Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice

ISSN: 2630-5984

Interest in Birds and its Relationship with Attitudes and Myths: A Cross-cultural Study in Countries with Different Levels of Economic Development

Eberhard Hummel
University of Education Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 561, D-69120 Heidelberg, Staatliches Seminar für Lehrerbildung, Ludwigsburg, Germany
Murat Ozel
Department of Science Education, Nigde University, 51240 Niğde, Turkey
William Medina Jerez
Teacher Education Department, College of Education, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, Texas, USA
Jana Fan ovi ová
Jana Fan ovi ová, Department of Biology, Faculty of Education, Trnava University, Slovakia
Muhammet Usak
Department of Science Education, Faculty of Education, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey
Pavol Prokop
Department of Biology, Faculty of Education, Trnava University & Institute of Zoology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dúbravská cesta 9, 845 06 Bratislava, Slovakia
Christoph Randler
University of Education Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 561, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany

Abstract

Birds are one of the most important species that can help protect biodiversity. Although birds are important beings for biodiversity and human existence, there is a relatively less quantity of research that has investigated the interest in and attitudes toward birds. This study aims to investigate the knowledge level of and attitudes toward birds among students in countries at different levels of economic development. To collect the data, a Bird Knowledge Questionnaire and a Bird Attitude Questionnaire were developed and used by the researchers in this study. These questionnaires were administered to a total of 852 students from different countries, including Colombia, Germany, Slovakia, and Turkey. The results obtained in this study showed that Colombian students had the highest interest in birds as compared to students in Slovakia, Turkey, and Germany. Girls had consistently higher interest in birds than boys in all countries, but there were no gender differences in the cognitive domain. Our research suggests that factual knowledge about birds is not a necessary prerequisite for interest in birds, but animal-related activities show strong associations with an interest in birds.

Keywords
Attitudes, Birds, Cross-cultural study, Myths, Science education.