Educational Research and Reviews

  • Abbreviation: Educ. Res. Rev.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 1990-3839
  • DOI: 10.5897/ERR
  • Start Year: 2006
  • Published Articles: 2014

Full Length Research Paper

Insistence on Teaching about Photosynthesis of Plants by Their Green Colour

Ramazan Çeken
  • Ramazan Çeken
  • Faculty of Education, Special Education Department, AÄŸrı Ä°brahim Çeçen University, Turkey
  • Google Scholar


  •  Accepted: 13 January 2014
  •  Published: 23 January 2014

Abstract

Green has a common use among the public. Both natural and social environment have an important effect on this expression. People tend to explain the scientific concepts using well-known situations which they intensively see around the living area. In this sense, photosynthesis is one of the most important biological concepts including social and cultural connections. Therefore this study mainly investigated the importance of green in explaining such concept. Data obtained from the document analysis of textbooks and content analysis of Primary School Teaching Students’ (PSTS) answers to open ended questions. Evaluating the writings belongs to 200 PSTS, it is understood that most of them could not explain the photosynthesis of non-green plants scientifically. They think that this explanation is mainly based on the green pigment dominance of plants. Additionally it is an expected result of intensive and haphazardous repeatings as green plants instead of only plants originated from school education and public use. In fact, green is not a requirement for explaining the photosynthesis reaction of plants. This unecessary use in explaining the photosynthesis function of non-green plants is an interesting result for identifying the connection between scientific concepts and socio-cultural issues.
 
Key words: Social, Linguistic and Cultural Issues in Science Education, Misconception.