Views about "Alien Species" in Textbooks and Teacher’ Perspectives

• Main Authors: Tang, Ci-Lin, 湯奇霖
• Other Authors: Liu, Shiang-Yao
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/65vhe7

博士 === 國立高雄師範大學 === 環境教育研究所 === 95 === The alien species invasion is one of the important environmental problems worldwide, which has also been discussed extensively as a controversial issue. This study defined the meaning of "alien species" through literature reviews, and analyzed the content allotment of "alien species" in current textbooks for elementary school level. A recognition test for alien species was conducted with 50 elementary school teachers in the region of Kaohsiung City, Kaohsiung County and Pingtung County, and then chose 24 teachers as research subjects based on their different teaching fields and different levels of recognizing "alien species." In-depth interviews aimed to analyze teachers’ views about "alien species" and their educational philosophies to teach this issue. Findings include: 1.Textbook analysis: Social studies textbooks contain more topics of "alien species" than other subject matters. The definitions of alien species are analyzed based on two dimensions –"geographical boundary" and "translocation method". It is found that the term "alien species" should be introduced with more details and cautions. 2.Teachers’ perspectives: Analyses reveal that teaching field is not directly related to teachers’ alien species recognition. However, whether they have experiences relevant to ecosystem conservation or environmental protection may influence their interests on this issue and their recognition level. The majority of interviewed teachers adopt "district" instead of "nation" to define the "geographical boundary" of alien species. And they consider that all alien species are introduced by human beings. On the scenario judgment task, teachers encounter conceptual conflicts so that most interviewees incline to solve the controversies of "alien species" using the "ecological-scientific" value. 3.Most interviewees agree that "alien species" is an important topic to elementary students and should be included in the curriculum. They accept the idea of "leading the students to make judgment from different angles". Findings of this study suggest that the issue of "alien species" should be discussed from different angles and involved moral and ethical reasoning. The idea of "prevention" in this issue should be more effective than the concept of "cure". Environmental education should raise people’s awareness of environmental issues and actions to prevent the problem caused by invasion of alien species.