Understanding nature (conservation) in specialised science and among pupils

"How should we treat nature?" In view of the perceived destruction of nature, people are asking themselves how we should live, what position we should take towards nature and whether it is right to intervene in nature. In the context of environmental education, the treatment of nature is also a topic of biology lessons and requires not only the teaching of specialised biological knowledge, but also the inclusion of ethical reflections in the lessons. The two aspects are not unrelated to each other, as every ethical concept for the protection of nature refers im- or explicitly to concepts of ecology and thus to concepts of nature; in the nature conservation debate, these are in particular concepts of balance, stability and change in nature.

Against this background, my research project examines subject-specific ideas and students' ideas about equilibrium and change, associated general ideas about nature and the ethical implications of these ideas.

The theoretical frame of reference of the study is the model of didactic reconstruction, in which empirically collected lifeworld conceptions of the learners are systematically compared with subject-specific scientific conceptions in order to be able to make content decisions and plan learning paths for the pupils on this basis.

The study is qualitatively orientated. In the empirical part, I collect the ideas of Year 10 and 11 pupils in group discussions and problem-centred individual interviews. The data obtained and the specialist sources are evaluated using content analysis and formulated as generalised categories. A mutual comparison will be used to identify correspondences between the ideas of academics and pupils that hinder and promote learning. On this basis, guidelines for biology lessons will be developed that give pupils access to current concepts of ecology and make the ethical implications associated with views of nature accessible for reflection.

Sander, E. (2002). Scientific concepts and student perceptions of "biological balance" - A research project within the framework of the Didactic Reconstruction Model. In: Klee, R. & Bayrhuber, H. (Eds.). Lehr- und Lernforschung in der Biologiedidaktik, vol. 1. Innsbruck: Studienverlag, 61 - 73.

Sander, E. (2003). Descriptive and normative elements in learners' understanding of nature - An investigation against the background of changing perspectives in ecology and nature conservation. In: Bauer, A. et al. (Eds.). Entwicklung von Wissen und Kompetenzen im Biologieunterricht, Kiel: IPN, 183 - 186.

Jelemenská, P., Sander, E. & Kattmann, U. (2003). Model didaktickej rekonštrukcie. Impulz pre výskum v odborových didaktikách. Pedagogika. 190 - 201.

Sander, E. (2003). Harmonious-stable or flowing nature? On the understanding of nature in ecology and among learners. In: Vogt, H.; Krüger, D. & Unterbruner, U. (Eds.). The path of knowledge in biology didactics. Contributions to the 5th Spring School of the Biology Didactics Section of the Vdbiol in Salzburg, 83 - 90.

Sander, E.; Jelemenska, P. & Kattmann, U. (2004). Where does oxygen come from? Reflections on the geological-biological imbalance, Unterricht Biologie 299, 20 - 24.

Janßen-Bartels, A. & Sander, E. (2004). Generalisation of qualitative data in biology didactic teaching and learning research. In: Gropengießer, H.; Janßen-Bartels, A. & Sander, E. (Eds.). Teaching for life. Didactic reconstruction in biology. Cologne: Aulis, 109 - 118 (9 pp.).

Bögeholz, S.; Hößle, C.; Langlet, J.; Sander, E. & Schlüter, K. (2004). Evaluating - Judging - Deciding in a biological context: Models in biology didactics. ZfDN, vol. 10, 88 - 114.

Jelemenska, P.; Sander, E. & Kattmann, U. (in press). Towards a better understanding of ecology. Results of two studies conducted within the framework of the Model of Educational Reconstruction. Proceedings of the Vth ERIDOB-Conference.

Sander, E. (in prep.). Understanding of nature and ethical ideas - sequence analysis of group discussions. In: Gerhard, M.; Gropengießer, H. & Kattmann, U. (Eds.). Handbook on subject-didactic teaching and learning research.

Gropengießer, H. & Sander, E. (in prep.). Pupils' understandings of biological phenomena - problem-centred guided interviews. In: Gerhard, M.; Gropengießer, H. & Kattmann, U. (Eds.). Handbook on subject-didactic teaching and learning research.

Editorships

Gropengießer, H.; Janßen-Bartels, A. & Sander, E. (eds.) (2004). Teaching for life. Didactic reconstruction in biology. Cologne: Aulis.

Biosciences in School and Public - Anniversary Conference on the 25th Anniversary of the Biology Didactics Section of the VDBiol, 16 - 21 September 2001, Rendsburg (Lecture: Scientific Concepts and Pupils' Perceptions of Biological Equilibrium).

Vierte Frühjahrs-Schule der Sektion Biologie-Didaktik im Verband Deutscher Biologen (vdbiol), 22 - 24 March 2002, Rostock - Warnemünde (Lecture: Harmonisch-stabile oder "fließende" Natur? - On the understanding of nature in ecology and in the lifeworld conceptions of pupils).

Fourth conference of european researchers in didaktik of biology (ERIDOB), October 22nd - October 26th 2002, Toulouse (poster presentation: Sander, E. & Jelemenská. Conceptions of nature in scientific research and in the mind of learners).

1st Göttingen Conference for Empirical Teaching and School Research on the main topic "Heterogeneity - Differentiation - Integration", 12 - 13 June 2003 (presentation: Conceptions of learners and scientists about nature and human interaction with nature - A research project in the context of didactic reconstruction).

International conference of the Biology Didactics Section of the vdbiol "Development of knowledge and competences in biology teaching", 14 - 19 September 2003, Berlin (Lecture: Descriptive and normative elements in learners' understanding of nature - An investigation against the background of the change of perspective in ecology and nature conservation).

Fifth conference of european researchers in didaktik of biology (ERIDOB), September 21st - 25th 2004, Patras - Greece (oral presentation: Sander, E. & Jelemenska. Towards a better understanding of ecology).

International conference of the Biology Didactics Section of the VDBiol, "Bildungsstandards Biologie", 27 February - 4 March 2005, Bielefeld (moderation of a poster presentation, together with Prof. Dr Harald Gropengießer, University of Hanover).

Further lectures

"Lectures by external scientists" at the Institute for Didactics of Geography, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, 17 July 2003 (Lecture: The ideal is that the biological balance remains - The ideas of subject scientists and students as the subject of subject didactic research within the framework of the model of didactic reconstruction).

From the summer semester 2001 to the winter semester 2004/05 at the Carl von Ossietzky University in the working group Biology Didactics.


Title of the courses:

• Important topics in biology teaching - environmental education
• School experiments in human biology
• Ethics in biology lessons
• New media and biology teaching
• Introduction to biology didactics