Article

Intentions and beliefs in students' understanding and acceptance of biological evolution

May 2003
Journal of Research in Science Teaching 40(5):510 - 528

DOI:10.1002/tea.10087

Authors:

Gale M. Sinatra

University of Southern California

Sherry A. Southerland

Florida State University

James W. Demastes

University of Northern Iowa

We examined the intersection of students' understanding and acceptance of evolution and their epistemological beliefs and cognitive dispositions. Based on previous research, we hypothesized there would be a relation between understanding and acceptance. We also hypothesized that students who viewed knowledge as changing and who have a disposition toward open-minded thinking would be more likely to accept the scientific explanation of human evolution, and that beliefs and dispositions would not be related to acceptance of a topic that is generally perceived as noncontroversial. Ninety-three undergraduate students enrolled in a nonmajors biology class completed measures of their (a) content knowledge of evolution and photosynthesis and respiration; (b) acceptance of theories of animal evolution, human evolution, and photosynthesis; and (c) epistemological beliefs and cognitive dispositions. Although our findings did reveal a significant relation between knowledge and reported acceptance for photosynthesis, there was no relation between knowledge and acceptance of animal or human evolution. Epistemological beliefs were related to acceptance, but only to the acceptance of human evolution. There was no relation between students' epistemological beliefs and their general acceptance of animal evolution or photosynthesis. Three subscales, Ambiguous Information, Actively Open-Minded Thinking, and Belief Identification, were significantly correlated with understanding evolutionary theory. We argue these findings underscore the importance of intentional level constructs, such as epistemological beliefs and cognitive dispositions, in the learning of potentially controversial topics. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 40: 510–528, 2003

An exploratory study on students’ denominations, personal religious faith, knowledge about, and acceptance of evolution

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2023

Background The theory of evolution serves as an overarching scientific principle for all areas of biology. Hence, knowledge about and acceptance of evolution are indispensable for holistic education. However, the levels of knowledge about and acceptance of evolution vary greatly. It is supposed that insufficient knowledge and lack of acceptance are associated with high personal religious faith and affiliated denominations. Therefore, it is fundamental to examine knowledge about and acceptance of evolution, personal religious faith, and denomination. Results We conducted an exploratory study with German upper secondary school students (N = 172). Firstly, the results showed a weak to moderate correlation between knowledge about and acceptance of evolution. Secondly, students of different denominations differed in their knowledge about evolution, use of key concepts, acceptance of evolution, and personal religious faith but not in their use of misconceptions. Thirdly, the findings revealed that a student’s denomination predicts knowledge level, whereas personal religious faith predicts acceptance. Conclusions Our exploratory study indicates that, in addition to the strength of personal religious faith, the denomination may be critical to knowledge about and acceptance of evolution.

Relationships between Epistemological Beliefs and Conceptual Understanding of Evolution by Natural Selection

Article

Mar 2023

This study researches relationships between 12th-grade students’ epistemological beliefs towards science and their conceptual understanding of evolution by natural selection. Forty-two 12th-grade students in a suburban high school in Cyprus, who participated in a biology course, completed measures of their: (a) epistemological beliefs towards science before the intervention of being taught evolution n (b) conceptual understanding of evolution by natural selection after evolution intervention, (c) epistemological beliefs towards science after evolution intervention. Based on previous research, we hypothesised there would be a significant relationship between students’ epistemological beliefs and their conceptual understanding of evolution by natural selection after the evolution intervention. We also hypothesised that inquiry-based intervention on evolution by natural selection would foster students’ epistemological beliefs. Our results indicate that participants’ initial epistemological beliefs predict very modestly and statistically non-significant learning achievements on conceptual understanding of evolution by natural selection. However, our results show a significant improvement in participants’ epistemological beliefs after engagement in an inquiry-based intervention on evolution by natural selection. The educational significance of this and its implications are discussed.

An empirical analysis of the relationship between nature of science and critical thinking through science definitions and thinking skills

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2022

Critical thinking (CRT) skills transversally pervade education and nature of science (NOS) knowledge is a key component of science literacy. Some science education researchers advocate that CRT skills and NOS knowledge have a mutual impact and relationship. However, few research studies have undertaken the empirical confirmation of this relationship and most fail to match the two terms of the relationship adequately. This paper aims to test the relationship by applying correlation, regression and ANOVA procedures to the students’ answers to two tests that measure thinking skills and science definitions. The results partly confirm the hypothesised relationship, which displays some complex features: on the one hand, the relationship is positive and significant for the NOS variables that express adequate ideas about science. However, it is non-significant when the NOS variables depict misinformed ideas about science. Furthermore, the comparison of the two student cohorts reveals that two years of science instruction do not seem to contribute to advancing students’ NOS conceptions. Finally, some interpretations and consequences of these results for scientific literacy, teaching NOS (paying attention both to informed and misinformed ideas), for connecting NOS with general epistemic knowledge, and assessing CRT skills are discussed.

The Impact of Life Philosophy and Major Field of Study on Brazilian Students’ Knowledge of Biological Evolution

Article

Full-text available

Oct 2021
Sci Educ

Evolutionary theory (ET) is the unifying theory of Life Sciences, but it is largely misunderstood and the target of dispute in many countries, mainly because of conflicts with religious beliefs. Brazil is a country with a culture that is deeply rooted belief in God. In this paper, we report a study in Brazil where we applied a 12-question questionnaire to understand the relationship among the major field of study and the self-declared religious and philosophical context on the knowledge of evolutionary theory by Brazilian freshmen. We answer the following questions: (1) Is there a difference in ET comprehension according to the major field of study? (2) Are religious and philosophical contexts related to the comprehension of ET? (3) Are major field of study and religious/philosophical contexts together related to the comprehension of ET by Brazilian freshmen? A total of 153 freshmen students answered our questionnaire. Students from the Biological Sciences fared better than students from most other major field of study but were equal to students of Humanities. The philosophical perception of life had a major correlation with their knowledge about evolution, with self-declared atheists and agnostics showing better performance than religious students. There were no clear trends in the interaction of major field of study and philosophy of life. We discuss these results in the light of the rising ideological activism in Brazilian society since philosophy of life was the main driver of evolutionary theory perception. We highlight the importance of scientists and teachers in reassuring the role of science and scientific knowledge in modern societies. Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11191-021-00286-z.

Role models, compatibility, and knowledge lead to increased evolution acceptance

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2021

Background Evolution acceptance is still low in the United States, especially among religious students. Due to low acceptance, researchers have used a wide variety of methods to increase evolution acceptance. Six culturally competent methods for teaching evolution to religious students have been identified, this manuscript looks specifically at the method of reconciliation between religion and evolution. The reconciliation module has been shown to effectively increase evolution acceptance while allowing students to maintain their religious views. However, we lack an understanding of why this method is effective. We measure evolution acceptance and religiosity at eight religiously affiliated institutions in the United States to again measure the effects of a reconciliation model in biology classrooms. This manuscript also attempts to address classroom influences that allowed students to reconcile evolution with their religious beliefs. Results Of the eight schools that participated, there were no statistically significant decreases in the religiosity of the students over the semester. Five of the eight institutions had statistically significant increases in their evolution acceptance scores over the semester. We identified three major influences students mentioned as reasons for change towards evolution acceptance: the presence of a role model, discussions on religion and science compatibility, and learning about evolution. Conclusions We identified influential practices instructors could integrate into their classrooms to help students better incorporate evolution into their personal views. Having a role model and talking about compatibility between religion and evolution are influential in changing students’ views about evolution. Learning the mechanisms of the theory of evolution is also important in changing students’ views about evolution and might be more impactful when used in conjunction with a role model or a compatibility discussion.

A Ten-Year Assessment of Core Concept Retention by Biology Majors

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2022

Here, we present a ten-year assessment of core concept retention, with an emphasis on evolution, by senior biology majors at a small, private liberal arts college. For concepts that are regularly revisited throughout the biology curriculum, we found that knowledge retention was robust. However, for concepts that are encountered only during the introductory sequence of the freshman year, retention was weak. Furthermore, while our students seem to accept evolution as the source of biological adaptation, their understanding of the concept of natural selection is inconsistent.

Using different acceptance measures: The interplay of evolution acceptance, evolution understanding, and religious belief among German preservice biology teachers, secondary school students, and creationists

Article

Sep 2023

Evolution understanding is often positively connected with magnitudes of evolution acceptance, whereas religiosity mostly interferes negatively. However, comparisons between studies and countries must be treated cautiously due to the diversity of used instruments and samples. This study aims to generate new evidence concerning the interplay of evolution acceptance, evolution understanding, and religious belief by comparing the results of preservice biology teachers, school students, and self‐identified creationists answering several acceptance instruments (i.e., ATEVO, GAENE, I‐SEA, and MATE) while using the same measurement for understanding and belief. Results of our regression analysis indicate that belief and understanding were significant predictors but often diminished after including the interaction term of belief and understanding. When gender is included in the model, this variable is often significant. The interaction term of belief and understanding was only significant for two instruments in the group of school students. For the creationists, gender appeared as the essential term. While relationship patterns of preservice biology teachers seldom seem to be impacted by the choice of acceptance instruments (at least in correlations and regressions using only belief and understanding), this is not true for our school students and creationists. Our findings indicate that the magnitude of understanding may not mutually be the exclusive factor for (non‐)acceptance. Other factors, such as gender or religiosity, might be more prominent in people's attitudes toward (controversial) topics. Our study creates new insights into the interplay of acceptance, understanding, and belief, and we encourage researchers to carefully consider their choice of instruments.

