Abstract
<p style="text-align:justify">Teaching about biodiversity and its conservation could be an effective way to teach the importance of different species and human dependence on ecological support systems. This study compares the effectiveness of a digital and a paper-based dichotomous identification key for teaching pre-service teachers about plant species diversity. Twenty-four Slovenian teachers in pre-service training used a digital version of the key on tablet computers and twenty-nine used a paper-based version to identify woody species in the garden near their university faculty. Both keys contained the same species, identical photographs and the same sequence of steps to identify the species. The accuracy and time taken to identify the five species were measured. The participants also completed a questionnaire about the usability of the identification key. Overall, both versions of the key were equally good for determining species names. The digital version of the key was found to be more time-effective than the paper version only when multiple identification steps were required to identify species. The results confirm that those who scored better on the identification tasks have a better general opinion about the usability of the key; especially students using digital version of the key. Implications for teachers using or creating identification keys are discussed in the conclusion.</p>
Highlights
There is a growing awareness of the importance of biodiversity conservation for the survival of humanity (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment [MEA], 2005). Barney et al (2005) stress the importance of communicating biodiversity to raise public awareness of the importance of nature conservation
There were no significant association between the expected and observed frequencies in each category for Viburnum lantana (χ2(1) = .232, p = .630), Berberis thumnbergii (χ2(1) = 2.071, p = .150), Thuja occidentalis (χ2(1) = .587, p = .444), Picea omorika (χ2(1) = 1.127, p = .288) and Ligustrum vulgare (χ2(1) = 1.113, p = .292). This means that the ratio of correctly identified plants with the digital version does not differ significantly from the ratio of correctly identified plants with the paper version of the identification key
Earlier studies (e.g. Anđić et al, 2020; Dolenc-Orbanić et al, 2017; Laganis et al, 2017; Randler & Bogner, 2006) found the usability of the digital identification key, but the present study showed that overall, both versions of the key were good for the identification of species names
Summary
There is a growing awareness of the importance of biodiversity conservation for the survival of humanity (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment [MEA], 2005). Barney et al (2005) stress the importance of communicating biodiversity to raise public awareness of the importance of nature conservation. Kos and Jerman (2015) emphasised that children should be encouraged to notice the many variables and details when observing plants They found that five- to ten-year-old children pay most attention to obvious features: first colour, shape, and size. This declining interest in knowledge about species diversity and identification skills is partly the result of an increased focus on 'higher order cognitive goals' throughout the educational system, which is shifting towards more ecologically oriented approaches (Randler & Bogner, 2002). Taxonomic impediment reduces the initial opportunity to develop specific skills to identify lesser-studied species groups and to capture the full biodiversity of an area
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