This paper looks at the drawings of a sample of 118 children aged between 4 and 7 years old on the topic of plant life and relates the content to their knowledge of the concept of living things. The research project uses two types of tests: a task to analyse the level of understanding of the concept of living things and a free drawing activity. The data presented indicates that children with the most accurate knowledge concerning what living things are, more frequently draw key aspects of plant life such as the sun, rainfall and clouds and also tend to draw more types of plants. These conclusions point to the use of examining young children’s depictions in order to study how the concept of living things is developed in early childhood.

Previous research indicates that complex biological concepts may be successfully introduced in preschool age, provided that suitable educational interventions are designed for the initial stages of education. In this regard, there is evidence that a basic understanding of the issue of the ecological interactions among organisms may be achieved in the preschool years. With this in mind, this research project tests the assumption that recognising the fact that plants and animals are not isolated creatures, but live engaged in constant interactions in nature, may begin to be understood in early education. To that end, this study examines the content of free drawings that a sample of 328 children aged four to seven years of age, undertook when explaining their understanding of plant life. Data regarding the type and frequency of the depictions of animals found in the children’s graphic explanations on flora is collected and read in conjunction with participants’ gender and academic level. The results show that a substantial proportion of the children in the sample spontaneously drew illustrations of animals in their graphic explanations concerning vegetable life and, more significantly, some pictures show plants and animals engaged in clear contact. This is the case, despite the fact that the drawing activity had been focused solely on the issue of plant life and no indication linked to depicting other kinds of living things mentioned during the activity. The conclusions discuss the data collected in connection with the growing number of research projects that study the question of how young children begin to embrace the fundamental biological concepts that pave the way to the understanding of natural phenomena and make the public capable of making responsible choices when it comes to sustainability issues.

This research analyses the role of the affective dimension in learning mathematics during secondary education. In particular, the evolution of motivation and beliefs according to the students’ academic level, as well as the relationship between these two factors. The sample consisted of 202 students from all four years of secondary education, whose motivation and beliefs about mathematics and learning mathematics were evaluated. Beliefs were grouped into three categories: related to the specific classroom context, to mathematics, and to oneself as a learner of this subject. The results obtained indicate lower motivation and less favourable beliefs in 3rd year. From the beliefs analysed, those regarding the classroom context, and more specifically the teachers, have obtained the largest effect size.

This study examines the conceptual understanding of the mechanisms of rainwater among elementary educational level children by means of two different experimental procedures: a semi-open questionnaire and drawings. The sample study comes from four different schools located in The Basque Autonomous Community (Spain) and is comprised of 124 children enrolled in two different educational levels: the final course of preschool education (5-6 year old children) and the first course of primary education (6-7 year old children). This paper describes the differences with regard to the performance in the drawing tasks among children from the different educational levels considered in the investigation. However, no difference was found concerning their verbal explanations. The results are discussed in the light of a socio-cultural standpoint. Therefore, the study attempts to contribute to the growing body of investigations that aim to understand the process of the comprehension of natural phenomena during the early education.