Nuevas formas de aprender para la sociedad del conocimiento

Article

Full-text available

Aug 2023

1 E.M. nº 74 Mayo-Agosto 2023 CONFERENCIAS CÉLEBRES Continuamos esta sección de la revista, dedicada a Conferencias célebres impartidas en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid a lo largo de su historia, bien como Lecciones inaugurales de curso académico, o bien impartidas en su investidura por Doctores Honoris Causa nombrados por esta universidad. Se trata por tanto de conferencias con importantes contenidos relacionados con la ciencia y el progreso del conocimiento, e impartidas por personalidades ilustres del mundo académico, científico o social. En esta ocasión publicamos la Lección inaugural de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid del Curso académico 2018-2019, pronunciada por Presidente del Consejo Social y miembros del equipo de gobierno, Miembros de la comunidad universitaria, Señoras y señores: Quisiera comenzar expresando mi agradecimiento al Rector y a todo su equipo por la generosidad de invitarme a impartir hoy esta lección en un curso además tan especial para la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, en el que, en la peculiar cronología que mide su edad, pasa, a los 50 años, de la juventud a una madurez consolidada. Es para mí un gran honor y responsabilidad disponer de estos minutos para compartir con ustedes algunas aportaciones de una ciencia también joven pero madura, la Psicología. Centraré mi exposición, como no puede ser de otra manera, en mi área de especialidad, la Psicología del Aprendizaje, pero lo haré desde la convicción de que el aprendizaje es una prioridad no solo para quienes nos dedicamos a investigarlo y desentrañarlo, sino para toda la comunidad universitaria presente hoy en este acto. Dado que una de nuestras primeras ocupaciones es enseñar, es decir, ayudar a otros a aprender, el aprendizaje, como actividad social pero también psicológica, nunca nos puede ser ajeno. De hecho, si queremos avanzar hacia esa sociedad del conocimiento tantas veces invocada, debemos, entre otras muchas cosas, repensar las formas de aprender y de ayudar a otros a aprender. Sobre ello versará mi presentación. 1. LAS NUEVAS DEMANDAS DE APRENDIZAJE PARA LA SOCIEDAD DEL CONOCIMIENTO En su última obra, Enlightenment now, el reconocido psicólogo cognitivo Steven Pinker (2018) sostiene que el desarrollo general del conocimiento científico y humanístico ha dado lugar a tecnologías y prácticas sociales, pero también a creencias y valores, que han mejorado de modo objetivo la calidad

Conceptual Foundations of Sustainability

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2023

Threats to the health of our environment are numerous. Much research in science and engineering is devoted to documenting, understanding, and attempting to mitigate the harm itself. The root challenge for sustainability, however, is human behavior. As such, changes to human behaviors and the internal processes that drive them are also essential. Critical to understanding sustainability-related behaviors is the individual's conceptualization of the natural world and its components and processes. The papers in this topiCS issue address these conceptualizations by drawing from anthropological, linguistic, educational, philosophical, and social cognitive perspectives as well as traditional psychological approaches to the study of concepts and their development in children. They engage with many domains bearing on environmental sustainability including climate change, biodiversity, land and water conservation, resource use, and design of the built environment. They coalesce around four broad themes: (a) What people know (or believe) about nature broadly and about specific aspects of nature, and how they acquire and use this knowledge; (b) how knowledge is expressed and shared via language; (c) how knowledge and beliefs interact with affective, social, and motivational influences to yield attitudes and behaviors; and (d) how members of different cultures and speakers of different languages differ in these ways. The papers also point to lessons for advancing sustainability via public policy and public messaging, education, conservation and nature management, and design of the built environment.

What Does it Take to Love a Bug? Knowledge, Emotional Valence, and Politics in Attitudes Toward Insect Conservation

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2023

Domain knowledge is often considered a minor contributor to environmental attitudes, with social and motivational factors dominating. Yet, domains may differ. Declining insect populations are a critical conservation concern but are not prominent in public discourse, potentially reducing the impact of social and motivational variables. We present data on the relations of insect knowledge (both propositional and causal), associated emotional valences, and political orientation to concern for insect conservation, for samples of American college students and U.S. and U.K. Prolific workers. We asked whether concern for insect conservation is more associated with knowledge than emotional valence or political orientation, and whether this is especially so for U.K. residents, who have a reputation for a love of nature that is not linked to political identity. We found that U.K. participants did show greater overall concern, consistent with the national reputation. Causal knowledge mattered, but political orientation was the strongest predictor of concern for insect conservation for both U.S. and U.K. participants. Valence contributed for U.S. participants but not for U.K. participants. Our results suggest that politicized public discourse penetrates attitudes toward insects even when it does not explicitly concern insects, and knowledge variation has less impact. However, the emotional reaction has a reduced influence where relevant discourse is less polarized. Insects may often evoke negative emotions and motivations, but it is not impossible to love a bug.

PROFIL MISKONSEPSI MATERI EVOLUSI SISWA KELAS XII IPA SMA DAN MA DI KABUPATEN KUBU RAYA KALIMANTAN BARAT

Article

Apr 2022

Studens at Kabupaten Kubu Raya, Kalimantan Barat, have difficulty in understanding the material of evolution, this is an indication that students are getting misconception, so to solve the problem we need to do an analysis. One of the instruments that can be used to identify misconception is a Three Tier Test. These research aim, to analyze student misconception on evolution material using Three Tier Test at SMA and MA in Kabupaten Kubu Raya. The method that used is descriptive method with qualitative approach. The subjects of the research were students of grade 12 IPA SMAN 1 Sungai Kakap, SMAN 3 Sungai Kakap, MAN 1 Kubu Raya, and MA Al Mustaqim, 2016/2017 in academic year, which consists 144 students. Data collecting techniques that we used was three tier tests. Results show that in SMA the average percentage of students who misconception is 32,09%, in MA the average percentage of students who misconception is 40,46%. The highest percentage of misconception is in evolutionary mechanism concept, 44.86% at SMA students and 52,96% at MA student. Misconception on Darwin's theory of evolutionary concept is 32.35% at SMA students and 26,32% at MA student. On the concept of evidence for evolution is 19.06% at SMA student and 42,11% at MA student

Learning evolution through SSI

Book

Full-text available

Dec 2022

The American Public’s Views about Legal Immigration: The Case of the Diversity Visa Lottery Program

Article

Full-text available

Apr 2023

This study assesses contemporary attitudes toward the Diversity Visa Lottery program. Specifically, we examine the public’s views about the Diversity Visa Lottery, an immigrant visa program that was criticized by former President Donald Trump. Using a data set that approximates a nationally representative sample of U.S. residents, we found evidence that those who voted for Donald Trump in 2016, those who did not vote for president in 2016, those who identified as conservative/very conservative, and older citizens favor eliminating the Diversity Visa Lottery program. On the contrary, Blacks, the more highly educated, and those who identified as very liberal/liberal oppose eliminating the Diversity Visa Lottery program. The implications of our findings for group relations, policy, and future research are discussed.

Supporting Preservice Teachers in Developing and Valuing Socioscientific Literacy

Conference Paper

Full-text available

Apr 2023

In an effort to address the lack of broad scientific literacy addressed in schools, this study had four goals: (1) identify components of socioscientific literacy, (2) develop an instructional intervention to support preservice teacher development of socioscientific literacy, and (3) assess the efficacy of the intervention to help preservice teachers make sense of socioscientific literacy components, and (4) assess to what extent preservice teachers valued socioscientific literacy components after completing the instructional intervention. Findings from this study make clear that preservice teachers were mostly able to make sense of the components of socioscientific literacy. In particular, the preservice teachers excelled in making sense of questions related to science media literacy, critical consciousness, and socioscientific reasoning. Participants also included most all components of socioscientific literacy as important for their future students. However, preservice teachers were more likely to struggle with questions related to the nature of technology. Interestingly, participants tended to struggle more when asked how components of socioscientific literacy may help them make sense of socioscientific issues generally than they did when asked to explain components in context of the sociocientific issue presented (electric vehicles). Ways to better support preservice teacher learning of the nature of technology and abstraction of socioscientific literacy beyond the issue presented are explored.

Evolution Education through Socioscientific Issues for Sustainable Development

Chapter

Full-text available

Dec 2022

Addressing the complex and controversial problems we face today requires education to empower citizens with competencies in sustainability that allow them to contribute to more just and sustainable societies. Many sustainability problems are strongly linked to evolutionary processes. When complex problems can be informed by science, these are known as socioscientific issues (SSI). Educational approaches that explore SSI have been shown to contribute to the development of functional scientific literacy and character development. Together, this suggests that evolution education through the SSI approach may contribute to the development of key competencies in sustainability. To test this hypothesis and understand how evolution education has been explored through SSI approaches, we performed a systematic literature review to identify the key competencies in sustainability developed in papers addressing evolution through SSI. Our results indicate that a few studies have addressed evolution education through SSI and support the potential of this approach since all key competencies in sustainability were found in these studies; however, some of these competencies (e.g., strategic and anticipatory competencies) were not frequently observed. Our results also support the interest in this approach to evolution education since all evolution education dimensions were found. However, the analysed studies show little diversity in terms of the explored SSI, with the majority being related to biotechnology. The implications of these findings and important highlights for educational practices and research are discussed.

Teaching Biological Anthropology: Pedagogy of Human Evolution and Human Variation

Chapter

Mar 2023

Briana L Pobiner

While biological anthropology intersects with science education via numerous topics, and many practicing biological anthropologists are college or university faculty members, studies of biological anthropology pedagogical best practices at the undergraduate level are scarce. The purpose of this chapter is to (1) outline obstacles and opportunities in teaching two content areas in biological anthropology perceived as "controversial": human evolution and human variation (sometimes understood as "race") and (2) present evidence-based recommendations for pedagogical best practices and approaches that US college and university faculty members can use when teaching these topics in undergraduate classrooms.

Actively Open-Minded Thinking and Its Measurement

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2023

Actively open-minded thinking (AOT) is measured by items that tap the willingness to consider alternative opinions, sensitivity to evidence contradictory to current beliefs, the willingness to postpone closure, and reflective thought. AOT scales are strong predictors of performance on heuristics and biases tasks and of the avoidance of reasoning traps such as superstitious thinking and belief in conspiracy theories. Nevertheless, AOT is most commonly measured with questionnaires rather than performance indicators. Questionnaire contamination becomes even more of a danger as the AOT concept is expanded into new areas such as the study of fake news, misinformation, ideology, and civic attitudes. We review our 25-year history of studying the AOT concept and developing our own AOT scale. We present a 13-item scale that both is brief and accommodates many previous criticisms and refinements. We include a discussion of why AOT scales are such good predictors of performance on heuristics and biases tasks. We conclude that it is because such scales tap important processes of cognitive decoupling and decontextualization that modernity increasingly requires. We conclude by discussing the paradox that although AOT scales are potent predictors of performance on most rational thinking tasks, they do not predict the avoidance of myside thinking, even though it is virtually the quintessence of the AOT concept.

Teachers’ professional development: active approach and meaningful learning in the instruction in english as a foreign language

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2023

This study aims to contribute to the professional teacher’s development proposing the use of active and meaningful learning to improve English Language instruction. The research team used qualitative and quantitative educational research approaches to collect information. The participants were 76 people among high school students, trainee teachers, and teachers in service in Manta, Ecuador. The Likert scale questionnaire, survey, and open-ended interview questions were used to gather information. Results allowed the research team to determine that the traditional methodology used for the instruction limits the students’ engagement and motivation for learning English as a foreign language. It concluded that an active approach and meaningful learning could improve student-teacher feedback creating a positive synergy and better educational environments. EFL classes should be more active and exciting for students to answer according to their local context and interests. In the same way, lessons should be supported with the scaffolding process for building more meaningful lessons to remember.

