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Open research questions in Animal and Plant Science Education

41 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 1,012 Animal and Plant Science Education papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.

What the literature leaves open

  • Educational programs should be designed to combine outdoor experiential learning with meaningful digital integration, offering varied entry points for engagement and reflection. Such an approach can increase student motivation, improve plant recognition skills, and foster deeper ecological understanding. It is important for future biology educators to understand and appreciate the importance of plants, which are crucial for environmental health, biodiversity, and the continuity of human life. This understanding is essential for instilling the same perspective in future generations when they become teachers. In this context, botany courses should not be limited to a single semester or grade level in teacher training programs, but rather integrated progressively across multiple stages of the curriculum. This could be achieved by embedding plant-related content into general biology courses in the early years, followed by dedicated outdoor-oriented botany modules in later semesters. Such integration can be aligned with national curriculum standards through interdisciplinary planning and collaboration between field experts and curriculum developers. Moreover, it is essential that these botany courses are not confined to classrooms but are conducted in natural settings through experiential and inquiry-based learning. Outdoor environments enable students to engage with plants in their ecological context, thereby fostering deeper awareness and appreciation. To eliminate plant blindness and increase plant awareness, varied, rich-content activities targeting both attitudes and cognitive development should be embedded into botany courses. Future studies could investigate the effectiveness of outdoor plant observation activities on students with different learning styles or cognitive profiles. Additionally, while this study focused on herbaceous plants, further research could examine awareness and attitudes toward other plant groups, such as trees, shrubs, or aquatic plants. It would also be valuable to explore how digital tools or gamified systems might enhance students’ interaction with plant species in open-air settings. 201 MİLLÎ EĞİTİM ● Cilt: 55 ● Kış/2026 ● Sayı: 249, (177-214) Giriş Genişletilmiş Özet Bitkiler, insanlık için hayati öneme sahiptir. Tarımsal bitkiler, temel gıda kaynaklarımızı oluştururken; baharatlar, içecekler ve endüstriyel ürünler gibi çeşitli alanlarda da kullanılmaktadır. Bununla birlikte sanayileşme, kentleşme, tarımsal uygulamalar, iklim değişiklikleri ve habitat kaybı gibi insan faaliyetleri biyolojik çeşitliliği tehdit etmektedir. Bu tehditlerin yalnızca hayvanlar üzerinde değil, bitkiler üzerinde de büyük etkileri bulunmaktadır.

    Learning to See Plants: Overcoming Future Teachers’ Plant Blindness Through Outdoor Educational Activities · 2026 · DOI

  • The visualization workshop recommendation trains lecturers to convert Shannon-Wiener H values to Effective Species Numbers using 'the appropriate exponent formula,' but the paper does not specify which conversion formula (Jost's true diversity framework, specific exponent values for different bases) should be taught or how to validate that lecturer understanding transfers to student competency. A controlled intervention study comparing workshop effectiveness with different formula presentations and assessment methods is needed.

    Beyond the Shannon-Wiener Index: Disparities in Lecturers' Conceptual Knowledge of Effective Species Numbers · 2026 · DOI

  • The paper identifies a gap between global theoretical ecology (Hill's Numbers, doubling property fulfillment) and local Indonesian teaching practices where Effective Species Numbers are minimally used, but provides no data on which specific ecology courses, textbook editions, or research institutions are most resistant to adopting this modern approach. A targeted survey mapping adoption barriers (pedagogical, computational, institutional) across different university types in Indonesia is needed.

    Beyond the Shannon-Wiener Index: Disparities in Lecturers' Conceptual Knowledge of Effective Species Numbers · 2026 · DOI

  • The study shows that the interpretation criteria (H < 1 = low, 1 < H < 3 = moderate, H > 3 = high diversity) is only mathematically valid for natural logarithm base, yet this same criteria is mechanically applied across Indonesian research despite variation in species richness contexts. Empirical validation is required to establish logarithm-base-independent interpretation thresholds or determine if Effective Species Numbers conversion makes these traditional diversity categories obsolete across different ecosystem types.

    Beyond the Shannon-Wiener Index: Disparities in Lecturers' Conceptual Knowledge of Effective Species Numbers · 2026 · DOI

  • The paper documents that Indonesian textbooks and software (R vegan package, Excel) default to natural logarithm for Shannon-Wiener calculations, but there is no systematic audit of how this default propagates misconceptions across the entire Indonesian undergraduate biology and forestry curriculum. A comprehensive curriculum content analysis across universities is needed to quantify the scope of this methodological standardization problem.

    Beyond the Shannon-Wiener Index: Disparities in Lecturers' Conceptual Knowledge of Effective Species Numbers · 2026 · DOI

  • The study identifies that Indonesian ecology lecturers predominantly use Shannon-Wiener Index with natural logarithm (ln) base due to textbook conventions, but there is no empirical validation comparing teaching outcomes when lecturers are trained to use alternative logarithmic bases (log₂, log₁₀) alongside Effective Species Numbers. Research is needed to measure whether explicit instruction on logarithmic base implications and Hill's Numbers conversion improves students' conceptual understanding of diversity metrics.

