Evidencing the Involvement of Physical Mechanisms in Urban Ecology Dynamics for a Meaningful Learning
Radu Todoran, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, North University Center in Baia Mare, (Romania)
Daniela Todoran, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, North University Center in Baia Mare (Romania)
Abstract
Modern learning emphasizes first of all the creation of meanings, it is a learning focused on understanding and comprehension rather than rote memorization or surface-level understanding. Educational, learners aim to make connections between new information and their existing knowledge, thus deepening their understanding and ability to apply what they've learned in various contexts. It is the case of educational programs aimed at conserving biodiversity and forming pro-environmental attitudes for urban ecology; their operationalization requires transdisciplinary syntheses and overcoming the monodisciplinary level of biology, chemistry, physics, economy, etc. The present study, circumscribed by these trends, aims to evaluate to what extent the students understand and integrate the mechanisms of physics in an ecological context. On 7-point Likert scales, 90 students of scientific, technical and humanities specializations are asked to evaluate the degree to which some mechanisms, physical in their essence – e.g. the change in the permeability of the soil caused by asphalting, soil erosion, the quality of electric lighting, the absorption of sounds, dust sedimentation, etc. - are involved in the dynamics of conservation and urban ecology. The results obtained are heterogeneous - different specializations perceive in different ways the existing connections between the biological layer and the laws that govern the physical world. Some mechanisms are perceived and evaluated only by the aesthetic benefits and not by the effects they produce on the urban ecology. The practical utility of these results consists in updating the urban ecology curriculum by introducing some elements that allow deepening the meaning and causalities of the studied mechanisms, through informational bridges from the field of physics
Keywords |
physical mechanisms, meaningful learning, making sens, urban ecology |
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