Learning Evolution Through Socioscientific Issues

Book

Full-text available

Dec 2022

EuroScitizen and EvoKE offer you the ebook "Learning evolution through socioscientific issues". Produced by professionals from 15 different countries, this book includes 6 theoretical chapters on the teaching and learning of biological evolution and on the socioscientific issues pedagogical approach, and 6 chapters with practical activities on a variety of topics and grade levels, which you can use to inspire your own research.

Scientists’ and teachers’ attitudes toward relating to religion when teaching evolution

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2022

Background The presumed conflict between religion and evolution is considered one of the main causes for rejection of evolution worldwide. It has been shown that when students′ perceived conflict is not answered, they may not accept evolution. However, there is a debate in the literature whether teachers should relate to students’ religious faith in evolution class, although teachers tend to agree that it should be related. The aim of this study was to explore the attitudes of scientists and teachers, toward relating to religion when teaching evolution. Results When scientists (n = 124) were asked in an online survey whether teachers should relate to religion when teaching evolution, most scientists said teachers should not relate to religion, in contrary to teachers who were asked the same question and said that teachers should relate to religion. When religious teachers (n = 10) and scientists (n = 10) were asked the same question—all the religious teachers agreed that teachers should relate to religion, emphasizing mainly the importance of connecting to the students’ inner world, preparing students for the future, etc. Most religious scientists also agreed, although they were more hesitant and emphasized the challenges and limitations of relating to religion in a science class. When asked how to relate to the issue, the teachers emphasized the importance of relating to the students’ culture and self-choice. Moreover, they took responsibility and emphasized it is their role to provide a proper response to their students. Most interviewed scientists emphasized that the boundaries between science and religion should be emphasized clearly by the teacher, and some suggested that biology teachers themselves should not discuss the issue, but that an external figure such as a rabbi or the religion/bible teacher should do it. Conclusions When discussing the issue of relating to religion in a science class, the differences between scientists and teachers that were identified here emphasize the need to relate to teachers’ experiences in this academic discussion, as they are aware of their students’ difficulties. In addition, it is important to consider the attitudes of religious scientists and teachers, as they demonstrate the possible co-existence between religion and science in their own life, thus they understand the conflict and may have practical solutions to it. Teachers’ professional development programs in this issue, may help teachers face with the limitations and challenges that the presumed conflict between religion and evolution may create.

Community College Student Understanding and Perceptions of Evolution

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2022

Learning about evolution is a foundational part of biology education, but most current studies that explore college student evolution education are conducted at universities. However, community college students tend to be more diverse in characteristics shown to be related to evolution education outcomes. To explore how studies involving university students may generalize to community college students, we surveyed students from seven community college (n = 202) and nine university (n = 2288) classes. We measured students' evolution interest, acceptance, and understanding, and for religious students, we measured their perceived conflict between their religions and evolution. Controlling for state and major, we found that community college students had similar levels of evolution interest as university students but perceived greater conflict between their religions and evolution. Further, community college students had lower evolution understanding and acceptance compared with university students. Religiosity was a strong factor predicting community college and university students' evolution acceptance. However, unique to community college students, evolution understanding was not related to their macroevolution or human evolution acceptance. This indicates that, although some results between community college and university students are similar, there are differences that have implications for evolution instruction that warrant the need for more evolution education research at community colleges.

Can science fiction engagement predict identification with all humanity? Testing a moderated mediation model

Article

Full-text available

Aug 2022

Identification with all humanity (IWAH) is viewed as a critical construct that facilitates global solidarity. However, its origins have rarely been explored in previous literature, and no study has yet investigated the role of pop-culture in cultivating IWAH. To address this gap, this study initially focuses on science fiction (sci-fi), a specific pop-culture genre with worldwide audiences, and examines its effect on IWAH. It hypothesized a direct association between sci-fi engagement and IWAH from the narrative persuasion approach, and an indirect association via abstract construal based on the cognitive-literary approach. Moreover, the moderating role of actively open-minded thinking (AOT) in the direct and indirect association was also assessed. Results were obtained through a cross-sectional survey conducted in China ( n = 570) and showed that sci-fi engagement was positively associated with IWAH; this association was also partially mediated by abstract construal. Interestingly, and inconsistent with our hypotheses, AOT positively moderated the indirect effect but negatively moderated the direct effect. Theoretical and practical implications for cultivating IWAH from the media and pop-cultural perspective were discussed.

PROFIL TINGKAT PENERIMAAN TERHADAP TEORI EVOLUSI PADA SISWA SMA DAN MA

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2021

Aprilliana Dwi Putri

Studi ini dilakukan untuk mengidentifikasi tingkat penerimaan teori evolusi siswa SMA dan MA. Studi ini juga melakukan analisis untuk melihat apakah terdapat perbedaan tingkat penerimaan teori evolusi antara siswa SMA dan MA. Tingkat penerimaan teori evolusi diukur dengan menggunakan instrumen MATE (Measure of Acceptance of the Theory of Evolution) yang sudah dimodifikasi dan diterjemahkan. Subyek studi ini ialah 28 orang siswa kelas 12 SMA serta 33 orang siswa kelas 12 MA. Data yang didapatkan lalu dianalisis secara statistik sehingga menggambarkan profil tingkat penerimaan siswa SMA dan MA terhadap teori evolusi. 10 siswa (35, 71%) SMA memiliki penerimaan rendah, 15 siswa (53, 58%) SMA memiliki penerimaan sedang, serta 3 siswa (10, 71%) SMA memiliki penerimaan rendah. Sedangkan untuk siswa MA profil tingkat penerimaan terhadap teori evolusi adalah sebagai berikut, 1 orang siswa (3,03%) memiliki penerimaan sangat rendah, 9 siswa (27, 27%) memiliki penerimaan rendah, 22 siswa (66, 67%) memiliki penerimaan sedang, serta 2 siswa (6, 06%) memiliki penerimaan tinggi. Hasil uji Mann Whitney-U menunjukkan tidak ada perbedaan yang signifikan antara tingkat penerimaan teori evolusi siswa SMA dan MA.

Promoting scientific literacy in evolution through citizen science

Article

Full-text available

Aug 2022

Evolutionary understanding is central to biology. It is also an essential prerequisite to understanding and making informed decisions about societal issues such as climate change. Yet, evolution is generally poorly understood by civil society and many misconceptions exist. Citizen science, which has been increasing in popularity as a means to gather new data and promote scientific literacy, is one strategy through which people could learn about evolution. However, despite the potential for citizen science to promote evolution learning opportunities, very few projects implement them. In this paper, we make the case for incorporating evolution education into citizen science, define key learning goals, and suggest opportunities for designing and evaluating projects in order to promote scientific literacy in evolution.

Nature of science: bats and frogs and midges, oh my!

Article

Oct 2019

Understanding the nature of science has long been a focus of science education reform efforts, including the Next Generation of Science Standards. Students’ views about the process of how scientific knowledge is acquired has been shown to affect their ability to learn scientific concepts. Integrating the nature of science into science lesson plans allows students to connect how scientists learned the information they are currently learning. Lesson plans that incorporate the nature of science should provide students with the opportunity to explore their own ideas and develop their own conclusions with support from their teacher. Here we provide a lesson plan that facilitates the instruction of the nature of science and clearly identifies the specific NGSS expectations addressed with the goal of improving student learning. In particular, we lay out a guide to implement on-going ecological research in activities to improve NOS understanding based on a constructivist approach to learning.

Correction to: European first-year university students accept evolution but lack substantial knowledge about it: a standardized European cross-country assessment

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2022

Hot Topics and Frontier Evolution of Science Education Research: a Bibliometric Mapping from 2001 to 2020

Article

Full-text available

Apr 2022
Sci Educ

Bibliometric mapping serves as a method to systematically evaluate and visually demonstrate the development of a research field. CiteSpace and VOSviewer, two research tools of bibliometric mapping, were used in the present study to analyze, synthesize, and visualize the hot topics as well as frontier evolution of science education. Co-authorship analysis, co-citation analysis, co-occurrence analysis, cluster analysis, and content analysis were conducted based on 6278 articles selected from seven SSCI journals. Researchers from countries/territories in North America, Europe, Oceania, and West and East Asia had maintained relatively tighter cooperation with each other. Highly influential literature mainly focused on the standards, methods, practice, and reflection of science education. In the past two decades, the literature on science education covered seven hot topics: conceptual issues in science education, gender, scientific argumentation, professional development, science learning, evolution, and peer review. The research on science education in the past 20 years can be divided into three phases: the first stage focused on knowledge learning, identity, and informal education; the second stage emphasized formal education, scientific literacy, and social-science issues; and the third stage highlighted scientific argumentation and STEM education.

Searching for the cognitive basis of anti-vaccination attitudes

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2022

Research on the reasons for vaccine hesitancy has largely focused on factors directly related to vaccines. In contrast, the present study focused on cognitive factors that are not conceptually related to vaccines but that have been linked to other epistemically suspect beliefs such as conspiracy theories and belief in fake news. This survey was conducted before the Covid-19 pandemic (N = 356). The results showed that anti-vaccination attitudes decreased slightly with cognitive abilities and analytic thinking styles, and strongly with scientific literacy. In addition, anti-vaccination attitudes increased slightly with teleological bias and strongly with an intuitive thinking style, ontological biases, and religious and paranormal beliefs. The results suggest that the same cognitive mechanisms that predispose to other epistemically suspect beliefs may predispose to anti-vaccination attitudes as well. The findings also indicate that pro-vaccination communication should focus on early prevention and that interventions against vaccine hesitancy should strive to be intuitively appealing.

