Pigeon - friend or foe? Children’s understanding of an everyday animal
Dr Sue Dale Tunnicliffe, Dr Carolyn Boulter, Professor Michael Reiss
Institute of Education, University of London, LondonWC1H 0AL, UK
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Paper presented at the British Educational Research Association Annual Conference, Institute of Education, University of London, 5-8 September 2007
Abstract
School science generally assumes that for any scientific issue there is a single valid scientific conception so that alternative conceptions are misconceptions. Personal knowledge and experience from non-scientific domains are disregarded. This ESRC-funded research sought to elicit the understandings that school children in England, aged six years, ten years and fourteen years, held of an animal commonly seen in streets, town centres and gardens, the domestic pigeon (Columba sp.). Twenty four pupils in the south of England in four different schools were interviewed individually and cued into the discussion by the interviewer saying the word, ‘Pigeon’, and asking the pupil to say what they knew about this animal. The interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed. At the end of the fieldwork, the pupils were invited to draw a representation of the pigeon in the natural world. The transcripts were analysed using systems analysis and a schema for human influences which encompasses social and cultural domains. Results showed pupils held not only biological knowledge but also rich social and cultural beliefs and understandings; particular personal experiences in the form of narratives are also revealed and the pedagogical implications are discussed.
Introduction
People are not out of touch with wildlife today although they may only be familiar with organisms living in the environment in which they themselves live their daily lives. Thus, although most people inhabit an urban world, which contains other living organisms, some of which are often encountered in the day-to-day lives of pupils even in the most urban of environments. Children view live animals and identify striking features of their anatomy and behaviour where they are observed, in a zoo or field centre for instance (Tunnicliffe, 2000), and have some knowledge of and experiences in the everyday environment where they live and attend school. Such experience and knowledge is not necessarily gained from formal education (Tunnicliffe & Reiss, 1999). However, pupils are taught in English schools in their science curriculum about basic grouping of organisms ( Moreover, school science generally assumes that for any scientific issue there is a single valid scientific conception so that alternative conceptions are misconceptions and personal knowledge and experience from a domain other than that of science is disregarded (Reiss et al., 2007).
This ESRC-funded research sought to elicit the understandings that school children, across the range of compulsory schooling in England, held of an animal commonly seen in streets, town centres and gardens, namely the domestic pigeon (Columba sp.). Pigeons are featured in the media through news stories and in children’s books and films, which in turn reflect the complex and multifaceted cultural attitude and understanding of these animals. On the one hand, pigeons have been and are sometimes highly valued. For example, the Dikin Medal is awarded on rare occasions in the UK to non-human animals for bravery. In all, it has been awarded 54 times, with 32 of these being to pigeons. More mundanely, pigeons were often eaten as pigeon pie and kept for food. Although this is not common in England these days, pigeons are still widely kept for racing and showing. On the other hand, pigeons in towns are generally regarded as vermin and, for example, visitors to Trafalgar Square in the heart of London are nowadays exhorted to not feed the birds as they spread disease.
When teachers or researchers ask subjects about their understandings of anything, subjects respond by presenting ‘representations’ (Bruner, 1964). These representations may be words or mathematical symbols, drawings, physical constructions or even gestures or, in the language of Buckley et al. (1997), expressed models – that is, representations of phenomena placed in a public domain. These expressed models are presumed to be generated from mental models, i.e. the personal cognitive representations held by individual subjects. The only way for a researcher to understand a subject’s mental model of a particular phenomenon is by eliciting one or more of their expressed models of that phenomenon.
The defining features observed either in reality or through representations in the media contribute to the mental model, which people hold of a phenomenon. This mental model cannot be directly accessed, however, it may be expressed through a variety of methods such as oral interviewing (Osborne and Gilbert, 1980; Tunnicliffe and Reiss 1999a) gathering written responses using, for example, a drawing or photograph as a probe (Leach et al., 1995), or looking at subjects’ pictorial representations (Gilbert and Boulter, 2000) or by asking the subjects to construct a concept map .
Other approaches include gathering written responses using, for example, a drawing or a program as a probe (Leach et al, 1995) or asking subjects to draw objects (Guichard, 1995;Tunnicliffe and Reiss, 1999; Korma, 2003).
Method
We interviewed pupils in the south of England in four different schools, which were non fee-paying, i.e. state schools. The project was discussed initially with each head teacher who obtained any relevant permissions, which they felt, were needed from governors of the school and parents of the subjects. The pupils were aged six years, ten years and fourteen years, i.e. pupils in year 1, Year 5 and Year 9 respectively.
Each of 24 pupils was individually interviewed outside of their classroom so there was no influence from peers during the interviews. Each pupil was cued into the discussion about the pigeon by the interviewer saying the word ‘pigeon’ and asking the pupil to say what they knew about this animal. The interviews were audio-recorded and the resulting transcripts were transcribed. At the end of the project we revisited the schools and the pupils were asked to draw a representation of the pigeon in the natural world. along with other natural objects which we were also investigating in the overall project and about which we had asked them.
