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READING

READING PASSAGE 1

You

should

spend

about

20

minutes

on

Questions

1-14

which

are

based

on Reading Passage 1 below.

Adults and children are frequently confronted with statements

about

the

alarming

rat

of

loss

of

tropical

rainforests.

For

example,

one graphic

illustration to

which

children

might

readily relate

is

the

estimate

that

rainforests

are

being

destroyed

at

a

rate

equivalent to one thousand football fields every forty minutes

–

about

the

duration

of

a

normal

classroom

period.

In

the

face

of

the

frequent

and

often

vivid

media

coverage,

it

is

likely

that

children

will

have

formed

ideas

about

rainforests

–

what

and

where

they

are,

why they are important, what endangers them

–

independent of any

formal tuition. It is also possible that some of these ideas will

be mistaken.

Many studies have shown that children harbor misconceptions

about ‘pure’, curriculum science. These misconceptions do not

remain isolated but become incorporated into a multifaceted, but

organized,

conceptual

framework,

making

it

and

the

component

ideas,

some of which are erroneous, more robust but also accessible to

modification. These ideas may be developed by children absorbing

ideas through

the

popular

media.

Sometimes

this information

may

be

erroneous.

It

seems

schools

may

not

be

providing

an

opportunity

for

children to re-express their ideas and so have them tested and

refined by teachers and their peers.

Despite the extensive coverage in the popular media of the

destruction

of

rainforests,

little

formal

information

is

available

about children’s ideas in this area, the aim of the present study

is to start to provide such information, to help teachers design

their educational strategies to build upon correct ideas and to

displace

misconceptions

and

to

plan

programs

in

environmental

studies in their schools.

The

study

surveys

children’s

scientific

knowledge

and

attitudes to rainforests.

Secondary

school

children

were

asked

to

complete

a

questionnaire

containing

five

open-form

questions.

The

most

frequent responses to the first question were descriptions which

are

self-

evident

from

the

term

‘rainforest’.

Some

children

described them as damp, wet or hot. The second question concerned

the geographical location of rainforests. The commonest responses

were continents or countries: Africa (given by 43% of children),

South America (30%), Brazil (25%). Some children also gave more

general locations, such as being near the Equator.

Responses

to

question

three

concerned

the

importance

of

rainforests. The dominant idea, raised by 64% of the pupils, was

that

rainforests

provide

animals

with

habitats.

Fewer

students

responded that rainforests provide plant habitats, and even fewer

(60%) raised the idea of rainforest as animal habitats.

Similarly,

but

at

a

lower

level,

more

girls

(13%)

than

boys

(5%)

said that rainforests provided human habitats. These observations

are

generally

consistent

with

our

previous

studied

of

pupils’

views

about the use and conservation of rainforests, in which girls were

shown to be more sympathetic to animals and expressed views which

seem to place an intrinsic value on non-human animal life.

The

fourth

question

concerned

the

causes

of

the

destruction

of

rainforests.

Perhaps

encouragingly,

more

than

half

of

the

pupil

(59%)

identified

that

it

is

human

activities

which

are

destroying

rainforests, some personalizing the responsibility by the use of

terms

such

as

‘we

are’.

About

18%

of

the

pupils

referred

specifically to logging activity.

One misconception, expressed by some 1) % of the pupils, was

that

acid

rain

is

responsible

for

rainforest

destruction;

a

similar

proportion said that pollution is destroying rainforests. Here,

children are confusing rainforest destruction with damage to the

forests

of

Western

Europe

by

these

factors.

While

two

fifths

of

the

students

provided

the

information

that

the

rainforests

provide