Supporting Climate Change Understanding With Novel Data, Estimation Instruction, and Epistemic Prompts

Article

Full-text available

Feb 2022
J EDUC PSYCHOL

European first-year university students accept evolution

Article

Full-text available

Nov 2021

European first-year university students accept evolution but lack substantial knowledge about it: a standardized European cross-country assessment

Article

Full-text available

Nov 2021

Background Investigations of evolution knowledge and acceptance and their relation are central to evolution education research. Ambiguous results in this field of study demonstrate a variety of measuring issues, for instance differently theorized constructs, or a lack of standardized methods, especially for cross-country comparisons. In particular, meaningful comparisons across European countries, with their varying cultural backgrounds and education systems, are rare, often include only few countries, and lack standardization. To address these deficits, we conducted a standardized European survey, on 9200 first-year university students in 26 European countries utilizing a validated, comprehensive questionnaire, the “Evolution Education Questionnaire”, to assess evolution acceptance and knowledge, as well as influencing factors on evolution acceptance. Results We found that, despite European countries’ different cultural backgrounds and education systems, European first-year university students generally accept evolution. At the same time, they lack substantial knowledge about it, even if they are enrolled in a biology-related study program. Additionally, we developed a multilevel-model that determines religious faith as the main influencing factor in accepting evolution. According to our model, knowledge about evolution and interest in biological topics also increase acceptance of evolution, but to a much lesser extent than religious faith. The effect of age and sex, as well as the country’s affiliation, students’ denomination, and whether or not a student is enrolled in a biology-related university program, is negligible. Conclusions Our findings indicate that, despite all their differences, most of the European education systems for upper secondary education lead to acceptance of evolution at least in university students. It appears that, at least in this sample, the differences in knowledge between countries reflect neither the extent to which school curricula cover evolutionary biology nor the percentage of biology-related students in the country samples. Future studies should investigate the role of different European school curricula, identify particularly problematic or underrepresented evolutionary concepts in biology education, and analyze the role of religious faith when teaching evolution.

A Model for Teaching About the Nature of Science in the Context of Biological Education

Article

Full-text available

Nov 2021
Sci Educ

It has been shown that many people do not understand how scientific knowledge is built and accepted, even after scientific education. One way to deal with this problem is through teaching about the Nature of Science (NOS). NOS can be understood as a pedagogical construct aiming to foster the understanding of the main characteristics of scientific work. Recently, several researchers have advocated that we should consider pluralism within science when teaching about NOS. Accordingly, there have been efforts to develop ways of promoting instruction on NOS considering the specificity of distinct scientific fields. Aligned with this perspective, this paper aims to put forward a model for teaching NOS in the context of biological education. This model, named “Integrative Model for Teaching NOS in Biological Education” (IM-NOSBIO), is based on three pillars. The first is the Family Resemblance Approach to Nature of Science (FRA), developed by Erduran and Dagher. The second consists in the Conceptual Framework of Biology proposed by Scheiner. The third is the Pragmatic Conception of Models as Epistemic Artifacts put forward by Knuuttila. We propose that IM-NOSBIO has the potential to promote teaching and learning about different aspects of scientific knowledge and practice by taking advantage of how they present themselves in biological sciences teaching. To illustrate this potential, we offer an example of how this model can be used for teaching about certain aspects of NOS based on the history of the cell theory.

Teachers’ epistemic beliefs and reported practices in two cultural contexts

Article

Full-text available

Nov 2021

Teachers’ epistemic beliefs may have consequences for their pedagogical work. We used previously developed scales to assess epistemic beliefs that teachers hold about learning, knowledge and knowing, and how they report putting such ideas into practice. The scales consisted of self-reported Likert-type statements considering collaborative knowledge building, valuing metacognition, certainty of knowledge, and a surface approach to learning. The participants were 127 subject-matter teachers from Finland and 97 teachers from Taiwan. Based on previous research, we constructed a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) model for the Finnish sample and replicated this with the Taiwanese sample. We confirmed two factors: 1) reflective-collaborative theory (consisting of collaborative knowledge building and valuing metacognition scales) and 2) knowledge transmission theory (consisting of certainty of knowledge and simple learning scales) in both samples. In conclusion, essential and corresponding aspects of teachers’ epistemic beliefs and their reported practices were found. However, the results showed some cross-cultural variance. It is important to look at teachers’ epistemic beliefs because they may have consequences for teachers’ pedagogical work. These beliefs are a part of epistemic cognition which in this context consists of epistemic beliefs (beliefs about knowledge and learning) and how teachers report to put them into practice (e.g.). The aim of this study is to identify and assess teachers’ core epistemic beliefs and how such beliefs are associated with their practical ideas on pedagogy in two diverse cultural contexts. We used previously developed scales to assess beliefs that teachers hold about learning, knowledge and knowing, and how they report putting such ideas into practice. The scales consisted of self-reported Likert-type statements considering collaborative knowledge building, valuing metacognition, emphasising certainty of knowledge, and a surface approach to learning. The participants were 127 subject-matter teachers from Finland and 97 teachers from Taiwan. Based on previous research, we constructed a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) model for the Finnish sample and replicated this with the Taiwanese sample. We confirmed two factors: 1) reflective-collaborative theory (consisting of collaborative knowledge building and valuing metacognition scales) and 2) knowledge transmission theory (consisting of certainty of knowledge and simple learning scales) in both samples. In conclusion, essential and corresponding aspects of teachers’ epistemic beliefs and their reported practices were found. However, the results showed some cross-cultural variance.

Promoting scientific literacy in Evolution through citizen science

Preprint

Full-text available

Nov 2021

Evolutionary understanding is central to biology as a whole. It is also an essential prerequisite to understanding issues in everyday life, such as advances in medicine and global challenges like climate change. Yet, evolution is generally poorly understood by civil society and many misconceptions exist. Citizen science, which has been increasing in popularity as a means to gather new data and promote scientific literacy, is one strategy through which people can learn about evolution. Despite the potential for citizen science to promote evolution learning opportunities, very few citizen science projects exist to improve scientific literacy in evolution. In this paper, we make the case for incorporating evolution education into citizen science, define key learning goals in the context of evolution, and suggest opportunities for designing and evaluating citizen science projects in order to promote scientific literacy in evolution.

Promoting evolution acceptance through philosophical dialogue in the classroom

Article

Nov 2023

Ιχνηλατώντας δαρβινικές έννοιες στη λογοτεχνία: ανάδειξη δομικών στοιχείων ιστολογίου (blog) για εκπαιδευτική χρήση

Conference Paper

Full-text available

Sep 2023

Maria Xesternou

Με τη θεώρηση του ευρωπαϊκού κινήματος του νατουραλισμού ως απότοκου των δαρβινικών θεωριών, γίνεται μία δειγματοληπτική εξέταση κειμένων της νεοελληνικής λογοτεχνίας του τέλους 19ου–αρχών 20ου αιώνα τα οποία παρουσιάζουν στοιχεία επίδρασης του δαρβινισμού. Διερευνάται πώς οι κεντρικοί πόλοι επιρροής του Δαρβίνου (κληρονομικότητα, ποικιλότητα, επιλογή) στη λογοτεχνία και άλλες καλλιτεχνικές εκφράσεις που αναδεικνύονται στην παρούσα μελέτη, να αποτελέσουν τα δομικά στοιχεία ενός διαδικτυακού ιστολογίου που θα αξιοποιηθεί διδακτικά, κοινωνικοπολιτισμικά, ως μέσο επικοινωνίας και ως αποθετήριο ψηφιακών αντικειμένων για την εξαγωγή δεδομένων που θα διευκολύνει την έρευνα στο με θεματικό αντικείμενο των δαρβινικών ιχνών στη νεοελληνική λογοτεχνία.

"Assessing the Experiential Learning and Scientific Process Skills of Senior High School STEM Students: A Literature Review

Article

Full-text available

Jul 2023

This review of related literature provides understanding on experiential learning and scientific process skills. It serves as the foundation for the research design, methodology, and data analysis in the subsequent phases, contributing to the advancement and informing educational practices and policies. This highlights the studies obtained from the literature. The review assesses the scientific process skills in senior high school STEM students. Also, to bridge previous works on individual practices to group activities, and to explore the effectiveness of scientific process skills in science education. Furthermore, the review will explore any existing gaps or areas of contention within the literature. By critically evaluating the findings and methodologies of previous studies, the review aims to identify research gaps that this current study seeks to address. The gaps include specific populations or subject areas that have not been adequately explored, methodological limitations, or contradictory findings that require further investigation.

"Assessing the Experiential Learning and Scientific Process Skills of Senior High School STEM Students: A Literature Review

Article

Full-text available

Jul 2023

Epistemological Beliefs About Science and Their Relations to Gender, Attitudes to Science and Science Achievement in UAE Schools

Chapter

Feb 2023

Dean Cairns

Beliefs about knowledge and knowing are referred to as epistemological beliefs. Scientific epistemological beliefs relate to the nature and acquisition of science knowledge and, are central to promoting deeper, meaningful learning. As gender performance gaps are evident for science achievement in UAE government schools, this study seeks to investigate the relative importance of science epistemological beliefs for 15-year-olds using data drawn from the PISA 2015 cycle. Results of mediation analyses for the whole group model, indicate that overall enjoyment of science and instrumental motivation to learn science are the strongest predictors of scientific literacy and these effects are partially mediated by students’ epistemological beliefs about science. Statistically significant differences between the male-only and female-only groups were observed for the hypothesised models employed in the study. For the male-only group, epistemological beliefs about science negated the negative relationship between science achievement and interest in science, and the direct effect of extrinsic motivation on science achievement was stronger than for females. These findings provide evidence relating to the importance of scientific epistemological beliefs for males and females and their associated peripheral attitudes and beliefs about learning. This chapter outlines the practical implications for science teaching methodologies in UAE schools.

Acceptance and Understanding of the Evolutionary Theory in Medical Students, Interns and Residents: Comparison Between Medical Majors and Non-Medical Majors

Article

Jan 2022

Still a Private Universe? Community College Students’ Understanding of Evolution

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2023

Background Measuring what students know and retain about evolution is essential to improving our understanding of how students learn evolution. The literature shows that college students appear to have a poor understanding of evolution, answering questions on various instruments correctly only about half of the time. There is little research regarding evolution understanding among community college students and so this study examines if those students who are enrolled in life science classes, who are assessed using questions based on grade eight standards, show a better understanding of evolutionary principles than younger students and if there are differences in knowledge based on course enrollment. The authors utilized a survey of 41 items of the Life Sciences Concept Inventory that were specifically designed to measure knowledge about various aspects of evolution that relate to the 5–8 grade science standards on evolution. They administered it to 191 adult students who were enrolled in nine sections across five life sciences courses at one community college in Southern California. Results Results indicated that the students in this study possessed a fair understanding of evolution, averaging scores of nearly 70%, higher than what other researchers have found (using different instruments). Students enrolled in biology major classes scored significantly higher than those enrolled in non/mixed-major courses. There was a strong relationship between item difficulty and discrimination as well as difficulty and misconception strength. When compared with the 5–8 grade student data, the community college students showed a lower level of difficulty and higher levels of item discrimination, but the proportion choosing the most popular wrong answer (the dominant misconception), was comparable. College students showed similar patterns to the grade 5–8 students in terms of which questions and which material were the most challenging, despite performing better overall. Conclusions In this study, students possessed fair understanding of evolution. However, they were assessed with an instrument designed for 5th through 8th grade students. The results of this study support the need for more research into how community college students understand evolution and which factors impact that understanding.

