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Children's conceptions of 'living' and 'dead'Kalafunja M. O-sakia; W. D. Samirodenb

a Department of Education, University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salarm, Tanzania b Department ofSecondary Education, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Online publication date: 13 December 2010

To cite this Article O-saki, Kalafunja M. and Samiroden, W. D.(1990) 'Children's conceptions of 'living' and 'dead'', Journalof Biological Education, 24: 3, 199 — 207To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/00219266.1990.9655141URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00219266.1990.9655141

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Children's conceptions of 'living' and 'dead' Kalafunja M. O-saki and W. D. Samiroden

Introduction Jean Piaget is often considered to be the pioneer of research on children's concept formation through his studies of children's conceptualizations of force (1973), movement and speed (1970), number (1952), physical causality (1930), quantities, conservation and atoms (1974), reality (1974), and the world (1929). In spite of some recent criticisms (see for example, Donaldson, 1978; Gelman and Gallistel, 1978; and Hughes 1983), Piaget's work remains as being classic in this area. Others have gradually built on his foundation. In recent years, interest has increased considerably in the study of children's con­ceptualizations, sometimes referred to as preconcep­tions, alternative conceptions, alternative constructs, and misconceptions. Recently, interest has also fo­cused on children's conceptions before the concepts are taught (preconceptions or alternative frame­works), and on children's misconceptions after some amount of teaching, for instance after various levels of elementary education. Some misconceptions dis­covered at these times are often thought to have been introduced during the teaching/learning processes in school.

Much work has focused on children's ideas in the sciences and on such concepts as those summarized in table 1.

Although studies in this area appear to be extens­ive, most of them have been done with students in developed countries, particularly in Europe (includ­ing Britain), the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Israel. The few studies that have been reported from Africa have been mainly from Nigeria. This study represents an intention to add to the literature concerning misconceptions in science among students in developing countries by seeking such information about elementary level students in

Abstract The current exploration of children's understanding of science concepts is followed up in this paper. A study of children's ideas on 'living' and 'dead', conducted in Tanzania during 1987, is described. The study was conducted with elementary school children, and a number of alternative conceptions were revealed. The role of sociocultural beliefs in forming these concep­tions is described, and the implications of these findings for science teaching and teacher education are dis­cussed.

Table 1 Some recent studies science concepts

of children's conceptualizations of

Part A: Physical science concepts Concepts

Chemical equilibrium Conservation principles Dynamics Electricity

Force

Energy

Gaseous state Heat

Matter Motion

Part B: Biological concepts' Concepts

Amino acids and translation Animal Biological adaptation

Cell/water relations

Circulatory system

Ecological principles

Evolution and heredity

Growth Growth, reproduction, and transport

Inheritance

Living and non-living

Plant nutrition

Respiration The human body

Authors and dates

Gorotesky, 1983. Ivowi, 1986. Langford, 1983. Oldham el at., 1986; Dupin and Joshua, 1987; Johnstone and Mughol, 1978. Salyachivin et at., 1985; Watts and Gilbert, 1983. Wong, 1978; Solomon, 1983; Urevbu, 1984. Séré, 1986. Albert, 1978; Erickson, 1980; Finlay, 1983. Champagne et al., 1983. Champagne et al., 1983.

Authors and dates

Fisher, 1985. Bell, 1981; Bell and Barker, 1982. Engel Clough and Wood-Robinson, 1985a. Johnstone and Mahmoud, 1980; Friedler and Tamir, 1986. Catherall, 1982; Arnaudin and Mintzes, 1985. Owley, 1977; Griffiths and Grant, 1984; Adeniyi, 1985. Deadman and Kelly, 1978; Brumby, 1984. Schaefer, 1979.

Okeke and Wood-Robinson, 1980. Kargbo et al., 1980; Hackling and Treagust, 1984; Engel Clough and Wood-Robinson 1985b; Longden, 1982. Klingberg, 1957; Lucas el at., 1979; Tamir el al., 1981. Bell and Brook, 1984; Bell, 1985; Eisen and Stang, 1988. Abimbola, 1982. Mintzes, 1984.

aSince the number of studies in this area is quite large, only those that are concerned with the search for misconceptions are listed. Readers who are interested in other studies in this area may consult some comprehensive reviews by Driver, Guesne, and Tinberghien, 1985, and Pfundt and Duit, 1985.

