Pre-Service Biology Teachers’ and
Primary School Students’ Attitudes
Toward and Knowledge about
Snakes

Iztok Tomažič

doi:10.12973/ejmste/75194

Pre-Service Biology Teachers’ and Primary School Students’ Attitudes Toward and Knowledge about Snakes

Full Text (PDF)

Iztok Tomažič ¹ ^*

More Detail

¹ University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, SLOVENIA^* Corresponding Author

Abstract

Snakes are controversial animals emblazoned by legends, but also endangered as a result of human prejudice and fear. The author investigated gender and age-related differences in attitudes to and knowledge of snakes comparing samples of school children and preservice teachers. It was found that although pre-service teachers had better knowledge of and more positive scientistic and moralistic attitudes toward snakes fear of snakes and willingness to pay for snake conservation was no statistically different between these two groups of participants. These results support the idea that better factual knowledge is not a sufficient precursor of attitudes toward harmful animals.

Keywords

animals
attitude
knowledge
pre-service teachers
snakes
students

License

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 7, Issue 3, 2011, 161-171

https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/75194

Publication date: 21 Jun 2011

Article Views: 2867

Article Downloads: 1468

Open Access References How to cite this article

References

Alves, R. R. N., & Pereira, G. A. (2007). Commercialization and use of snakes in North and Northeastern Brazil: Implications for conservation and management. Biodiversity and Conservation, 16 (4), 969-985.
Arrindell, W. A., Eisemann, M., Richter J., Tian, P. S., Oei, T. P. S, Caballo, V. E., et al. (2003). Phobic anxiety in 11 nations, Part I: Dimensional constancy of the five-factor model. Behaviour Research & therapy, 41 (4), 461–479.
Barney, E. C., Mintzes, J. J., & Yen, C.-F. (2005). Assessing Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behavior toward Charismatic Megafauna: The Case of Dolphins. Journal of Environmental Education, 36 (2), 41–55.
Byrnes, J., Miller, D., & Schaffer, W. (1999). Gender differences in risk-taking: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 125, 367–383.
Davey, G. C. L., Cavanagh, K., & Lamb, A. (2003). Differential aversive outcome expectancies for highand low-predation fear-relevant animals. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 34(2), 117- 128.
Gibbons, J. W., Scott, D. E., Ryan, T. J., Buhlmann, K. A., Tuberville, T. D., Metts, B. S., et al. (2000). The global decline of reptiles, déjà vu amphibians. BioScience, 50 (8), 653–666.
Hawkes, K. (1991). Showing off. Tests of an hypothesis about men’s foraging goals. Ethology and Sociobiology, 12, 29−54.
Kellert; S. R. (1985). Attitudes toward animals: age-related development among children. Journal of Environmental Education, 16 (3), 29–39.
Kellert, S. R. (1993). Values and perceptions of invertebrates. Conservation Biology, 7(4), 845–855.
Kellert; S. R. (1996). The value of life: biological diversity and human society. Washington: DC, Island Press.
Killermann, W. (1996). Biology education in Germany: Research into the effectiveness of different teaching methods. International Journal of Science Education, 18(3), 333–346.
King, N. J., Hamilton, D. I., Ollendick, T. H. (1994). Childrens Phobias: A Behavioural Perspective. Chichester, England, John Wiley & Sons.
Leech, N. L., Barrett, K. C., Morgan, G. A. (2005). SPSS for Intermediate Statistics: Use and Interpretation. 2. ed. Mahwah: NJ, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Likert, R. (1932). A technique for the measurement of attitudes. Archives of Psychology, 140, 1–55.
Lukas, K. E., & Ross, S. R. (2005). Zoo Visitor Knowledge and Attitudes toward Gorillas and Chimpanzees. Journal of Environmental Education, 36(4), 33–48.
Martín-López, B., Montes, C., & Benayas, J. (2007). The noneconomic motives behind the willingness to pay for biodiversity conservation. Biological Conservation, 139, 67– 82.
McKibbin WF, Shackelford TK, Goetz AT, Bates VM, Starratt VG, Miner EJ (2009). Development and initial psychometric assessment of the rape avoidance inventory. Personality and Individual Differences, 46 (3), 336–340.
Merckelbach H., Muris P. 2001. Specific Phobias. Anxiety Disorders: An Introduction to Clinical Management and Research. Griez E. J. L., Faravelli C., Nutt D., Zohar D. (eds.). Chichester: UK, John Wiley & Sons: 105–135.
Morgan, J. M. (1992). A theoretical basis for evaluating wildlife-related education-programs. American Biology Teacher, 54 (3), 153–157.
Mršić N. 1996. Plazilci (Reptilia) - pomen, stanje raziskanosti in ogroženosti (Reptiles (Reptilia) - their significance, state of research and threat status). Narava Slovenije, stanje in perspektive: zbornik prispevkov o naravni dediščini Slovenije. Gregori, J., Martinčič A., Tarman K., Urbanc-Berčič O., Tome D. and Zupančič M. (eds.). Ljubljana, Društvo ekologov Slovenije: 368–371.
