STUDENTS’ UNDERSTANDING OF HUMAN PREGNANCY

Journal Title: Journal of Baltic Science Education - Year 2008, Vol 7, Issue 1

Abstract

Research into students’ concepts about the human body has focused on several organ systems, but the reproductive system has been largely overlooked. The few studies that addressed children’s concepts of birth were conducted mainly among kindergarten or primary school children. However, no study has yet attempted to examine how adolescent students perceive human pregnancy. We administered a Human Pregnancy Understanding Questionnaire (HPUQ) consisting of 50 Likert-type items to 300 university students in Slovakia. We found several misunderstandings of human fertilization, fetus respiration, and organ development. Moreover, several misconceptions found in Slovakian primary school children in the previous research still persist in adult students. Analysis of covariance shows that students’ HPUQ scores were significantly affected by gender whereas females have better scores than males. The effect of high school type attendance (with/without human biology course) did show only weak effect on students’ HPUQ score.

Authors and Affiliations

Pavol Prokop, Jana Fančovičová

Keywords

Related Articles

THE VALIDITY AND EFFECTIVENESS OF PHYSICS INDEPENDENT LEARNING MODEL TO IMPROVE PHYSICS PROBLEM SOLVING AND SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING SKILLS OF STUDENTS IN OPEN AND DISTANCE EDUCATION SYSTEMS

The Physics Independent Learning (PIL) model is an authentic problem-based model designed teaching guide for improving self-directed learning and problem-solving skills in open and distance education. This research is ai...

A THEORY-BASED INSTRUMENT TO EVALUATE MOTIVATIONAL TRIGGERS PERCEIVED BY STUDENTS IN STEM CAREER-RELATED SCENARIOS

Students’ lack of motivation in learning school science has been recognized as a problem, due to its negative impact on students´ STEM-related career choices. For supporting students´ motivation to study science, the use...

PROPOSALS FOR SMALL STEPS TOWARD REPRODUCIBILITY OF SCIENCE EDUCATIONAL STUDIES

It is evident that almost nobody is satisfied with contemporary (science) education, however, critique and proposed solutions to the perceived educational problems are sometimes established from opposite reasoning. Nowad...

THE EFFECT OF EARTHCOMM LEARNING MODEL AND SPATIAL THINKING ABILITY ON GEOGRAPHY LEARNING OUTCOMES

Geography learning is meaningless if it is not followed by the development of students' spatial thinking ability. Research aimed to 1) determine the effect of earthcomm learning and conventional learning on geography lea...

PRACTICALITY AND EFFECTIVENESS OF THE IBMR TEACHING MODEL TO IMPROVE PHYSICS PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS

The design of a teaching model must qualify to be applicable or practical and effective, therefore the research aimed to analyze the practicality and effectiveness of the IBMR (Investigation-Based Multiple Representation...

Download PDF file
  • EP ID EP84098
  • DOI -
  • Views 72
  • Downloads 0

How To Cite

Pavol Prokop, Jana Fančovičová (2008). STUDENTS’ UNDERSTANDING OF HUMAN PREGNANCY . Journal of Baltic Science Education, 7(1), 37-47. https://europub.co.uk/articles/-A-84098