Identification of undergraduate biology students’ level acceptance and perceptions of evolution theory: A preliminary study

Conference Paper

Full-text available

Dec 2022

The contradiction between evolution and personal beliefs is a challenging issue in learning evolution in Indonesia. Few studies report that Indonesia had more misconceptions, lower knowledge about the evolution concept, and lower acceptance of evolution than USA, Koreans, Greeks, and Romans. Teachers’ knowledge and acceptance of evolution theory contribute to how they teach evolution to their students. This preliminary study aimed to describe the levels of students' acceptance and perceptions of evolution before the learning process. This study involved 78 participants. The level of acceptance of evolution theory was measured by using Measure of the Theory of Evolution (MATE) and students' perception of evolution was obtained through a questionnaire. The results of MATE revealed 2 students (3%) in high acceptance, 23 students (29%) in moderate acceptance, 43 students (55%) in low acceptance, and 10 students (13%) in very low acceptance category. The questionnaire resulted in 32 students (41%) believed in, 28 students (36%) doubts, and 18 students (23%) not believed in the theory of evolution. Some of the students' perceptions are (1) evolution is a science that can be proved by the fact; (2) the theory of evolution is based solely on speculation; (3) evolution theory is contradictive with creationism and their beliefs; (4) people's misconceptions about the concept of evolution lead to the rejection of the evolution theory. Nevertheless, 93% of students would teach the theory of evolution to their students. These findings provide the view that students are caught between accepting or rejecting the theory of evolution.

Acceptance of evolution by high school students: Is religion the key factor?

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2022
PLOS ONE

The idea of biological evolution is not accepted by many people around the world, with a large disparity amongst countries. Some factors may act as obstacles to the acceptance of evolution, such as religion, a lack of openness to experience, and not understanding the nature of science. Although the strength of the association between evolution acceptance and non-scientific factors varies among studies, it is often assumed that resistance to evolution is the byproduct of a religious background. Some studies are even more specific and try to associate the acceptance of evolution with precise religious affiliations. We aimed to explore the strength of associations among nationality, religion, and the acceptance of evolution by students using multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) and statistical tools, with nationwide samples from two different countries. Here, we show that wider sociocultural factors predict the acceptance of evolution to a higher degree than a religious background. We carried out two nationwide data collections that allowed us to compare differences in the acceptance of evolution in Italy and Brazil by high school students who declare to belong to the same religion in the two countries. Roman Catholic students showed significant differences between the two countries, and the gap between them was wider than between Catholics and non-Catholic Christians within Brazil. Our conclusions support those who argue that religious affiliation is not the main factor in predicting the level of evolution acceptance. The sociocultural environment and the level of evolutionary knowledge seem to be more important in this regard. These results open up new interpretative perspectives and provide a better understanding of attitudes towards evolution.

The influence of Nature of Science embedded in the Argument-Driven Inquiry instructional method to promote content knowledge and self-efficacy of pre-service science teachers in evolution

Article

Jul 2022

The purpose of the present study was to reveal the effectiveness of the Nature of Science (NOS) embedded in Argument-Driven Inquiry (ADI) instructional method on pre-service science teachers’ (PSTs) content knowledge and self-efficacy in evolution theory. The study was a mixed-method study in which the qualitative data collection and analysis was conducted after the quantitative. In the first part of the study, a pre-post intervention design was used as a part of quasi-experimental study and in the second part, semi-structured interviews were conducted to deepen understanding of the results of the intervention. The participants of study consist of 36 PSTs who attended a public university in the north of Turkey. The findings showed that the NOS embedded in the ADI instructional method was effective for increasing content knowledge and self-efficacy and decreasing misconceptions in evolution. However, there were no differences in PSTs’ beliefs with respect to creationist views after intervention.

Should high-school biology teachers relate to students’ religious faith when teaching evolution? The perspective of Jewish teachers

Article

May 2022

Evolution is one of the most controversial scientific issues worldwide, mainly because of the presumed conflict with religion, which also arises in school biology classes. Here, we surveyed biology teachers from different Jewish sectors in Israel about their experiences teaching evolution and their perspective on relating to students’ religious faith. Information was collected using an online questionnaire that was answered by 97 teachers, and three focus groups of 9 teachers. Half of the teachers reported encountering student religious-based opposition, in traditional/religious schools more than in secular ones. The teachers indicated that students’ religious faith may hinder their understanding of evolution, while teachers’ own perception of the conflict influenced their attitude. Most of the teachers indicated their willingness to relate to their students’ religious faith in class, mainly because of the importance of relating to students’ inner world. Our research adds to the global interest in evolution education by shedding light on this topic in a Jewish population, which has been little studied. In addition, the study emphasises the importance of relating to teachers’ experiences and perspective in the discussion on whether to relate to students’ religious faith during science class, because teachers are the mediators of science to future citizens.

Veränderung bildungswissenschaftsbezogener epistemischer Überzeugungen von Lehramtsstudierenden

Thesis

Apr 2022

Julia Ruess

Die Förderung epistemischer Überzeugungen gilt als wichtige Aufgabe in der Lehrerbildung. Insbesondere im bildungswissenschaftlichen Begleitstudium tendieren Studierende jedoch zu ungünstigen Überzeugungen: Bildungswissenschaftliches Wissen wird im Vergleich zu fachwissenschaftlichem Wissen als wenig systematisiert, subjektiv und kaum praxisrelevant beurteilt. Wie Studierende dabei unterstützt werden können, angemessene Überzeugungen zum Wissen in den Bildungswissenschaften zu entwickeln, ist empirisch noch unzureichend untersucht. Aus diesem Grund wurden literaturgestützt drei Kurzinterventionen entwickelt, die auf je spezifischen Förderstrategien gründen: (1) Direkt-explizite Adressierung von epistemischen Überzeugungen, (2) indirekt-implizite Adressierung und (3) Kombination aus direkten und indirekten Förderansätzen. Die Eignung der drei Interventionen wurde in einem quasi-experimentellen Mixed-Methods-Design in zwei Teilstudien untersucht. Die quantitative Teilstudie umfasste eine Veränderungsmessung. Es konnte gezeigt werden, dass sich die Studierenden aus der direkten und der kombinierten Intervention tendenziell in Richtung reflektierter Überzeugungen weiterentwickelt haben. Die indirekte Intervention blieb dagegen wirkungslos. Die qualitative Teilstudie umfasste die Analyse von Follow-Up-Interviews, die im Nachgang der Interventionen mit teilnehmenden Studierenden geführt wurden. Die Ergebnisse stützten erstens die Befunde aus der quantitativen Teilstudie, wobei ein besonderes Veränderungspotenzial für die kombinierte Intervention deutlich wurde. Zweitens konnten die zugrunde liegenden Wirkweisen der verschiedenen Interventionen herausgearbeitet werden. Drittens konnten weiterführende Erkenntnisse zu den grundlegenden Veränderungsmechanismen epistemischer Überzeugungen erzielt werden. Das bestehende Veränderungsmodell epistemischer Überzeugungen konnte weiterentwickelt und um individuelle Faktoren ergänzt werden.

Acceptance, Confidence, and Time: Exploring Dynamics of Middle and Secondary Science Teacher Autonomy in Teaching Evolution in the Southeastern United States

Article

Dec 2021

Amanda L Townley

Exploring the Relationship between Science, Religion & Attitudes toward Evolution Education

Article

Feb 2022

While some have argued that abandoning religious belief is the only way to help religious individuals accept evolution, we strongly contend that highlighting faith-evolution compatibility is much more effective. This article describes a professional development event for science teachers and religious educators highlighting ways to teach human evolution using a science inquiry approach coupled with methods for helping students reconcile science and religion. Since many science teachers in our population face a highly religious student body, are religious themselves, and have religious education integrated into the school system, we asked them to invite the religious educators (i.e., seminary teachers) at their schools to join them at the event. In addition, a group of religious educator faculty members from the local university joined the event. We collected data both before and after intervention. Results showed that the event strengthened understanding of the intersection between evolution and religion for this particular faith group, decreased feelings of conflict in participants themselves, and increased their confidence and comfort level in offering reconciliation to students and designing lesson plans that include human examples of evolution. Differential impacts on each group of participants are discussed in terms of what we can apply to efforts like this going forward.

Acceptance, Confidence, and Time: Exploring Dynamics of Middle and Secondary Science Teacher Autonomy in Teaching Evolution in the Southeastern United States Running head: TEACHER AUTONOMY IN EVOLUTION TEACHING

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2022

Amanda L Townley

Evolution education represents the greatest challenge to scientific literacy in the United States. Long accepted as the foundational concept of biology, in the public realm evolution elicits controversy. The Southeastern United States is a breeding ground for this, and other, anti-science thinking that has far-reaching implications as seen during the 2020 pandemic and anti-science legislation from the region. One approach to close gaps in understanding evolution is to ensure that it is taught in schools in a way that is robust and accurate, as teachers are the front lines in the fight for scientific literacy. For that to happen, teachers must overcome their own barriers and concerns about teaching this so-called "controversial" topic. This quantitative study found that despite experience, certification, confidence in teaching evolution, and high levels of acceptance, teachers spent minimal time (less than three days) teaching evolution but there are factors that impact time and confidence that can be used to combat the problem. Identifying these fundamental interactions builds a starting point for targeted preparation and support to ensure that teachers have the tools, confidence, and content needed to teach evolution adequately.

Motivational and emotional impacts on public (mis)understanding of science

Article

Sep 2021

Gale M. Sinatra

The psychology of science resistance, doubt, and denial has never had clearer consequences than during the COVID-19 pandemic. This manuscript explores how misconceptions about climate change, vaccines, and COVID-19 cannot be understood apart from the conscious and unconscious motivations and emotions which contribute to public (mis)understanding of science. Drawing on research presented during my Presidential Address for Division 15 of the American Psychological Association in 2020, interventions designed to upend misconceptions and promote understanding and appreciation of science in formal and informal settings are reviewed and recommendations are proposed for promoting public understanding of science in the future.

