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Background knowledge

Educators need to be aware of the background knowledge necessary to understand the points being made. This means knowing the standard of education and experience of each group. For example, to teach children about the importance of plants in preventing soil erosion educators must first make sure the children understand why it happens and why we need to stop it. Some popular misconceptions that educators in botanic gardens have come across include:

 

• plants make food from soil
• trees are not living things
• botanic gardens are just amenities
  

A carefully thought out questionnaire could be used to collect baseline data on the target group's present knowledge, values and misconceptions. This information could then be used to shape programmes.