Students‘ alternative conceptions of animal classification
Students‘ alternative conceptions of animal classification

Summary/Abstract: Students’ conceptions of animal classification are the subject of several investigations. In previous research the criteria of classification used by the students were generally neglected.In a constructivistic view of learning and teaching these investigations must be judged asfallacious The study presented here shows that students prefer to classify creatures along thecriteria of habitat and locomotion. They maintain using these criteria even after learning thecategories of biological taxonomy. The results point to the assumption that students have animplicit theory of natural kinship of animals.The „personal taxonomies” of the students investigated are expected to be important meansfor or hints of learning biological systematic and therefore should be seriously taken intoaccount in biology teaching, especially with regard to biological taxonomy, biodiversity andevolution.In accord with the results of the research, the outline of a teaching unit on the evolutionaryapproach to the classification of vertebrates is presented.

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