Who Is Rational? Studies of Individual Differences in Reasoning

Article

Full-text available

Jan 1999

Keith E Stanovich

This is an important book. It addresses the question: Are human beings systematically irrational? They would be so if they were "hard-wired" to reason badly on certain types of tasks. Even if they could discover on reflection that the reasoning was bad, the unreflective tendency to reason badly would be a systematic irrationality. According to Stanovich, psychologists have shown that "people assess probabilities incorrectly, they display confirmation bias, they test hypotheses inefficiently, they violate the axioms of utility theory, they do not properly calibrate degrees of belief, they overproject their own opinions onto others, they allow prior knowledge to become implicated in deductive reasoning, they systematically underweight information about nonoccurrence when evaluat-ing covariation, and they display numerous other information-processing bi-ases." (1-2) Such cognitive psychologists as Nisbett and Ross (1980) and Kahneman, Slovic and Tversky (1982) interpret this apparently dismal typical performance as evidence of hard-wired "heuristics and biases" (whose pres-ence can be given an evolutionary explanation) which are sometimes irra-tional. Critics have proposed four alternative explanations. (1) Are the deficiencies just unsystematic performance errors of basically competent subjects due to such temporary psychological malfunctions as in-attention or memory lapses? Stanovich and West (1998a) administered to the same subjects four types of reasoning tests: syllogistic reasoning, selection, statistical reasoning, argument evaluation. They assumed that, ifmistakes were random performance errors, there would no significant correlation between scores on the different types of tests. In fact, they found modest but statisti-cally very significant correlations (at the .001 level) between all pairs of scores except those on statistical reasoning and argument evaluation. Hence, they concluded, not all mistakes on such reasoning tasks are random performance errors.

Individual Differences in Rational Thought

Article

Full-text available

Jun 1998

Much research in the last 2 decades has demonstrated that humans deviate from normative models of decision making and rational judgment. In 4 studies involving 954 participants, the authors explored the extent to which measures of cognitive ability and thinking dispositions can predict discrepancies from normative responding on a variety of tasks from the heuristics and biases literature including the selection task, belief bias in the syllogistic reasoning, argument evaluation, base-rate use, covariation detection, hypothesis testing, outcome bias, if-only thinking, knowledge calibration, hindsight bias, and on false consensus paradigm. Significant relationships involving cognitive ability were interpreted as indicating algorithmic level limitations on the computation of the normative response. Relationships with thinking dispositions were interpreted as indicating that styles of epistemic regulation can predict individual differences in performance of these tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Reasoning Independently of Prior Belief and Individual Differences in Actively Open-Minded Thinking

Article

Full-text available

Jun 1997

A sample of 349 college students completed an argument evaluation test (AET) in which they evaluated arguments concerning real-life situations. A separate regression analysis was conducted for each student predicting his or her evaluations of argument quality from an objective indicator of argument quality and the strength of his or her prior beliefs about the target propositions. The beta weight for objective argument quality was interpreted in this analysis as an indicator of the ability to evaluate objective argument quality independent of prior belief. Individual differences in this index were reliably linked to individual differences in cognitive ability and actively open-minded thinking dispositions. Further, actively openminded thinking predicted variance in AET performance even after individual differences in cognitive ability had been partialled out. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Belief, Knowledge, and Science Education

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2001

Epistemological questions about the nature of knowledge and belief underlie many of the controversial issues fundamental to research and practice in science teaching and learning. In an effort to bring some clarity to questions of knowledge and belief embedded within science education research and teaching, we first describe the distinctions drawn between knowledge and belief in both philosophy and educational psychology, each of which have shaped the various definitions employed within science education. This discussion is followed by an examination of the distinctions drawn between knowledge and belief employed by three groups of science educators: the traditional distinctions of the foundationalists that are co-opted by researchers focusing on teacher thinking/cognition, the nonfoundational epistemology of the fallibilists and the evolution educators working from this framework, and the radical constructivists who react to and attempt to move past the limitations of these other positions. In this analysis, we explicate the different ways in which knowledge and belief are understood and operationalized in a broad spectrum of research, we describe the theoretical and philosophical assumptions underlying these approaches, and we explore the important areas of contention (both theoretical and empirical) surrounding each of these distinctions.

A review of Developing Reflective Judgment: Understanding and Promoting Intellectual Growth and Critical Thinking in Adolescents and Adults

Article

Full-text available

Oct 1994
J ADULT DEV

Mary M. Brabeck

Without Abstract

Diagnosing Secondary Students' Misconceptions of Photosynthesis and Respiration in Plants Using a Two-Tier Multiple Choice Instrument

Article

Full-text available

Sep 1987

A two-tier multiple-choice instrument is described which reliably and validly diagnoses secondary students' understanding of photosynthesis and respiration in plants. The first tier of each item relates to content based on propositional knowledge statements. The second tier consists of reasons based on students' responses to interviews, open-ended questions, and/or previous research. These reasons include identified misconceptions and a scientifically acceptable answer. The results of the study highlight the consistency of students' misconceptions across secondary year levels and indicate that a high percentage of secondary students do not comprehend the nature and function of respiration and have little understanding of the relationship between photosynthesis and respiration in plants. Recommendations are made for use of the instrument by classroom biology teachers.

Reconceptualizing Change in the Cognitive Construction of Knowledge

Article

Full-text available

Mar 1998

How is knowledge acquired and represented in memory? By what process do individuals come to change their ideas, conceptions, or knowledge? Although the first question has been central to cognitive psychologists' research agendas for many years, relatively less is known about the change process We examine 3 research literatures to broaden our understanding of the process of knowledge change. In particular, we draw on models of conceptual change from cognitive psychology social psychology, and science education. Each model adds a new perspective on the change process. Based on the literature from these models of change, we developed a new model that represents our reconceptualization of the change process. We describe the model and use it to point out new areas of research to be addressed.

Managing the Conflict Between Evolution & Religion

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2009

creation versus evolution conflict smolderson. Courts and curriculum committees haveclosed the issue repeatedly at national, stateand community levels, but the embers still glow.Occasionally, the controversy re-erupts into full flame.Parents band together and file suit against theirschool board claiming that the teaching of evolutionundermines their children’s worldview. State legisla-tures argue laws designed to de-emphasize the roleof evolution in the curriculum. University scientistsgather to champion the need for an uncompromisedapproach to the teaching of evolution in secondaryschools. Often, though, the controversy remains juston the brink of flare-up, a tension that biology teach-ers feel more than any other players in the conflict.Biology teachers face the demanding challenge ofcrafting a learning environment that mediates collid-ing agendas. They want students to deepen theirunderstanding of biological evolution in order tobecome scientifically literate citizens. At the sametime, they also want to support, rather than under-mine, the values of students, parents and communitieswhose worldviews can oppose the teaching of evolu-tion. On a private, and often unspoken level, manybiology teachers themselves must face their ownunresolved conflicts between biological evolution andtheir personal worldviews. Teachers from variousreligious and philosophical backgrounds face conflictsbetween their beliefs and biological evolution thatrange from simply thought-provoking to deeply dis-turbing. Is it possible for teachers to actually resolvethese conflicting ideas?

Effects of Preexisting Beliefs, Epistemological Beliefs, and Need for Cognition on Interpretation of Controversial Issues

Article

Full-text available

Jun 1996

This study examined the influence of people's beliefs about the certainty of knowledge, the strength of their beliefs about a controversial issue, and their tendency to enjoy effortful thinking on their interpretation of controversial information. Ninety-six undergraduates completed an epistemological beliefs questionnaire (M. Schommer; see record 1991-05940-001), the Need for Cognition Scale (J. T. Cacioppo, R. E. Petty, & C. F. Kao; see record 1984-30417-001), and indicated the degree to which they believed that HIV causes AIDS. They then read a text that presented two conflicting views regarding the HIV–AIDS relationship and wrote a concluding paragraph for the text. Regression analyses revealed that the less students believed in certain knowledge, the less extreme their initial beliefs, and the higher their need for cognition, the more likely they were to write conclusions that reflected the inconclusive nature of the mixed evidence they read. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Are Epistemological Beliefs Similar Across Domains?

Article

Full-text available

Sep 1995

Investigators of students' beliefs about the nature of knowledge and learning, or epistemological beliefs, have generally assumed that epistemological beliefs are domain independent (i.e., they generalize across domains). The purpose of this research was to test this assumption. College students completed an epistemological questionnaire with a specific domain in mind (either social sciences or mathematics), read a passage (either social sciences or mathematics), answered a passage test, and completed another epistemological questionnaire with the alternative domain in mind. Results support the idea that individuals' epistemological beliefs tend to be domain independent. Mathematical epistemological factors correlated with the corresponding social science epistemological factors. Epistemological beliefs in both domains predicted passage comprehension similarly, and most students showed a consistent level of epistemological sophistication across domains. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Epistemological Development and Academic Performance Among Secondary Students

Article

Full-text available

Sep 1993

Marlene Schommer-Aikins

This is an investigation of the development of secondary students' beliefs about the nature of knowledge and learning, or epistemological beliefs, and the influence that these beliefs have on academic performance. An epistemological questionnaire that assesses students' beliefs about simple knowledge, certain knowledge, quick learning, and fixed ability to learn was modified and administered to more than 1,000 high school students. Factor analysis of students' responses replicated the factor structure found in previous research. Differences in epistemological beliefs among students across the high school years and between genders were examined. Belief in simple knowledge, certain knowledge, and quick learning decreased from freshman to senior year. Girls were less likely to believe in quick learning and fixed ability. Students' GPA was regressed on epistemological factors. The less students believed in quick learning, the higher the GPA they earned. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Dispositional Differences in Cognitive Motivation: The Life and Times of Individuals Varying in Need for Cognition

Article

Full-text available

Mar 1996

Need for cognition in contemporary literature refers to an individual's tendency to engage in and enjoy effortful cognitive endeavors. Individual differences in need for cognition have been the focus of investigation in over 100 empirical studies. This literature is reviewed, covering the theory and history of this variable, measures of interindividual variations in it, and empirical relationships between it and personality variables, as well as individuals' tendencies to seek and engage in effortful cognitive activity and enjoy cognitively effortful circumstances. The article concludes with discussions of an elaborated theory of the variable, including antecedent conditions; interindividual variations in it related to the manner information is acquired or processed to guide perceptions, judgments, and behavior; and the relationship between it and the 5-factor model of personality structure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