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Tanzania. The Tanzanian situation may be somewhat more complicated by the fact that, in most cases, the children involved have to learn two new languages in school, in addition to their mother tongue. Kiswahili, the national language, is learned and used as the medium of instruction during the elementary school years, and English becomes the medium of instruction at the secondary level. Most children, especially in the rural areas, use both their mother tongue and Kiswa­hili in their daily conversations. Thus, whereas a discussion with peers and parents on concepts learned at school would help clarify some doubts, this may not be so easy where a different language is used at home.

The concept of 'alive' The concept 'alive' is basic to learning in the biolo­gical sciences in that it is a prerequisite to distinguish­ing living things from inanimate objects, as well as to appreciating the various attributes of living things. However, young children seem to have difficulties with this concept, even after some study of the topic.

Science teachers often come to class with the scient­ific concept of 'live' as that which has life, and is therefore capable of showing such characteristics as respiring, feeding, growing, responding to stimuli, and so on. When tests have demonstrated that a thing does not show any of these behaviours, it is appropri­ate to suggest that it is either non-living or was once living but is now dead. There are obvious differences between plants' and animals' characteristics: the for­mer are relatively stationary, often possess chloro­phyll, and require sunlight; the latter are motile and lack the green pigment. Yet all are alive. To children, these ideas develop gradually after experience and learning.

Pioneering studies about children's ideas of 'live' things are represented by the classic study reported by Piaget (1929). At that time Piaget suggested that the concept of life in man develops in the stages summar­ized in table 2. Various studies have attempted to replicate Piaget's work through the study of children's classification of various objects as living or non­living, usually presented in the form of pictures (see for example, Looft, 1974; Smeets, 1974). Another area of interest has been the determination of whether

Table 2 Stages in the development of the concept of 'life' in children

Stage Age in years Object considered as live

A 6-7 Any object which falls or makes a noise

B 8-9 An object which is moving, e.g. stone rolling, car, bicycle, animal, bird

C 9-11 Thing exhibiting spontaneous movement

D Over 11 Correct identification of living things

(Source: Piaget, 1929)

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the meaning children attach to 'living' is stable or whether it changes from one living thing to another, for instance, among plant, animal, and human life concepts. It has been found, for example, that many children consider the life of animals and humans to differ from that of plants and embryos (Tamir et al., 1981). This study attempts to reveal children's con­ceptions of living, dead, and the causes of death.

The study This study was designed with the aim of determining Tanzanian elementary students' perceptions of 'liv­ing' and 'dead'. Specifically, it seeks answers to the following questions: 1. What characteristics do children use to judge whether things are living or non-living? 2. What simple experiments do children think can be performed to determine whether something is living or non-living? 3. When do children think life begins? 4. What do children think causes death in humans? 5. What do children think causes death in maize plants? 6. Are there things about which children are not sure whether they are living or non-living?

The sample The sample included primary (elementary) school children in grades III (N=50), V (7V=60), and VII (iV=80) (approximate ages 9, 11, and 13 years respectively). They were drawn from two primary schools in urban Dar es Salaam, located in a mix of middle class/working class residential areas. Com­pared with rural children who comprise the largest percentage of the Tanzanian population, these chil­dren have more academically oriented home environ­ments. The schools were staffed with a majority of grade A teachers who had received secondary school education up to form four (grade XII). Classes were very large, with some classrooms containing up to 90 children, more than twice the optimum. For each grade, the sample was randomly selected from two streams with each stream having a total of about 180 children.

Instruments A six-item questionnaire was developed for adminis­tration to students at the elementary school level. The items were open-ended and phrased in Kiswahili, the language of instruction at the primary schools in Tanzania (see Appendix A for the questionnaire and Appendix B for its English translation). Some items were focused on determining whether children would use specific characteristics to judge whether things were living or not, and whether they had developed hypothetico-deductive processes for proving their claims by suggesting simple experiments to prove them.

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Other items were set to determine children's per­ceptions of when life begins and what causes death. The main emphasis was to find out whether and how they would use biological information to explain the phenomena.

Administration of questionnaire The questionnaire was administered to each of six classes with a display of three examples of living things: a live grasshopper (in a bottle), a maize plant from the field with roots still intact, and a research assistant sitting on a chair in front of the students. The respondents had as much time as needed to complete the questionnaire.

