Higher education biology students’ conceptions on botany teaching : a Brazil – Portugal case study

Abstract

Generally, the teaching of botany is seen as mainly based on the transmission of knowledge and on empirical-logical thinking, in a context of scientific knowledge and with the purpose of affirming truth about the world. From this perspective, both in Brazil and in Portugal botany is usually seen as a list of scientific names remote from the daily life of students, which might make classes demotivating. This project was designed with the aim of understanding the prior conceptions of higher education students training to be biology teachers. It was based on a questionnaire that allowed open answers, completed by students in the beginning of their degree. The purpose of this questionnaire was to collect data that would show how students understood teaching in general and botany teaching in particular, and how they conceived the teachers’ role in the development of their knowledge of teaching methods. Data showed that Brazilian students considered the teaching of botany as a theoretical subject that was followed by a practical component. The practical classes were based on demonstration of what had previously been explained in theory. The Portuguese students considered the teaching to be more practical. Teaching was seen as based on practice and classes were more dynamic and fostered interaction. All students said that the teacher was a source of knowledge who also encouraged practice, which made teaching essential for their training. However, Portuguese students stressed that teachers should motivate students to see botany as a field of knowledge.