Biodiversity knowledge elements in Biology education: the base of critical thinking

Abstract

While people need to have significantly growing scientific knowledge about plants, there has been a
decrease in student education about and interest in botany over the same period. According to the state of
the world plant 2017 report from 2016, 1730 plant species are new to science and one from five plant
species is endangered with extinction (See the State of the World's Plants Reports, Kew). Considering
these facts, it is clear that the botanical knowledge in dynamic learning and teaching topics as well as the
critical review of the knowledge elements are very important for the young generation. Within
environmental education the elements in school materials (textbooks, experimental textbooks) are
examined, which develops plant recognition skills and local or global botanical knowledge. In this article
the results of a content analysis are summarized, which extends to the exploration of plant species in the
currently most frequently used textbooks, in the 7th, 8th , 10th, 11thor in the 12th Hungarian primary and secondary school classes. This work also demonstrates the value of the plant species appeared in these applied textbooks, and even the rate of the categorized elements most importantly the protected species. Earlier works: The history of methods teaching Biology from the early childhood, The emergence of biodiversity concepts or concept related elements in the Hungarian Biology curricula.