Analysis of results A content analysis technique similar to that used by Lucas et al. (1979) was used to analyse the data. Children's responses for each question and at each grade level were studied and categorized according to perceived child conceptualizations. Frequencies of the responses in each category were determined and tabu­lated. Comparisons of conceptualizations between grade levels were made.

Item 1 Question: Looking at the living things displayed in front of you, list as many characteristics as possible which indicate that they are living. Categories of responses were identified from the per­ceived responses of the children. The responses were classified into characteristics related to physiological functions of living things, those related to survival needs of living things, and those related to internal structure. The remaining responses (about 3 per cent) were irrelevant to the question (see table 3).

Table 3 Characteristics listed by children to indicate that grasshopper, potted maize, and a human are living things

Category of response

Grade (percentage of class)" III V VII (JV=50) (N=60) (N=S0)

Physiological function: 1. Breathing 2. Feeding/drinking 3. Locomotion 4. Growth 5. Reproduction 6. Death 7. Irritability/Perception 8. Defecation 9. Vision

10. Making its own food 11. Sleeping 12. Flying 13. Germinating 14. Working

Survival needs: 15. Water 16. Shelter 17. Light

Possession of internal structure, e.g.: 18. Nucleus 19. Heart Irrelevant Answers:

18 10 14 2 0 4 4 0 2 0 0 2 0 4

10 2 0

0 0 4

40 50 12 12 23

1 0 3 3 1 1 0 3 3

1 1 3

6 1 8

32 22 22 10 7 4 4 2 0 0 0

10 0 0

0 1 0

7 0 0

aMore than one response was given by some of the children. All are included.

Item 2 Question: Describe an experiment you could perform on the living things to find out whether they are living or not. Answers to this question were categorized as indic­ated in table 4. Most respondents had great difficulty

Table 4 Experiments to verify that the thing is living

Suggested experiment

Expected observation

Grade (percentage of class) HI V VII (N=50) (#=60) (/V=80)

1. Unspecified stimulus on thing 2. Unspecified stimulus on thing 3. Touch and then observe 4. Touch body and observe 5. Unspecified stimulus on thing 6. Unspecified stimulus on thing 7. Unspecified stimulus on thing 8. Unspecified stimulus on thing 9. Observe using 'scientific instruments'

10. Deprive it of air (not indicated how) 11. Deprive it of food 12. Deprive it of water 13. Place food in front of it 14. Measure its length/width/weight 15. Grow it in 'favourable soif 16. Irrelevant or no answers

The thing will move The thing will talk The thing will breathe The thing will jump The thing will shiver The thing will laugh The thing will show growth The thing will cry Unspecified The thing will die The thing will die The thing will die The thing will eat It will increase with time (growth) The thing will germinate/grow

12 10 12 2

12 2 6 0 4 0 0 0 0 2 0

38

6 0

25 5 0 0 0 0 0 5 5 0 5

40 8 1

4 0

12 3 0 0 0 3 0

32 10 5 0 0 0

31

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describing any experiments in cause/effect terms. Most respondents volunteered such comments as, 'I will see if it (moves, talks, laughs, . . . ) ' , without specifying the stimulus they would use to evoke those responses. Such responses were identified as 'unspeci­fied stimulus'.

Item 3 Question: When do you think life begins in a living thing, for example, a human being? Some children responded directly by naming a biolo­gical process which they thought was responsible for the beginning of life. Others mentioned a structure that they believe characterizes the beginning of life, and others attributed the beginning of life to the act of a creator. Table 5 summarizes the responses to this question.

Table 5 Student perceptions of when life begins

Grades (percentage of class) III V VII (AT=50) (#=60) (#=80) Category of response

Biological process involved 1. At fertilization/conception 2. Sometime before birth, unspecified 3. At birth 4. When he begins breathing 5. When he feeds/drinks

Involvement of a biological structure 6. In the womb, as the mother feeds 7. After all limbs have formed 8. When God creates him

Other 9. When resting

10. While sleeping 11. Anytime 12. Don't knows 13. Irrelevant responses

0 0

20 26 6

10 0 4

0 0 0

20 10

10 0

60 20 8

0 0 2

0 0 0 0 0

4 11 38 13 0

0 2

10

1 6 1 0

14

Item 4 Question: What do you think can cause death in a human being? The responses here ranged from causes due to a deficiency of necessities of life, e.g. water, food, air, and 'energy', and poisons or drug overdoses (what the poison does to lead to death was unexplained). There were other reasons such as causes due to external forces (e.g. accidents of various kinds including shooting and beating), and internal causes, including illness, heart attacks, and the like. Most children listed more than one response. All are tabulated (see table 6).

