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Journal of Science Education and Technology

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01-04-2006

Kindergarten Teachers’ Conceptual Framework on the Ozone Layer Depletion. Exploring the Associative Meanings of a Global Environmental Issue

Authors: Maria Daskolia, Evgenia Flogaitis, Evgenia Papageorgiou

Published in: Journal of Science Education and Technology | Issue 2/2006

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Abstract

This paper reports on a study conducted among Greek kindergarten teachers aiming to explore their conceptual frameworks on a major environmental issue of our times: the ozone layer depletion. The choice of this particular issue was premised on its novelty, complexity and abstractness which present teachers with difficulties in its teaching. A free word association task was employed to identify the associative meaning of the issue among the participant teachers. The study’s results revealed the existence of a simplistic, linear, cause-and-effect scheme in the teachers’ conceptual frameworks, the two poles of which are “solar radiation” and “its harmful results for human health”. Some of the well-known misconceptions and misunderstandings already emerged in previous research also arise in this study. Prominent among them are the deeply rooted confusion between the “ozone hole” and “greenhouse effect”, a general fusion of ideas concerning all environmental problems and an overemphasis on the harmful consequences of the ozone depletion on human health. Implications for kindergarten teacher education are also discussed.

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Title: Kindergarten Teachers’ Conceptual Framework on the Ozone Layer Depletion. Exploring the Associative Meanings of a Global Environmental Issue
Authors: Maria Daskolia
Evgenia Flogaitis
Evgenia Papageorgiou
Publication date: 01-04-2006
Publisher: Kluwer Academic Publishers
Published in: Journal of Science Education and Technology / Issue 2/2006
Print ISSN: 1059-0145
Electronic ISSN: 1573-1839
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10956-006-9004-8

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