Plant blindness: is it possible to overcome it through Education?

Abstract:

Plant blindness can be defined as the inability to see or notice plants in one’s own environment. In order to verify if botanical blindness can be overcome through education, an analysis of publications that relate the term botanical blindness and botany teaching published in the last twenty years (1997-2017) was made. Trends in approaches to the subject were identified, emphasizing teaching problems and strategies for its improvement and for overcoming botanical blindness. After the survey and the selection of the publications, 49 articles and abstracts were analyzed and categorized according to their approaches in terms of Methodology, Conception, Curriculum and Integration. Despite the different approaches found in each category, findings indicate that the inclusion of plants in a more contextualized and attractive fashion in students’ daily school life represents a way to overcome botanical blindness and, consequently, the recognition and appraisal of plant biodiversity.

Keywords:
Plant blindness; Botany teaching; Curriculum; Teaching methodology