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RESEARCH PAPER
Teaching digestive system: Spanish pre-service teacher’s learning difficulties and alternative conceptions
1
Department of Didactics of Experimental Sciences, Social Sciences and Mathematics, University of Valladolid, Valladolid, SPAIN
2
IOBA, University of Valladolid, Valladolid, SPAIN
3
CIBER-BBN, ISCIII, Valladolid, SPAIN
Online publication date: 2023-03-07
Publication date: 2023-04-01
EURASIA J. Math., Sci Tech. Ed 2023;19(4):em2244
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
The aim of the research was to analyze the learning difficulties and alternative conceptions that
Spanish pre-service teachers have about digestive physiology and anatomy. The study was
conducted on a primary education bachelor’s degree biology course during the 2021/2022
academic year (n=91). The participants were asked to complete a conceptual test before (pre-test)
and after the instruction (post-test). The results revealed that they had a limited knowledge of the
digestive process before instruction (pre-test), especially those in the humanities baccalaureate
group. Numerous alternative conceptions were identified, for example, that digestion ends in the
stomach, mechanical digestion takes place only in the mouth, and nutrient absorption and
transport into the bloodstream are not part of the digestive process. The results also indicated
that levels of knowledge increased significantly after the course was completed (post-test);
however, several features of the digestive process remained poorly understood, mainly because
of the pre-service teachers’ lack of understanding of the cellular or molecular aspects that govern
this process and their inability to distinguish between macro and micro levels of digestion. It is
therefore recommended that the pre-service teachers acquire a comprehensive knowledge of the
digestive by studying other scientific disciplines (physics, chemistry, cell and molecular biology,
and so on).
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