Social Interactions and Familial Relationships Preservice Science Teachers Describe During Interviews about Their Drawings of the Endocrine and Gastrointestinal Systems

This study examined preservice science teachers’ understandings of the structure and
function of the human gastrointestinal and endocrine systems through drawings and
interviews. Moreover, the preservice science teachers described where they thought they
learned about the systems. The 142 preservice teachers were asked to draw the human
gastrointestinal and endocrine systems and label the organs. Following the in class
drawings, the preservice science teachers were interviewed by a classmate about the
drawing, the function of the system, and where they believed they learned about the
system. The study provided evidence that (1) preservice science teachers had more
knowledge of the gastrointestinal system than the endocrine system; (2) the interviews
yielded more information about the systems than did the drawings; (3) food was
described as moving from the mouth to the anus, but absorption was not often
mentioned; and (4) the prior social interactions that influenced the knowledge of the
preservice science teachers were different for the gastrointestinal and endocrine systems.