Item 5 Question: What do you think can cause a maize plant to die? As indicated in table 7, responses to this question were similar to those given for item 4. One category

Table 6 What causes living things (e.

Causes

1. Deficiencies/lack of: water food air energy

2. Intake of poisons/drug overdosing

3. External causes: car accidents shooting by gun heavy beating hanging

4. Internal causes: illness heart attack

5. Others: drowning bleeding external/internal being slaughtered (of animal) being overworked various others too cold/hot electric shock

g. humans) to die?

Grade (percentage of class)" III V VII (#=50) (#=60) (# = 80)

26 32 22 6

2

18 8

12 2

34 4

6 2 6 0 0 0 2

20 40 25 0

20

68 6

10 6

35 15

0 6 0 0

20 3 0

32 59 45

0

6

29 1 5 0

34 4

0 0 2 4 0 0 0

6. Don't knows/irrelevant/unclear response: 6 6 2

e.g. lack of money, lack of shelter, lack of care, God's will, dirty environment, bewitching, don't know

"More than one response was given by some of the children. All are included.

included responses pertaining to deficiencies of necessities such as water, air, light, minerals, and so on. Other responses referred to a variety of excesses which they thought would kill the plants. A third category was identified for the responses which were more physical in nature. All responses and their frequencies are presented in table 7.

Item 6 Question: Name any things which you have heard other people claim to be living, but which you are not sure about whether they are truly living or not. Give reasons why you are not sure. This question was placed in the questionnaire to determine children's concept formation which may be based on folk wisdom. At the time when the question­naire was administered, there were media reports of a 'mermaid' or 'man-fish' which had apparently been caught by some fishermen in a particular fishing village in Tanzania. The media described how the 'fish' had overpowered the five men who were trying to pull it ashore. One of these fishermen drowned; his body was not recovered. The other fishermen went to the press to recount their 'man-fish' saga. They claimed to have seen this carnivorous, man-eater,

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Table 7 Student perceptions of causes of death in maize plants Table 8 Things that children have heard to be alive

Cause

Grade (percentage of class)" III V VII (/V=50) (#=60) (Af=80) Things listed

Grades (percentage of class)" III V VII (N=50) (N=60) ( J V = 8 0 )

1. Deficiencies/lack of: water air fertilizer good soil sufficient light food carbon dioxide mineral salts chlorophyll warmth

2. Excessive supply of: heat water fertilizer

3. External occurrences/conditions: uprooting/severing roots fire/thunderstorm too many weeds insect pest attack poisons cutting down/eaten by animals diseases planted in salty soil 'bad planting'

"More than one response was are included.

given

42 4

22 4 4 0 0 0 0 0

16 0 0

20 4 4 8 4

10 0 0 0

by some

68 35 33 15 29 16 0 0 0 1

23 11 8

0 0 0

10 3

18 0 6 1

of the childi

45 25 9

16 31 12 16 11 9 2

7 5 1

4 1 0

18 0

12 4 0 0

ren. All

1.

2.

3.

4.

Living things Some exotic plants (not common to the area) Some animals (fish, whale, ants, centipede, snail, bacteria)

Non-living things/objects water coal soil car house paper air aeroplane robot or equivalent computer stone statue wooden log food sand sun, moon, stars fire

Mythological objects ghost/demon and the like mermaid or the like

Other inanimate

0

8

26

0 10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

12 2 0 0

24 30

12

15

17 1 6 0 3 3 0 3

15 0 8 8 3

20 3

18 0

33 0

26

11

12 2 0 0 6 6

10 0 5 2

15 4 4 1 9 0 2

0 0

with a human-shaped head and an elasmobranch-like abdomen. It is likely that many children would have heard of such descriptions. This question was aimed at determining how those children might incorporate these descriptions in their conceptualizing of living things.

