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.

摘要：植物盲视（Plant blindness）可定义为个体无法察觉自身所处环境中的植物。为验证教育能否克服植物盲视，本研究对1997年至2017年近二十年间发表的、关联植物盲视与植物学教学的学术文献展开了系统分析。研究识别了该主题的研究路径趋势，重点探讨了当前植物学教学存在的问题、优化教学的策略以及克服植物盲视的可行方案。经文献调研与筛选后，最终纳入49篇文章及摘要，并依据其研究方向分为方法论、理念、课程与整合四大类别进行归类分析。尽管各分类下的研究路径存在差异，但研究结果表明，将植物以更具情境化与吸引力的方式融入学生日常校园生活，是克服植物盲视，进而实现植物生物多样性认知与评价的有效途径。