The Domain Specificity and Generality of Belief Bias: Searching for a Generalizable Critical Thinking Skill

Article

Full-text available

Sep 1999

The domain specificity and generality of belief-biased reasoning was examined across a height judgment task and a syllogistic reasoning task that differed greatly in cognitive requirements. Moderate correlations between belief-bias indices on these 2 tasks falsified an extreme form of the domain specificity view of critical thinking skills. Two measures of cognitive ability and 2 measures of cognitive decontextualization skill were positively correlated with belief bias in a height judgment task where prior knowledge accurately reflected an aspect of the environment and negatively correlated with belief bias in a height judgment task where prior knowledge was incongruent with the environment. Likewise, cognitive ability was associated with skill at resisting the influence of prior knowledge in the syllogistic reasoning task. Participants high in cognitive ability were able to flexibly use prior knowledge, depending upon its efficacy in a particular environment. They were more likely to project a relationship when it reflected a useful cue, but they were also less likely to project a prior belief when the belief was inefficacious. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Normal Personality Assessment in Clinical Practice: The NEO Personality Inventory

Article

Full-text available

Mar 1992

Personality psychologists from a variety of theoretical perspectives have recently concluded that personality traits can be summarized in terms of a 5-factor model. This article describes the NEO Personality Inventory (NEO–PI), a measure of these 5 factors and some of the traits that define them, and its use in clinical practice. Recent studies suggest that NEO–PI scales are reliable and valid in clinical samples as in normal samples. The use of self-report personality measures in clinical samples is discussed, and data from 117 "normal" adult men and women are presented to show links between the NEO–PI scales and psychopathology as measured by D. N. Jackson's (1989) Basic Personality Inventory and L. Morey's (1991) Personality Assessment Inventory. The authors argue that the NEO–PI may be useful to clinicians in understanding the patient, formulating a diagnosis, establishing rapport, developing insight, anticipating the course of therapy, and selecting the optimal form of treatment for the patient. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

The influence of age and education on epistemological beliefs

Article

Full-text available

May 2011
BRIT J EDUC PSYCHOL

Marlene Schommer-Aikins

Background. Individuals' beliefs about the nature of knowledge and learning, or epistemological beliefs, have been linked to their comprehension, meta-comprehension, persistence, and interpretation of information (e.g., Kitchener & King, 1981; Ryan, 1984; Songer & Linn, 1991). Little is known about the development of epistemological beliefs. Aims. This research examines the contributions of age and education to adults' epistemological beliefs. Sample. A total of 418 adults from all walks of life (e.g., homemakers, waitresses, teachers, farmers, carpenters, executives, and lawyers) participated in this study. Stratified random sampling was used to ensure that one-third of the sample had only a high school education, another third had some college undergraduate experience, and the other third had some graduate school experience. Method. Adults completed an epistemological questionnaire that assesses beliefs about the structure and stability of knowledge, and the speed and control of learning. Results. To ensure that the epistemological questionnaire was suitable for this sample, a factor analysis was carried out. Factor scores that were generated replicated a factor structure that had been found in earlier studies (Dunkle, Schraw & Bendixen, 1993; Schommer, 1990). Results from multiple regression analyses indicated that education predicted beliefs about the structure and stability of knowledge. Age predicted beliefs about the ability to learn. Conclusions. This evidence suggests that both age and education affect individuals' epistemological beliefs in unique ways. This may have implications for older adults who return to school eager to learn but with misunderstandings about the nature of knowledge, and younger adults who attend school with doubts about the malleability of the ability to learn.

Students' conceptual ecologies and the process of conceptual change in evolution

Article

Full-text available

Nov 1995
SCI EDUC

Using conceptual change as a theoretical lens, the purpose of this study is to describe the structure of a learner's conceptual ecology within a specific content area (biological evolution) and to illustrate how this ecology influences the process of conceptual change. Data were gathered using participant observations in a high school Biology II classroom as well as a series of 17 open-ended and structured interviews with each of four research participants. The interviews were designed to illustrate the participants' approaches to biology as well as to describe their changing conceptual frameworks for evolutionary theory. Interview techniques used include: concept mapping, drawing interviews, discussion of pre- and posttests, and sorting tasks. A learner's conceptual ecology for evolution was found to include prior conceptions related to evolutionary theory (both scientific and alternative), scientific and religious orientations, view of the biological world, and acceptance of evolutionary theory. However, the data demonstrate that the actions of these aspects of the conceptual ecology can vary among individuals and no single controlling mechanism was isolated. Most importantly, the data demonstrate that conceptual change has significant affective cornponents as evidence is evaluated by learners and this evaluation is often based on extralogical criteria. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Students' conceptions of natural selection and its role in evolution: Cases of replication and comparison

Article

Full-text available

May 1995
J RES SCI TEACH

The work of Bishop and Anderson (1990) plays a major role in educators' understanding of evolution education. Their findings remind us that the majority of university students do not understand the process of evolution but that conceptual change instruction can be moderately effective in promoting the construction of a scientific understanding. The present article details two studies that represent an effort to focus on and define the limits of the Bishop and Anderson (1990) study. Study A describes a close replication of the work of Bishop and Anderson (1990) using the same conceptual-change teaching module to teach a unit on evolution to students enrolled in a biology course for nonmajors. Study B, a case of comparison, used the same evaluation instrument used in Bishop and Anderson (1990) and Study A, but high school students were the participants and the instruction was based on the inquiry approach to science. Like Bishop and Anderson (1990), Study A showed that the amount of prior instruction and students' beliefs in evolution were not found to be large factors in students' use of scientific conceptions. Unlike the original study, the students in Study A showed only a meager increase in their use of scientific conceptions for evolution. In Study B, students in the experimental group showed significant increases in their use of scientific conceptions. These findings suggest a need to investigate more closely the teachers' theories of learning, their reliance on instructional conversations, and the amount of time devoted to the topic of evolution as we study conceptual change in this area.

The Development of Epistemological Theories: Beliefs About Knowledge and Knowing and Their Relation to Learning

Article

Full-text available

Mar 1997

There have been a number of research programs that have investigated students’ thinking and beliefs about the nature of knowledge and knowing, including definitions of knowledge, how knowledge is constructed, and how knowledge is evaluated. However, these different research programs have pursued varying definitions and conceptual frameworks and used quite different methodologies to examine students’ epistemological beliefs and thinking. In the first section of this article, we provide a critical and comprehensive review of these different research programs. In the second part of this article, we identify nine crucial theoretical and methodological issues that need to be resolved in future research on epistemological theories. As these issues are addressed in future research, there will be more consensus regarding the nature of epistemological theories, and their relation to cognition, motivation, and learning will be made more explicit.

Beliefs About Academic Knowledge

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2001

Individuals' beliefs about knowledge (i.e., epistemological beliefs) have become the focus of inquiry in the educational and psychological literatures. Based on an analysis of those literatures, we first propose that epistemological beliefs are multidimensional and multilayered. That is, individuals possess general beliefs about knowledge, as well as beliefs about more specific forms of knowledge (e.g., academic knowledge). Second, we examine the relationship between epistemological beliefs and learning in order to understand why such beliefs are important to educators. Third, we question whether beliefs about academic knowledge are truly general (i.e., unwavering across academic domains) or have a character reflective of the domain to which they are associated (i.e., domain specific). Finally, we explore some of the common problems in the research and suggest topics for future study.

Synthesizing Epistemological Belief Research: Tentative Understandings and Provocative Confusions

Article

Full-text available

Jan 1994

Marlene Schommer-Aikins

The definition of epistemological beliefs takes on different shades of meaning from study to study; but, in general, researchers of personal epistemology are interested in what individuals believe about the source, certainty, and organization of knowledge, as well as the control and the speed of learning. Epistemological beliefs have been found to relate to reading comprehension, learning in complex and ill-structured domains, as well as learners' active participation and persistence in learning. Researchers are at odds on the issues of epistemological development and the roles that education and culture play in epistemological beliefs.

Foundational issues in evolution education. Science & Education, 4, 23-46

Article

Full-text available

Jan 1995

There is a great need for effective evolution education. This paper reviews some of the evidence that demonstrates that need and analyzes some of the foundational semantic, epistemological, and philosophical issues involved. This analysis is used to provide a functional understanding of the distinction between science and non-science. Special emphasis is placed the scientific meaning of the terms theory, hypothesis, fact, proof, evidence, and truth, focusing on the difference between religious belief and acceptance of a scientific theory. Science is viewed as theologically neutral and as not mutually exclusive from religion. Finally, a number of practical recommendations to the classroom biology teacher are presented.

Who Is Rational?

Book

Apr 1999

Keith E Stanovich

Rationality and Intelligence

Book

Oct 1985

Jonathan Baron

What is intelligence? Can it be increased by teaching? If so, how, and what difference would an increase make? Before we can answer these questions, we need to clarify them. Jonathan Baron argues that when we do so we find that intelligence has much to do with rational thinking, and that the skills involved in rational thinking are in fact teachable, at least to some extent. Rationality and Intelligence develops and justifies a prescriptive theory of rational thinking in terms of utility theory and the theory of rational life plans. The prescriptive theory, buttressed by other assumptions, suggests that people generally think too little and in a way that is insufficiently critical of the initial possibilities that occur to them. However these biases can be - and sometimes are - corrected by education.

A short version of the Rokeach dogmatism scale

Article

Jan 1965

Defining versus describing the nature of science: A pragmatic analysis for classroom teachers and science educators

Article

Jul 1999

There appears to be an almost universal commitment among science educators to promote the goal of student understanding of the nature of science. Recent disagreements among philosophers of science and between philosophers and other groups such as scientists and science educators about the nature of science, however, leave classroom teachers in a quandry: If experts disagree about the nature of science, how should we decide what to teach students? In this article, the authors first reconsider what level of understanding of the nature of science students should experience so that they can become both intelligent consumers of scientific information and effective local and global citizens. Second, based on an analysis of the literature, it appears that there is a general agreement among science education stakeholders regarding a set of descriptors that can be used to judge which questions or fields of study are more scientific or less scientific than others. Therefore, we propose that most precollege teachers should attempt to teach students how to use these descriptors to judge the relative merits of knowledge claims instead of teaching a set of rules that attempt to demarcate science completely from nonscience. Finally, we suggest two classroom activities based on this proposal and draw some implications for teacher preparation and future research. (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

A Short-Form Dogmatism Scale for Use in Field Studies

Article

Dec 1965

Rokeach recently introduced a theory about different styles of belief systems that people have. The theory is an outgrowth of work on the Authoritarian Personality. The theory has not been utilized much in field studies because the primary measuring instrument, the “dogmatism” scale, contains 40 items. In this article, the authors recommend shorter versions of the dogmatism scale, indicating which items should be used to maintain the reliability of the measuring instrument. The short forms were developed from data collected in two field studies.

