Building a model of the environment: how do children see animals?

In order to name an animal they see, children use their existing mental models to provide the animal with a name. In this study, pupils of a range of ages (4, 8, 11, and 14 years old) were presented with preserved specimens of six different animals and asked a series of questions about them. The results indicate that pupils of all ages mainly recognize and use anatomical features when naming the animals and explaining why they are what they are. However, older pupils are more likely to also use behavioural and habitat attributes. For both girls and boys, the home and direct observation are more important as sources of knowledge than school or books, although books seem more important for boys than for girls. As pupils age, their reasons for grouping animals become more complicated: in addition to relying on shared anatomical features, they begin to show evidence of an embedded taxonomic knowledge, knowing, for instance, what a mammal is and using this knowledge to group animals.