Factors Influencing the Plant Identification Knowledge and Self-assessed Evaluation of One’s Plant Knowledge of Pre-service Biology Teachers

Abstract

Through teacher preparation courses, biology teachers need to be educated to have sufficient plant species identification knowledge to teach students for botany education, which might help the students understand biodiversity. However, understanding of the key factors affecting pre-service biology teachers’ plant identification knowledge remains poor. The aim of this study was to investigate whether demographic factors(sex and school year), interests to plants, experiences with nature and life, environmentfriendly characteristics, and Big 5 personality traits of pre-service biology teachers may predict their knowledge of local plant species identification and self-assessed evaluation of one’s plant knowledge. The analysis of multiple linear regression and general linear model revealed that female gender influenced knowledge about herb identification positively, while school year showed a positive relation towards knowledge about tree identification and self-assessed evaluation of one’s plant species knowledge. In contrast, environmental sensitivity and New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) did not influence on the outcome variables. In addition to sex and school year, the plant identification knowledge was predicted by their affinity with plants. The final model of self-assessed evaluation of one’s plant knowledge was explained by affinity with plants and indirect experiences, indicating the mediating effects of agreeableness and openness. These results suggest that pre-service biology teachers is required to continuously learn botanyrelated lectures like plant systematics in order to have sufficient knowledge about plant identification and confidence in plant knowledge.