Like Father, Like Son? On the Relationship between Parents’ and Children’s Familiarity with Species and Sources of Knowledge about Plants and Animals

Martin Remmele; Petra Lindemann-Matthies

doi:10.29333/ejmste/92287

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Martin Remmele ¹ ^* , Petra Lindemann-Matthies ¹

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¹ Pädagogische Hochschule Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, GERMANY^* Corresponding Author

Abstract

This study investigates whether parents consider themselves vital in transmitting species knowledge to their children, whether children’s familiarity with species is actually related to that of their parents, and whether socio-demographic variables influence this relationship. Data were collected with the help of a picture test and a questionnaire. Overall, 402 parent-child-pairs participated in the study. Parents regarded themselves as main transmitters of species knowledge to their 5-11 year old children, but considered school education and outdoor experiences also important. While parents identified 29% of the plants and 35% of the animals presented to them, their children identified only 17% of the plants and 22% of the animals. Parents’ and children’s familiarity with species was positively related. However, the relationship was stronger for plants than for animals. Children’s familiarity with species was also positively related to age, interest in nature and, in case of plants, rurality of their places of living.

Keywords

species identification
parents
children
sources of knowledge
family perception

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, Volume 14, Issue 10, October 2018, Article No: em1581

https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/92287

Publication date: 14 Jun 2018

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Article Downloads: 1636

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How to cite this article

APA

Remmele, M., & Lindemann-Matthies, P. (2018). Like Father, Like Son? On the Relationship between Parents’ and Children’s Familiarity with Species and Sources of Knowledge about Plants and Animals. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 14(10), em1581. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/92287

Vancouver

Remmele M, Lindemann-Matthies P. Like Father, Like Son? On the Relationship between Parents’ and Children’s Familiarity with Species and Sources of Knowledge about Plants and Animals. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2018;14(10):em1581. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/92287

AMA

Remmele M, Lindemann-Matthies P. Like Father, Like Son? On the Relationship between Parents’ and Children’s Familiarity with Species and Sources of Knowledge about Plants and Animals. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2018;14(10), em1581. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/92287

Chicago

Remmele, Martin, and Petra Lindemann-Matthies. "Like Father, Like Son? On the Relationship between Parents’ and Children’s Familiarity with Species and Sources of Knowledge about Plants and Animals". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education 2018 14 no. 10 (2018): em1581. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/92287

Harvard

Remmele, M., and Lindemann-Matthies, P. (2018). Like Father, Like Son? On the Relationship between Parents’ and Children’s Familiarity with Species and Sources of Knowledge about Plants and Animals. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 14(10), em1581. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/92287

MLA

Remmele, Martin et al. "Like Father, Like Son? On the Relationship between Parents’ and Children’s Familiarity with Species and Sources of Knowledge about Plants and Animals". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, vol. 14, no. 10, 2018, em1581. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/92287