School Students' Attitudes towards Unloved Biodiversity: Insights from a Citizen Science Project about Urban Rats

Autor/in	Aivelo, Tuomas
Titel	School Students' Attitudes towards Unloved Biodiversity: Insights from a Citizen Science Project about Urban Rats
Quelle	In: Environmental Education Research, 29 (2023) 1, S.81-98 (18 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Aivelo, Tuomas)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1350-4622
DOI	10.1080/13504622.2022.2140125
Schlagwörter	Biodiversity; Science Education; Item Response Theory; Student Attitudes; Positive Attitudes; Secondary School Students; Urban Areas; Biology; Age Differences; Gender Differences; Environment; Psychological Patterns; Negative Attitudes; Rating Scales; Scientific Concepts; Foreign Countries; Science Projects; Student Participation; Finland + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Biodiversität; Naturwissenschaftliche Bildung; Item-Response-Theorie; Schülerverhalten; Sekundarschüler; Urban area; Stadtregion; Biologie; Age; Difference; Age difference; Altersunterschied; Geschlechterkonflikt; Umwelt; Negative Fixierung; Rating-Skala; Ausland; Science; Project; Wissenschaft; Projekt; Schülermitarbeit; Schülermitwirkung; Studentische Mitbestimmung; Finnland
Abstract	Most of biodiversity is not considered charismatic and from human's perspective it can be indifferent, problematic, harmful, disgusting, or dangerous. Secondary school students' attitudes towards an unloved species and how it relates to their feelings of disgust in the context of a biology course were studied during a citizen science project where Finnish secondary school students surveyed the occurrence of urban rats. Questionnaire data were collected on four scales: attitude towards rats, interest in learning about environment, disgust, and liking biology as a school subject. It was modeled with an item response theory approach by including respondents' age and gender. Higher age correlated with a more positive attitude towards the environment and lower level of disgust. Surprisingly, the students with more positive attitude towards rats also not only had a higher liking biology as a school subject and positive attitude towards the environment, but also a higher level of general disgust. The results suggest that disgust in general is not detrimental in learning and appreciating unloved others as parts of biodiversity. The results also raise questions on how personal attitudes towards the individual species relate to attitudes toward more abstract concept of biodiversity or the environment. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01