In their responses to this question, the children listed a wide range of things, including some living exotic organisms, in the doubtful category. These were organisms that exist, but which they had not seen. They also listed a great variety of inanimate objects which included the above described mermaid, ghosts, computers, and robots. Their inclusion of such items as cars, the sun, moon, stars, and water was also reported in a similar study completed by Tamir et al. (1981). Such listings, as indicated by Tamir, support Piaget's (1929) observation that chil­dren of this age take anything that appears to move as being alive. Table 8 summarizes the responses to this question.

Summary 1. Criteria for being alive. Over 80 per cent of the children referred to physiological functions as the main criteria in describing living things. The informa­tion presented in table 3 indicates that such physio­logical functions as breathing, feeding/drinking, loco­motion, and reproduction are perceived as being important characteristics of living things. Other re­sponses described survival needs. The limited

"A number of respondents gave more than one response to this question. bOther inanimates included things such as: fire, electricity, cigarette, paper, bombs, the sea, etc.

numbers of correct responses offered by the grade III students is not unexpected since grade III is the first grade in which science is studied. 2. Experiments. The most commonly suggested ex­periment to determine whether something was alive was to touch and observe it. The next most popular suggestions were deprivation of air (about 15 per cent) and measuring the rate of growth (13 per cent). It was apparent that many children found it quite difficult to describe experiments in detail. Irrelevant answers and 'don't knows' represented approximately 24 per cent of the responses. 3. Beginning of life. Many children thought that life begins at birth (40 per cent). Another substantial portion indicated that life begins when organisms begin to breathe (18 per cent). The remaining answers were quite diverse, indicating that life began at fertil­ization or conception, while feeding, after limbs had formed, or at the order of the Creator. About 30 per cent of the grade III children did not give any answers to this question. 4. On causes of death. Most children thought that living things die due to a deficiency in such necessities as food (45 per cent), air (27 per cent), and water (25

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per cent). Other reasons included intake of poisons or drugs (10 per cent), external events such as accidents or beatings (58 per cent), and illness (40 per cent). As for the maize plant, grade VII children gave addi­tional reasons for death, including lack of carbon dioxide (16 per cent), lack of mineral salts (11 per cent), and lack of chlorophyll (9 per cent). Many grade HI children also mentioned uprooting of the plants, and too many weeds in the field. 5. Doubtful cases of living things. When considering whether certain things were alive or not, the students identified a number of things about which they were doubtful. Some of the things so identified are, in fact, living, but the children had never seen them, and, as a result, said that they were not sure whether such things were living or not. Some plants foreign to Dar es Salaam such as eucalyptus trees, and animals such as whales, centipedes, and snails, were mentioned. The grade III and grade V students were fairly consistent in naming a variety of inanimate objects as living things. These included robots, water, cars, and heavenly bodies, and mythological things such as ghosts/demons (Swahili shetania/jini) and mermaids or man-fish (Samaki-mtu).

Discussion The results, as summarized above, indicate that the understanding of the concept of life, like other science concepts, increases in complexity as children mature in their thought processes and modes of communica­tion. This is indicated by the slight increase in the complexity of responses through grades HI, V, and VII. These observations, while showing some similar­ity to those of an Australian study (Lucas et al., 1979), also show some differences. While Lucas used an unknown object, this study used a number of familiar organisms present in the students' environ­ments. The responses show a greater reliance on physiological characteristics and behaviour than external features as explanations for their beliefs. The question on the doubtful cases of living things was not addressed in Lucas's study. The Israeli study, (Tamir et al., 1981) involved high school students, who were much older, and introduced the question of embryos (an egg and a seed), not used in this study.

The data presented in table 4 indicate that the children in this study had difficulty suggesting experi­ments to determine whether things were living or non­living. This may suggest a lack of experience with the practical experimentation in class. If experiments had been performed in learning this concept, these find­ings suggest that the children had not been actively involved in the process, although they may have watched teacher-demonstrations. This is not uncom­mon in Tanzania, where most science teaching is through expository or teacher-demonstration tech­niques. With class sizes being as large as 100, many teachers in one of the schools involved had thought it

204

impossible to conduct any form of student-initiated inquiry investigations. Even with much smaller class size, Friedler and Tamir (1986), while studying high school science teaching in Israel, observed that inquiry-oriented laboratory lessons are very demand­ing both for the teacher and the student.