    Beyond the Shannon-Wiener Index: Disparities in Lecturers' Conceptual Knowledge of Effective Species Numbers · 2026 · DOI

  • Findings reveal that the analysed textbooks present PAD features; promote reproductive and superficial learning that fails to foster the construction of interrelated and scientifically accurate mental models of plant nutrition; include visual representations that do not always enhance learning; and propose tasks which are insufficient to develop the scientific skills and competence pursued by current science teaching-learning.

    Do textbooks provide opportunities to develop meaningful botanical literacy? A case study of the scientific model of plant nutrition · 2024 · DOI

  • While the use of LED s promotes energy and cost savings relative to traditional lighting technologies, little is known about the effects these broad‐spectrum “white” lights will have on wildlife, human health, animal welfare, and disease transmission.

    Experimentally comparing the attractiveness of domestic lights to insects: Do<scp>LED</scp>s attract fewer insects than conventional light types? · 2016 · DOI

  • Background: The global biodiversity crisis has severely affected amphibians, a key group for ecosystem health, yet social perceptions that shape human–amphibian interactions remain poorly documented in the Colombian Caribbean.

    Amphibian Traits and Sociodemographic Factors Shape Local Community Perceptions and Conservation Attitudes in Colombia’s Tropical Dry Forests · 2026 · DOI

  • The paper identifies an asymmetry in attention where conservation frameworks readily recognize harmful ecological outcomes of human activity while treating potentially beneficial ones with antagonism or ambivalence, indicating a need for more balanced assessment approaches.

    Toward a participatory and adaptive ecology of biodiversity conservation · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a need to examine how assumptions and advocacy shape scientific interpretation in conservation biology, suggesting a gap in understanding the epistemological foundations of conservation practice.

    Toward a participatory and adaptive ecology of biodiversity conservation · 2026 · DOI

  • Conservation frameworks need to move beyond judging processes as 'natural' or 'artificial' to assessing their actual, empirical contributions to species persistence, requiring new frameworks for evaluating novel human-mediated ecological outcomes.

    Toward a participatory and adaptive ecology of biodiversity conservation · 2026 · DOI

  • Our findings indicate that Zoom Map improved students’ explanations of the phenomenon across multiple levels of organisation: The students used more levels than before, and they referred to lower levels that were lacking previously.

    Guiding students’ explanations across levels of biological organisation: the case of wilted plants · 2022 · DOI

  • Previously, bird identification and ornithology were luxury hobbies or academic pursuits limited to a small fraction of the American public, namely the affluent upper class or progressive conservationists.

    Fatal fashions and caring actions: Florence Augusta Merriam Bailey and the rise of avian conservation · 2021 · DOI

  • However, so-called threshold concepts (randomness, probability, spatial scale, and temporal scales) have also been suggested to be important for understanding of natural selection, but there is currently limited knowledge about how students use these concepts.

    Conceptual Characterization of Threshold Concepts in Student Explanations of Evolution by Natural Selection and Effects of Item Context · 2020 · DOI

  • While sustainable development is a top priority for every modern society, it has not yet been established whether plant blindness can be a substantive impediment towards this direction.

    Plant blindness: a faddish research interest or a substantive impediment to achieve sustainable development goals? · 2020 · DOI

  • Plants are excellent models for studying human preferences because of the long evolutionary connectedness of humans with plants as food sources, although research in this field is scarce.

    The perception of toxic and non-toxic plants by children and adolescents with regard to gender: implications for teaching botany · 2018 · DOI

  • For rural, indigenous communities the ways structural modernization, exposure to Western-scientific epistemologies, and formal schooling affect environmental reasoning remain unclear.

    Going to School in the Forest: Changing Evaluations of Animal-Plant Interactions in the Kichwa Amazon · 2018 · DOI

  • However, few studies have considered the role that sociolinguistic meanings embedded within semiotic systems play in influencing Western perceptions of insects as foodstuffs.

    A Semiotic Approach to Entomophagy · 2016 · DOI

  • While the term plant blindness suggests a perceptual or attentional component to plant neglect, few studies have examined whether there are real differences in how plants and animals are perceived.

    Attention “Blinks” Differently for Plants and Animals · 2014 · DOI

  • Their limited knowledge did not improve with age and appears to be derived from indirect sources, such as television programmes, motifs on Christmas cards and nursery rhymes, rather than actually seeing birds in the wild.

    Pupils' knowledge of birds: how good is it and where does it come from? · 2006

  • But whether he is making these little known subjects entertaining and miraculous or writing about the more popular cougars, killer whales, and bald eagles, Dietrich knows where and how to find the facts and acts that make most pages a surprise for the non-specialist.

    Natural Grace: The Charm, Wonder, and Lessons of Pacific Northwest Animals and Plants - eScholarship · 2003

  • The influence of affective realms on interpretive programs is poorly understood and not well researched (Howard 1998).

    Research in Progress: Does Environmental Interpretation Influence Behaviour through Knowledge or Affect? · 1999 · DOI

  • Causal analysis of phenomena characteristic of populations or species as a whole cannot be limited to the physiological or behavioral processes observed in the individual.

    Functional approaches to analogical comparison between species · 1973 · DOI

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41 open questions have been extracted from the limitations and future-work passages of 1,012 Animal and Plant Science Education papers in our library. Each one below links back to the study that raised it, so you can read the original claim in context.

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