The transcripts were analysed in three ways, Firstly using systems analysis (Boulter & Buckley, 2001) . Secondly m yby a models analysis, which is not reported here and thirdly using a schema for human influences (Boulter et al., submitted), which encompasses social and cultural domains.
By categorising what the children said into biological levels it was hoped that something of the depth of the biological knowledge of children would be revealed. (Table 1). There were six levels in the systems analysis, in descending order: Ecosystem; Community; Population; Organism, organ system or tissue; Cell or organelle; Molecular level.
Table 1
Biological levels used by the children
Biological levels
/Definitions and examples
Ecosystem / Communities interacting with one another and the chemical and physical factors of the non-living environment. The flow of energy and cycling of materials in the ecosystem.E.g. Leaves catch the sun’s energyy . The leaf to make food uses this energy. Pigeons eating food dropped by humans.
Community / Populations of species living and interacting in an area at a particular time.
E.g. Oak tree food web. Groups of animals living together. Flocks of pigeons in Trafalgar Square.
Population / Group of individual organisms of the same species living within a particular area.
E.g. Pigeons in the garden
Organism
/ A living (or once living) individual of a species.E.g. a pigeon
Organ system or organ / Tissues grouped together into functional units, which make up systems.E.g. Beak, heart, eye
Tissue / A group of physically linked cells or related fluids specialised for a particular function.E.g. Muscle. Blood
Cell or organelle / Basic unit of structure and functioning in an organism or its internal structures. E.g. Muscle cells. Leaf cells. Chloroplasts
Molecule or atom / Smallest unit of chemical elements or combination of two or more atoms of the same or different chemical elements held together by bonds .
E.g. Oxygen. Carbon dioxide
The transcripts were repeatedly re-read and preliminary categories were allowed to arise from the data. As analysis proceeded, these categories were combined, added to and refined, using grounded theory, and the final categories are presented in Figure 1
The six categories of human influences which arose from a read-reread analysis were: Location; Source of knowledge; Feelings; Human influence /action; Personal experience; Cultural influence; Anthropocentric. (Table 2).
Table 2
Definitions for categories for coding of human features analysis analysis[CB1].
Feature
/Code
/ DefinitionLocation / l / Place where the object lives, grows or is found.
Location is often linked to human influence / action (see below) and then would be coded for both.
“ Grows on grass”, “Seen in the garden”, “Walk on the football pitch”
Source of
knowledge / k / Where informationhad been obtained from.
“My Dad told me”, “I watched this video”
Feelings / f / An emotion or emotive opinion.“It isn’t very nice”, “Really cute and cuddly”
Human influence /
action / h / Any activity of humans that affects the natural world
“Pick the flowers”, “Cut the grass”
Personal experience / e / Any statement that indicates that the child knows about this from their own first-hand experience.
“Saw one in my garden”
Cultural / c / Words / phrases that indicate a particular culture.
“In India”, “In England”, “Queen Elizabeth the First sat under this tree”
Anthropocentric / a / Animal or plant influence / effect on humans.
“Poisonous”, “It bit me”, “Can kill you”
Coding was carried out in the manner shown in the following extract. Each code being written on the transcript which was double-spaced, above the pertinent word or phrase. The words were uttered by a Year 9 girl.
Example a- for aBiological system
Coding o
Pupil. A pigeon, My parents say they are dirty, with loads of disease on them
Example b -for Human influences
Coding k f a
Pupil. A pigeon, My parents say they are dirty, with loads of disease on them
Each transcript was coded and totals made for each category mentioned for each natural object.
Results
The levels of environmental systems analysis of revealed that the pupils were familiar with this bird, referring to pigeons as living together (i.e. at the population level) though more pupils referred to them as an organism they had seen in their immediate environs, home on the way to school or at school (Table 3).
Table 3
Number of comments made by pupils regarding pigeons, which referred to the systems.
Probe used: words
Age of interviewees /Categories of levels of environmental systems analysis (Boulter and
Buckley, 2001)
N = 24 /Eco -system
/Comm-unity
/Popul-ation
/Organ-ism
/Organ
/Tissue
/Cell
/Mole-cule
Yr 1 / 0 / 0 / 2 / 12 / 10 / 0 / 0 / 0Yr 5 / 0 / 5 / 5 / 10 / 13 / 0 / 0 / 0
Total Primary / 0 / 5 / 7 / 22 / 23 / 0 / 0 / 0
Yr9 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 14 / 8 / 0 / 0 / 0
Yr 9 / 2 / 0 / 2 / 12 / 13 / 0 / 0 / 0
Total secondary / 2 / 0 / 2 / 26 / 21 / 0 / 0 / 0
Total / 2 / 5 / 9 / 48 / 44 / 0 / 0 / 0
An example of such a reference is this comment from a 6-year-old Boy:
Researcher: What about a pigeon?
