Abstract (eng)
An understanding of, and engagement in, biodiversity conservation requires a well-founded knowledge of species. However, broad sections of the population today have little knowledge of species and are unable to adequately assess their interrelationship in the ecosystem. In the context of the present study, constructivist learning offers pertaining to “waterbirds” were developed. Aside from enabling an introduction to bird identification, the aim was to promote understanding for biology and ecology in general, and to raise awareness for the biodiversity of waterbirds. In a further step, the learning offers were conducted and evaluated in an authentic learning environment, in the course of a 'mixed-method approach', in a 'pre-post-follow-up design'. The ‘draw-and-explain method’, with which visual and verbal data were collected and linked for evaluation, represents the core of the methodological approach. The methodical approach also enables younger participants to express themselves beyond linguistic boundaries by means of drawings. Individual learning gains were evaluated using quantitative evaluation methods. The results show a development from species-unspecific to highly species-specific verbal and visual representations, which clearly indicates the positive influence of the learning offers.
The learners’ understanding and perceptions were reconstructed based on six individual cases in order to derive possibilities for further refinement of the learning offers.
The results of the individual cases show both a promotion of, and positive emotional association with, species knowledge and thus species biodiversity.
There is potential to further refine the learning offers if additional materials are developed which promote learners’ understanding of bird species’ behavior and ecological interrelationships.