A study of plant blindness in Maltese primary school children

Abstract

Research shows that young children do not see or notice the plants in their surroundings, thus leading to the inability to recognise the importance of plants (Wandersee & Schussler, 1999). The main cause of this is that plants do not move or respond instantly to children’s actions. The term used to describe this is known as plant blindness (Wandersee & Schussler, 1999). The aim of this dissertation was to explore the possibility of intervention, to help overcome plant blindness amongst primary school children. This was implemented by having a class of year 4 children grow and take care of a plant in class for six weeks. Three observation sessions and three focus group sessions were carried out with the children at three time intervals, during the six weeks, as were three interviews with the class teacher. The study showed that prior to the research study the children had some degree of plant blindness and lacked adequate knowledge and awareness of plants. However, after the hands-on intervention in class, the children’s overall knowledge and awareness in plants improved. This shows that practical hands-on work with plants can help to a degree overcome children’s plant blindness.