Effectiveness of digital and paper-based identification keys for plants with Slovenian pre-service teachers

Torkar, Gregor (author)

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 plantspecies 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.

• Language: English
• Keywords: identification key, plants, pre service teacher, plant determination, usability of identification key
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: PEF - Faculty of Education
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2021
• Number of pages: Str. 619-627
• Numbering: Vol. 10, iss. 2
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-125225
• UDC: 37.091.31:50
• ISSN on article: 2165-8714
• DOI: 10.12973/eu-jer.10.2.619
• COBISS.SI-ID: 53970179
• Publication date in RUL: 22.03.2021

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: European journal of educational research
• Publisher: R. Ulker
• ISSN: 2165-8714
• COBISS.SI-ID: 19227400

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: določevalni ključi, rastline, bodoči učitelji