The responses to the experimental design question in this study (see table 4) seem to indicate a lack of familiarity among students with experimental tech­niques. Obviously this perception requires further observational study before it can be confirmed. Nevertheless, the responses suggest that most learn­ing of this concept did not involve the generation of hypotheses or the design of experiments to test them on living things. When discussing this with one of the science teachers, she expressed the difficulties of adopting such a teaching style when there were no supporting curriculum materials or other resources. An enquiry-oriented science curriculum called the African Primary Science Program, introduced into many African schools during the 1960s, failed to take root and was phased out in Tanzania after only a few years of trial (Bajah, 1981). Other problems such as inadequate teacher education and professional de­velopment programmes may have contributed to the general lowering of teacher competence with student-centred science teaching (see Ishumi, 1984; Osaki, 1985). These conclusions, however, need to be cor­roborated with observational studies on children's experimental skills in a variety of science concepts.

The roots of the misconception about when living things begin life (table 5) need further investigation. In this study, most children have yet to grasp the concept of fertilization as the beginning of life in sexually reproducing organisms. Younger children, e.g. grade HI, may not have learned this concept yet (note, 30 per cent declined to answer this question). The older children may not have distinguished between fertilization (or conception) and birth.

The list of things which children confuse with non­living (table 8) also raises a number of issues. If children are just told that certain things are living without seeing them, they remain doubtful, as in the case here of eucalyptus trees, whales, and centipedes. If movement is regarded as the most important char­acteristic of life, then living things which move slowly, such as snails, starfish or jellyfish and, plants, fungi and microorganisms, remain doubtful cases. Sim­ilarly, moving non-living things such as stars, robots, water, and cars are regarded as doubtful living things as shown here. This is supported by Piaget's (1929) findings. The 'mythological' category such as ghosts, demons, or mermaids, may have been learned from the media and ordinary conversation with parents and others in society at large. The responses on the causes of death show that these children attribute death mainly to concrete events. Piagetians would argue that this shows their level of mental develop­ment for this concept, as none of the more advanced explanations of death such as enzyme coagulation or

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inhibition, complete loss of consciousness, or meta­bolic standstill were mentioned.

A child's sociocultural world may have a strong influence on his or her concept formation (Solomon, 1987), as, for example, in the case of the previously recounted news item, 'Man-fish drowns fisherman; one dies, four narrate story'. Such mythological stor­ies are common in local media reports and ordinary conversation. Thus, some misconceptions originate from out-of-school sources and most of them come from beliefs that stand in marked contrast to what school children are expected to learn (Champagne et al, 1983; Adeniyi, 1985; Hashweh, 1986; Solomon, 1983, 1987). Children's views on such concepts as life, energy, matter, and so on are sometimes based on methods of learning that are often in conflict with the methods of scientific reasoning to be developed in school programmes. Some have argued that a 'para­digm shift' is required to change these anthropo­morphic ways of thinking to more scientifically based approaches (Posner et al, 1982; Rowell and Dawson, 1983). Such a process requires a better understanding by teachers of the children's prior knowledge and the strategies of cognitive restructuring.

Thus, the responses to the pertinent questions in this study, possibly due to the nature of the question­naire, do not provide the reasons why the students develop or retain such misconceptions. Interviews may assist researchers in learning more precisely how it is that students possess and/or retain certain mis­conceptions. For example, where did the child hear about a whale, eucalyptus, computer, or mermaid? How was it described? How does this differ from the thing the child is sure is living, such as a grasshopper? What should we think of when asking the question, 'when does life begin?' These are obviously questions that children of this age will tackle later, but our knowledge of their present conceptions should help us in restructuring their science curricula or designing remedial teaching/learning strategies for the future. There is considerable evidence suggesting that one cause of misconceptions is the manner in which concepts are taught (Shayer and Adey, 1981; Long-den, 1982; Adeniyi, 1985). This, in turn, suggests that the formation of misconceptions may be limited by the development of better teaching strategies, concept mapping, and topic sequencing.