Muris, P., Merckelbach, H., Ollendick, T. H., King, N. J., Meesters, C., van Kessel, C. (2002a). What is the revised fear survey schedule for children measuring? Behaviour Research and Therapy, 40 (11), 1317–1326.
Muris P., Merckelbach, H., de Jong, P. J., Ollendick, T. H. (2002b). The etiology of specific fears and phobias in children: a critique of the non-associative account. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 40 (2): 185–195.
Ocepek R. (2001). Odnos človek-žival v pedagoškem procesu: magistrsko delo (Man-animal relations in education: master’s thesis). Ljubljana, Univerza v Ljubljani: 200 pp.
Öhman A., Mineka S. (2001). Fears, Phobias, and Preparedness: Toward an Evolved Module of Fear and Fear Learning. Psychological Review, 108 (3), 483–522.
Pough, F. H., Andrews, R. M., Cadle, J. E., Crump, M. L., Savitzky, A. H., & Wells, K. D. (1998). Herpetology. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
Prokop, P., Tunnicliffe, S. D. (2008): 'Disgusting animals': Primary school children’s attitudes and myths of bats and spiders. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science & Technology Education, 4 (2), 87–97.
Prokop, P., Rodák, R. (2009). Ability of Slovakian pupils to identify birds. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science & Technology Education, 5 (2), 127–133.
Prokop, P., Fančovičová, J., Kubiatko, M. (2009a). Vampires are still alive: Slovakian students’ attitudes toward bats. Anthrozoös, 22 (1), 19–30.
Prokop, P., Özel, M., Uşak, M. (2009b). Cross-cultural comparison of student attitudes toward snakes. Society and Animals, 17 (3), 224–240.
Prokop, P., Tunnicliffe, S.D. (2010). Effects of keeping pets on children’s attitudes toward popular and unpopular animals. Anthrozoös, 23 (1): 21–35.
Randler, C., Ilg, A., & Kern, J. (2005). Cognitive and emotional evaluation of an amphibian conservation program for elementary school students. Journal of Environmental Education, 37 (4), 43–52.
Røskaft, E., Bjerke, T., Kaltenborn, B. P., Linnell, J. D. C., & Andersen, R. (2003). Patterns of self-reported fear towards large carnivores among the Norwegian public. Evolution & Human Behavior, 24 (3), 184–198.
Sharma, S. (1996). Applied multivariate techniques. Wiley, N J.
Tabachnick, B., & Fidell, L. (2007). Using multivariate statistics (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon/Pearson Education.
Thompson, T. L., & Mintzes, J. J. (2002). Cognitive structure and the affective domain: on knowing and feeling in biology. International Journal of Science Education, 24(6), 645–660.
Tomažič, I. (2008). The influence of direct experience on students’ attitudes to, and knowledge about amphibians. Acta Biologica Slovenica, 51(1), 39–49.
Uradni list RS, št. 82/2002. Pravilnik o uvrstitvi ogroženih rastlinskih in živalskih vrst v rdeči seznam. Available at: http://www.uradni-list.si/ (2 May 2010).
Valvasor. J.V. (1689/1984). The Glory of the Duchy of Carniola: selected chapters (Slava vojvodine Kranjske : izbrana poglavja). Gerlanc, B. (ed.). Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga: 85-86.

How to cite this article

APA

Tomažič, I. (2011). Pre-Service Biology Teachers’ and Primary School Students’ Attitudes Toward and Knowledge about Snakes. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 7(3), 161-171. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/75194

Vancouver

Tomažič I. Pre-Service Biology Teachers’ and Primary School Students’ Attitudes Toward and Knowledge about Snakes. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2011;7(3):161-71. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/75194

AMA

Tomažič I. Pre-Service Biology Teachers’ and Primary School Students’ Attitudes Toward and Knowledge about Snakes. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2011;7(3), 161-171. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/75194

Chicago

Tomažič, Iztok. "Pre-Service Biology Teachers’ and Primary School Students’ Attitudes Toward and Knowledge about Snakes". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education 2011 7 no. 3 (2011): 161-171. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/75194

Harvard

Tomažič, I. (2011). Pre-Service Biology Teachers’ and Primary School Students’ Attitudes Toward and Knowledge about Snakes. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 7(3), pp. 161-171. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/75194

MLA

Tomažič, Iztok "Pre-Service Biology Teachers’ and Primary School Students’ Attitudes Toward and Knowledge about Snakes". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, vol. 7, no. 3, 2011, pp. 161-171. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/75194