic, naturalistic and ecologistic attitudes. Comparison of attitude towards spiders of indigenous Africans from coeducational Catholic schools revealed that, South African students have greater fear of spiders than Slovakian students, supporting the biological preparedness hypothesis. This hypothesis predicts a greater fear of spiders in South Africa than in Europe since several South African spiders possess venoms that are dangerous to humans. The results of this study are discussed from science education, cultural and evolutionary perspectives.
Thesaurusschlagwörter student
Klassifikation Unterricht, Didaktik; psychische Störungen, Behandlung und Prävention
Freie Schlagwörter attitudes; biological preparedness; cross‐cultural comparison; ecology education; spiders; fear
Sprache Dokument Englisch
Publikationsjahr 2010
Seitenangabe S. 1665-1688
Zeitschriftentitel International Journal of Science Education, 32 (2010) 12
DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09500690903253908
Status Postprint; begutachtet (peer reviewed)
Lizenz PEER Licence Agreement (applicable only to documents from PEER project)
top