Teaching and learning approaches in ecology very often follow linear conceptions of ecosystems. Empirical studies with an ecological focus consistent with existing syllabi and focusing on cognitive achievement are scarce. Consequently, we concentrated on a classroom unit that offers learning materials and highlights the existing complexity rather…

Recent psychological studies highlight emotional aspects, and they show an important role within individual learning processes. Hereby, positive emotions were supposed to positively influence learning and achievement processes and negative ones do the contrary. In this study, an educational unit "ecosystem lake" was used during which…

In this study, we compared a traditional teaching sequence (four distinct lessons) with a block schedule dealing with the ecological adaptations of the water lily. The educational unit contained original plant material and both experimental groups received the same tasks and working sheets. Pupils worked together in groups of three to four pupils…

Animal species identification is often emphasized as a basic prerequisite for an understanding of ecology because ecological interactions are based on interactions between species at least as it is taught on the school level. Therefore, training identification skills or using identification books seems a worthwhile task in biology education, and…

Animal and plant species identification is often emphasized as a basic prerequisite for an understanding of ecology and training identification skills seems a worthwhile task in biology education. Such identification tasks could be embedded into hands-on, group-based and self-determined learning: a) Teaching and learning should make use of a small…

The planning of adequate control groups is a central aspect of educational research. Didactical studies, however, are often field studies encountering many problems of everyday classroom teaching? Recent research has indicated that teachers and their beliefs have an enormous influence on learning and retention. Taking this line of evidence…

We surveyed interest in ecology prior, during, and after an ecological unit of 14 lessons ("Ecosystem Lake"). Achievement was assessed in a pretest (T-1), a class test (T-2; used for grading), and a retention test (T-3). We found a main effect of stratification on the level of interest in ecology after the educational unit (pupils from…

This study focused on differences between teacher-centred and learner-centred experiments in soil ecology. After a pilot study, we selected three experiments simple enough to be carried out by pupils even with little experience in self-determined learning and hands-on practice. The sample comprised 123 fifth and sixth graders from a middle school…