Study title

Biodiversity topics feature in UK primary and secondary science and geography curricula, providing a valuable opportunity for increasing children’s ecological literacy. Studies in other countries have shown that teachers have poor species identification skills, but this topic has not been investigated for the UK. 152 geography and science teachers UK primary (5-11 years) and secondary (11-18 years) education completed an online survey from 10/12/22 to 30/8/23.Plants are essential for the survival of life on Earth. Humans rely on plants for food, medicine, and raw materials. Plant science plays a crucial role in food security, climate change adaptation and mitigation. Yet there is a widespread tendency in modern society to ignore plants, or fail to recognise their importance, a phenomenon known as plant blindness. Plant blindness has led to the 'green skills gap' in research and industry, as well as the neglect of plants in education and environmental conservation. The PhD research investigated the efficacy of a suite of novel teaching approaches for plant topics with adults and children, based on gamification, the creative arts and digital learning. It considered how these contributed to a theory and practice of learning to address plant blindness, alongside the existing literature. The findings were published as seven articles in academic journals from 2013 - 2020, with a further three studies currently under consideration. The post-doctoral phase of this work will focus on three areas. First, the dissemination of the research findings to a non-academic audience, including teachers and outdoor learning practitioners, through a programme of online courses and articles to increase awareness about plant blindness and to promote effective, evidence-based teaching approaches. The programme includes the first MOOC (open access course) about plant blindness, building on the success of a previous MOOC about sustainable food systems, which had more than10,000...