A Scientific Approach to Teaching about Evolution & Special Creation

Article

Apr 1999

Anton E. Lawson

The Role of Scientific Understanding in College: Student Acceptance of Evolution

Article

Jan 1993
AM BIOL TEACH

The conditions of conceptual change

Article

Nov 1989

The conceptual change model has two major components: the conditions that need to be satisfied for a person to experience conceptual change and the person's conceptual ecology that provides the context in which the conceptual change occurs. A literature review shows that the conditions have been used to analyse interview data and to plan instruction but not to interpret interactions in the classroom. An analysts of the ways in which students can and do produce evidence of meeting conditions shows that this only happens when they are able to monitor and comment on the scientific content of their conceptions. Implications that this conclusion has for classroom teaching are considered.

Epistemic Beliefs and Moral Reasoning

Article

Mar 1998

The relationship among age, education, gender, syllogistic reasoning skill, epistemic beliefs, and moral reasoning in adults was examined. It was predicted that five epistemic dimensions would explain unique variance in moral reasoning over and above all other variables. This hypothesis was confirmed. Beliefs corresponding to simple knowledge, certain knowledge, omniscient authority, and quick learning each explained the significant variation in performance on the Defining Issues Test (Rest, 1979). Results showed that multiple epistemic assumptions play an important role in young adults' moral reasoning over and above other social and personal variables. Implications concerning the development of epistemic beliefs are discussed.

Research on alternative conceptions in science

Article

Jan 1994

Hot-spot reaction in unsustained shocks

Article

Mar 1987

J. N. Johnson

Shock waves in reactive media create hot spots which undergo further temperature change (following creation) by means of: (1) chemical reaction, (2) thermal conduction, and (3) adiabatic effects resulting from pressure variation. A thermodynamic description of exothermic reaction under conditions of variable pressure is presented here. The reaction rate is assumed to be a function of temperature only, and of the Arrhenius form: the effect of variable pressure enters through its influence on temperature. Decreasing pressure significantly alters adiabatic thermal explosion times, and can, under nominal conditions, completely inhibit hot-spot reaction. This effect is discussed in terms of explosive initiation by unsustained shock waves.

The content of science: A constructivist approach to its teaching and learning

Article

Sep 1997

Kathryn F. Cochran

A revisionist theory of conceptual change

Article

Jan 1992

Defining versus describing the nature of science: A pragmatic analysis for classroom teachers and science educators

Article

Jul 1999

There appears to be an almost universal commitment among science edu- cators to promote the goal of student understanding of the nature of science. Recent dis- agreements among philosophers of science and between philosophers and other groups such as scientists and science educators about the nature of science, however, leave class- room teachers in a quandry: If experts disagree about the nature of science, how should we decide what to teach students? In this article, the authors first reconsider what level of understanding of the nature of science students should experience so that they can become both intelligent consumers of scientific information and effective local and global citizens. Second, based on an analysis of the literature, it appears that there is a general agreement among science education stakeholders regarding a set of descriptors that can be used to judge which questions or fields of study are more scientific or less scientific than others. Therefore, we propose that most precollege teachers should attempt to teach students how to use these descriptors to judge the relative merits of knowledge claims instead of teaching a set of rules that attempt to demarcate science completely from nonscience. Finally, we suggest two classroom activities based on this proposal and draw some implications for teacher preparation and future research. q 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Sci Ed 83:493- 509, 1999.

Teaching Evolution: Understanding, Concerns, and Instructional Approaches

Article

Jan 1991

As part of an investigation of the influence of a 3-week institute upon secondary biology and earth science teachers regarding their self-confidence with respect to the teaching of evolutionary principles, 19 inservice teachers participated in discussions of content presentations and instructional activities. The following research questions were proposed: (1) To what extent can a 3-week institute influence teachers' understanding of the nature of science, acceptance of the theory of evolution, and understanding of applied evolutionary principles? (measured by the Nature of Science Scale); (2) Can a 3-week institute reduce teachers' self-perceived anxieties regarding the teaching of evolution? (assessed by the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory); and (3) What concerns might teachers have regarding the potential use of a student-centered peer discussion as an instructional strategy to teach evolution? (measured by the Stages of Concern Instrument). At the conclusion of the institute, which was sponsored by the National Science Foundation, participants showed significant increases in acceptance of the theory of evolution and content understanding of evolution, as well as significant reduction in anxiety. Moderate to strong consideration of peer discussion technique was also apparent. (23 references) (KR)

How University Students View the Theory of Evolution.

Article

Jan 1993
J Coll Sci Teach

Presents the results of a survey on evolution given to 392 university students in western Pennsylvania. Concludes that, although nearly three-quarters of the students say they believe in the theory of evolution, most do not understand the mechanism behind it. (PR)

A multidimensional framework for interpreting conceptual change events in classroom

Article

Jul 1997

This article examines the research literature on conceptual change, analyzes the different uses of the term "conceptual change," and discusses six other issues that have emerged from this literature. The second part of this study outlines a multidimensional framework for considering conceptual change events in the classroom and attempts to synthesize various perspectives of contemporary conceptual change research by proposing that changes in students' knowledge structures be viewed from epistemological, ontological, and social/affective perspectives. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

The rejection of nonscientific beliefs about life: Effects of instruction and reasoning skills

Article

Sep 1990

954 college students in a nonmajors biology course were pretested to determine the extent to which they held nonscientific beliefs in creationism, orthogenesis, the soul, nonreductionism, vitalism, teleology, and nonemergentism. To test whether hypothetico-deductive reasoning skills facilitate movement away from nonscientific beliefs, the degree to which those nonscientific beliefs were initially held and the degree to which they were modified during instruction were compared to Ss' reasoning level (intuitive, transitional, reflective). As predicted, less-skilled reasoners were more likely to initially hold the nonscientific beliefs and were less likely to change those beliefs during instruction. Less-skilled reasoners were also less likely to be strongly committed to the scientific beliefs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

The Scale of Intellectual Development: Measuring Perry's scheme

Article

Jan 1983

T. Dary Erwin

Developed the Scale of Intellectual Development (SID) to measure W. G. Perry's (1970) scheme of intellectual-ethical development and administered it to 3,321 college freshmen. Results of factor analysis revealed 4 factors: Dualism, Relativism, Commitment, and Empathy. To test construct validity, an identity scale and a perceived-self questionnaire were administered in conjunction with the SID to subsamples of 300 and 2,707 Ss, respectively. SID scores correlated well with the other 2 student developmental instruments, but additional validation is needed. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

The Great evolution trial: Use of role‐play in the classroom

Article

May 2007
J RES SCI TEACH

This article gives both the pedagogic and scientific thinking that guided the construction of a classroom role-play—The Great Evolution Debate. This role-play is about the publication of Darwin's The Origin of Species, which is supposed to be on trial for blasphemy. Historical characters are used to show the range of ideas which were current at that time. The literature on learning history, and on learning about the nature of science, is discussed, leading to an examination of historical empathy as a classroom objective. The reasons for including the various characters in the role-play are explained. The exercise has been used by 15 to 16-year-old students in British high schools with considerable success, and some tentative findings about learning from role-play are drawn from its observation.

Bishop BA, Anderson CW. Student conceptions of natural selection and its role in evolution. J Res Sci Teach. 1990;27:415-27

Article

May 1990
J RES SCI TEACH

Pretests and posttests on the topic of evolution by natural selection were administered to students in a college nonmajors' biology course. Analysis of test responses revealed that most students understood evolution as a process in which species respond to environmental conditions by changing gradually over time. Student thinking differed from accepted biological theory in that (a) changes in traits were attributed to a need-driven adaptive process rather than random genetic mutation and sexual recombination, (b) no role was assigned to variation on traits within a population or differences in reproductive success, and (c) traits were seen as gradually changing in all members of a population. Although students had taken an average of 1.9 years of previous biology courses, performance on the pretest was uniformly low. There was no relationship between the amount of previous biology taken and either pretest or posttest performance. Belief in the truthfulness of evolutionary theory was also unrelated to either pretest or posttest performance. Course instruction using specially designed materials was moderately successful in improving students' understanding of the evolutionary process.

Point: Belief, Understanding, and the Teaching of Evolution

Article

May 2007
J RES SCI TEACH

William Cobern

Educators typically think that one teaches evolution to develop students' conceptual understanding of evolution. It is assumed that if students understand evolution they will believe it. From a constructivist perspective it can be argued that understanding and belief, though related, are distinct concepts and that each is a potential goal for instruction. Though there are good reasons why belief should not be an instructional goal, achieving conceptual understanding requires that issues of belief be addressed. The point is that students are not likely to gain much understanding of something that they dismiss outright as unbelievable. What counts as believable for an individual rests on that person's worldview. This article argues that instruction on evolution can profitably begin with a dialogue on what counts as believable based on a study of the cultural history of Darwinism. The purpose of this strategy is to create in the classroom a shared meaning that certain fundamental questions are worth discussing and that the biological principles of evolution can contribute to that discussion.

Counterpoint: Belief, Understanding, and the Teaching of Evolution

Article

May 2007
J RES SCI TEACH

Mike Smith

If we are to be successful in teaching evolution, we must take into account our students' worldviews as well as their individual understandings and misconceptions. This article makes several recommendations for how this might be accomplished in a way that respects individual student backgrounds and beliefs but is also scientifically appropriate. It is important (a) to know our students—their cultures, personal histories, cognitive abilities, religious beliefs, scientific misconceptions, and so forth; (b) to take this opportunity to teach about the nature of science and its distinctions from nonscience; (c) to address directly the likely cultural/religious concerns with evolution and to do so early on so as to break down the barriers that keep many students from hearing what you say; and (d) to present evolution appropriately as conflicting with none but the most fundamentalist religious tenets that demand a literal translation of the Bible. I have also argued that the approach advocated by Cobern in the previous article that focuses on belief in evolution is ill-advised on several grounds, principally because students may understand the term belief as synonymous with faith, opinion, or conviction and not as equivalent to the scientist's meaning of the term acceptance.

Intentions and beliefs in students' understanding and acceptance of biological evolution

Abstract

No full-text available