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First published online September 3, 2009; doi:10.3732/ajb.0900025 American Journal of Botany 96: 1753-1759 (2009) © 2009 Botanical Society of America, Inc.

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Botanical literacy: What and how should students learn about plants?¹

Department of Botany and Microbiology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma 73019 USA

ABSTRACT

Botanists benefit from a scientifically literate society and an interested and botanically literate student population, and we have opportunities to promote literacy in our classes. Unfortunately, scientific illiteracy exists, in part, because students are technologically advanced but lack intellectual curiosity and rigor. Botanical illiteracy results from several interacting factors, including a lack of interest in plants and infrequent exposure to plant science before students reach college. If scientific or botanical literacy is a goal, we must understand what literacy means and how we can help students reach that goal. A model of biological literacy recognizes four levels; students enter courses at the lowest level possessing misconceptions about concepts; however, misconceptions can be used to our advantage, especially by using concept inventories. Inquiry-based instruction is advocated for all science courses, and learning theory supports inquiry. Seven principles of learning inform recommendations about how botanists should teach, including using themes and "thinking botanically" to illustrate all biological concepts. Overall, consideration of the botanical content taught is less critical than the methods used to teach that content. If botanists emphasize thinking and process skills with an understanding of concepts, we will prepare scientifically literate students and citizens and benefit from our efforts.

Key Words: botanical literacy • inquiry instruction • learning theory • misconceptions • scientific literacy • thinking skills

Received for publication 20 January 2009. Accepted for publication 14 May 2009.

FOOTNOTES

¹ The author thanks Christopher Haufler for organizing the symposium on scientific literacy and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.

² E-mail: guno{at}ou.edu

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				C. H. Haufler and M. Sundberg Symposium on scientific literacy: Introduction Am. J. Botany, October 1, 2009; 96(10): 1751 - 1752. [Full Text] [PDF]