Conclusions This study reveals that the Tanzanian children studied possess a number of misconceptions on the concepts of living, non-living, life, and death. It also reveals a possible sociocultural influence on their understanding of these concepts. Reasons for the persistence of associated misconceptions require further research. From our perspective, it appears likely that semistructured interviews may be an ap­propriate method to reveal these reasons. Further, they should focus on the issues of the 'methodology of

Journal of Biological Education (1990) 24 (3)

science' in the child's social world as compared with the science class. Such studies may be particularly significant in providing direction for solutions to problems connected with translating ideas learned in the vernacular or Kiswahili at home or primary school into those taught in the English medium at the secondary school level.

Studies on teacher misconceptions (Claxton, 1986), untouched by this study, are also needed. The pos­sibility that these children might have acquired con­cepts such as, 'life begins at birth' from their class­room instruction can only be corroborated by classroom observation of their teachers in action, when addressing this concept. Likewise, the descrip­tion of most characteristics of life from memory rather than from observing the displayed living things (thus implying, for example, that even maize exhibits locomotion, as shown in table 3) could be character­istic of the teaching strategy used. The children seemed to be referring to an unknown object that possessed these living characteristics as opposed to the very familiar specimens displayed. This questions the tendency, in the teaching of biology and other sciences, to use generalized models, which refer to the general features of living things or classes of living things. Such approaches may mislead students into believing in imaginary things, while forgetting the many exceptions in the real world and the fact that these so-called generalized features have resulted from the observation of specific living things. Perhaps, then, the question to be studied further might relate to how the use of live examples from the physical environment, as opposed to hypothetical models, relates to concept development. These, and other methods of improving teaching in the 'mountain' of concepts that students appear to misunderstand at all levels, in all education systems and cultures, might be the main agenda for future studies in this area. For the concept of life, the development and trial of a teaching unit which incorporates these suggestions might be a good test of their worth.

The final aspect, associated with teaching skills aimed at revealing children's misconceptions before teaching new concepts (Lawson, 1988), is a subject for a reappraisal of professional development of teachers. As Lawson has suggested, it may be possible both to reveal students' common misconceptions, and to present them as hypotheses to be tested in the science class.

Appendix A DODOSO LA WANAFUNZI: MASWALI KUHUSU VITU VYENYE UHAI Haya ni maswali ya kuchunguza mawazo yako tu. Tafadhali jibu bila wasiwasi ukieleza mawazo yako kutokana na vile unavyofahamu. Sio mtihani. Mbele yako kuna panzi (aliye ndani ya chupa), mimea wa mhindi na mtu aliyekaa. Vichunguze vitu hivyo na ujibu maswali yafuatayo.

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1. Eleza sababu zinazokufanya udhani kuwa vitu vilivyoko hapo mezani vina uhai. 2. Eleza jaribio ambalo ungeweza kufanya mbele ya vitu hivyo ili kuchunguza kama kweli vina uhai au hapana. 3. Unadhani ni Uni kiumbe kama binadamu anapoanza kuwa hai? 4. Unadhani ni Uni kinachoweza kusababisha binadamu kupoteza uhai wake? 5. Je, mmea wa mhindi unaweza kupoteza uhai kukiwa na na nini? 6. Taja vitu ulivyowahi kusikia kutoka kwa watu kuwa vina uhai lakini wewe huna uhakika na mawazo yao juu ya vitu hivyo. Kwa nini huna uhakika?

Asante sana kwa majibu yako.

Appendix B: English translation of Appendix A STUDENT QUESTIONNAIRE: QUESTIONS ABOUT LIVING THINGS These questions have been designed to find out your ideas only. Please answer freely, expressing your own thoughts about each question as far as you know. It is not an examination.

Before you, on the front desk, there is a grasshopper (in a bottle), a maize plant, and a person sitting. Observe these things and answer the following questions. 1. Looking at the living things displayed in front of you, list as many characteristics as possible which indicate that they are living. 2. Describe an experiment you could perform on the living things to find out whether they are living or not. 3. When do you think life begins in a living thing, for example, a human being? 4. What do you think can cause death in a human being? 5. What do you think can cause a maize plant to die? 6. Name any things which you have heard other people claim to be living but you are not sure about whether they are truly living or not. Give reasons why you are not sure.

Thank-you very much for your answers.

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The authors Kalafunja M. O-saki is a Lecturer in Science Education in the Department of Education, University of Dar es Salaam, PO Box 35048, Dar es Salarm, Tanzania. W. D. Samiroden is Associate Professor (Science Education), Department of Secondary Education, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2G5.

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