Boy: It’s a bird
Researcher: How do you know?
Boy: Because I see them in my garden… and they eat worms…. and they are sort of pink and grey…. and they stand in trees and build nests
Researcher: Where have you seen them?
Boy: In my garden
Researcher: In your garden? Have you seen them anywhere else?
Boy: Er…On the way to schools
Researcher: What on the road or in the trees?
Boy: In the trees.
[CB2]
The salient parts of pigeons were remarked upon by the pupils in that manner that, children do when looking at animals as exhibits (Tunnicliffe et al., 1997). As an example, the boy quoted above had noticed the colour of the organism, Reference to such parts as criterial attributes was important to the children in discussing "pigeon-ness". Indeed, several Year 5 pupils responded to the question of how they know a bird is a pigeon ‘Because it’s got wings and two legs’, "A pigeon is a bird, er. they are quite big and have got er.... grey feathers”.
‘It’s a bird, because it its got wings” Some pupils had made first hand observations regarding anatomical features of the birds e.g. A Yr 5 boy reported that they have very short beaks and very pointy beaks so they can pick up their prey and chew them. A short dialogue about teeth and chewing ensued. This comment was an example of assuming that the activities of humans were mirrored by the similar organs of other organisms,. These comments are also examples of humans using the self as the template and reference to explain (Carey, 1985)
When year 9 pupils listed pigeon anatomical features they gave more detail than the younger pupils.
PPigeon. It’s a bird um.
IHow do you know it’s a bird?
PBecause its got wings. Um its a bird, its got a thin neck, its got quite a round body,
IYes indeed…. They've got quite small eyes. Little beady eyes. Um... beady eyes. Um... thin legs and small feet. They are normally white they can have colours I suppose, different shades of grey and black feathery things. They reproduce. They can fly. That's it.’
Behaviours, which children had observed and were cited as part of the essence of being a pigeon. were also commented upon. As one year 5 pupil said,” I normally see them flying around the sky in my back garden”. Another remarked, “It’s a bird because it flies”. A year 9 girl reported that, “. Um when they make a noise its like a too wit too woo sort of noise, a bit like an owl. Um, there are loads of them in London.” And another informed us, “They make nests. They like to sit on top of our school roof…they reproduce, they can fly.”
The older the pupil, the longer a conversation could last and the less self centred it was if the pupil were interested in the subject t of ‘pigeon”. This was not always the case the case and some pupils had apparently little interest or knowledge, in the organism and said very little.
However, responses when made began with at description of anatomical features and move on to behaviours, which often linked with the pest and vermin ideas held by members of the public. Occasionally, as in the following transcript, other aspects of science were mentioned, in the following transcript a physics phenomenon, aerodynamic shape, was mentioned.
Key: R = researcher, G = girl pupil interviwee)
R A pigeon
G Yes They is kind of a grey colour. They have silver and green wings and are shiny. You can get white pigeons
R What is they usually called?
G Doves some you can get like white and grey. erm… what else do I know about pigeons? Erm they are birds they fly
R How do you know they are birds?
G Because they’ve got wings and they fly around
R What else do they have as birds?
G A tail and beak they use them for eating pecking
R What do they eat
G worms they are supposed to but they don’t
R I don’t know I have only ever seen pigeons pecking at grain
G Yes well there’s that lady in London who hands out grain as they fly around
R I’ve never seen a pigeon eating worms what bird would you see?
G Sparrow and Blue tits we’ve got lots in our gradin
R I’ve only seen black birds and starlings eating worms
G Yes they do
R Yes they stand don’t they and make a noise on the ground to kid the worms that it’s raining so the worms come up
G Yes
R Blackbird and starlings never seen sparrows
G Well they just fly to the ground and peck around
R Anything else about pigeons?
G Well they well they are quite aerodynamic so that when they fly they are smooth hum they have got beaks for clinging onto tree branches and claws
That’s about it
Biological information supplied by the pupils was not always accurate. Firstly they showed biological knowledge from their own observations and listed what they regarded as the criterial attributes of ‘pigeonness’ by which they meant birds in general. Such features are beak, colour, wings and legs and older pupils mentioned feathers. These are the features represented in the drawings of the pupils.
We know children explain phenomena in other animals by using the self as their reference (Carey 1985), these pupils extrapolated from their knowledge about themselves or the behaviour of birds about which they knew to the species under consideration. These ideas may be reinforced by cartoons and popular stories; in the above conversation the concept is that all birds eat worms. The pupil above did however know about the behaviour of worm -eating birds in enticing their prey to the surface of the ground.
Pigeons were regarded as urban inhabitants. Children had noticed these animals for themselves in their local town as this year 5 pupils reported,” It’s got wings and two legs and likes nicking your food… up town when you go to buy fish and chips. When you drop one they always go running to it!”.
Human influences
In terms of human influences, a number of children were familiar with the uses of pigeons in our society such as pigeon racing and had obtained knowledge from their family.