Evolution education is a complex landscape

Dunk, Ryan D. P.; Barnes, M. Elizabeth; Reiß, Michael; Alters, Brian; Asghar, Anila; Carter, B. Elijah; Cotner, Sehoya; Glaze, Amanda L.; Hawley, Patricia H.; Jensen, Jamie L.; Mead, Louise S.; Nadelson, Louis S.; Nelson, Craig E.; Pobiner, Briana; Scott, Eugenie C.; Shtulman, Andrew; Sinatra, Gale M.; Southerland, Sherry A.; Walter, Emily M.; Brownell, Sara E.; Wiles, Jason R.

doi:10.1038/s41559-019-0802-9

Cited by 46 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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Section: Relationships Between Knowledge Acceptance and Religious Faithmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The relationship between attitudes towards evolution and knowledge about evolution, in particular, is another central issue for science education research (Dunk et al 2019). To date there is no clear consensus in the evolution education community about the nature and the extent of this relationship (e.g., Barnes et al 2019;Dunk et al 2019;Glaze and Goldston 2015). The application of different measuring instruments (e.g., Barnes et al 2019;Mead et al 2019; as well as the different use of terms concerning the key constructs (Konnemann et al 2012; Smith and Siegel 2016) may be the main reasons for inconsistent results in this research area.…”

Section: Relationships Between Knowledge Acceptance and Religious Faithmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is therefore important to use instruments for which there is supporting evidence to measure the same construct or ideally even the same instrument and similar target groups. Much research has been conducted in the USA with numerous instruments and target groups (Dunk et al 2019). However, even on this database, questions about the relationship between acceptance and knowledge remain.…”

Section: Measuring Issuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In recently published papers, authors emphasize the crucial importance of ongoing work to investigate the relationship between evolution acceptance and knowledge (e.g., Barnes et al 2019;Dunk et al 2019;Mead et al 2019), since the assessment of these variables is a crucial issue for science education research (Dunk et al 2019). The aim of the present article is to contribute to this ongoing challenge by providing an overview of the current state of research regarding evolutionary knowledge and attitudes of students and teachers across Europe, as these groups are of particular relevance in the context of science education.…”

Section: Objectivementioning

confidence: 99%

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Towards common ground in measuring acceptance of evolution and knowledge about evolution across Europe: a systematic review of the state of research

et al. 2020

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Background: Relatively little information is available regarding the level of acceptance of evolution and knowledge about evolution in different educational settings in Europe. The aim of the present study is to fill this gap and provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of research regarding evolutionary knowledge and acceptance of students and teachers across Europe, based on a systematic literature review. Results: We identified 56 papers for the period 2010-2020, presenting results for 29 European countries. Both knowledge and acceptance of evolution were assessed in 17 studies. Out of 13 instruments most commonly used in the literature, five have been used in the European context so far: ACORNS, CINS, I-SEA, KEE and MATE. Thirty-one other instruments were identified of which 16 were used in studies on knowledge and 15 in studies on acceptance. The extent of knowledge was hard to compare even within groups of the same education level due to the application of different instruments and assessment of different key concepts. Our results illustrate the persistence of misconceptions through all education levels. Comparing acceptance among different education levels and countries revealed a high diversity. However, a lack of evolution in curricula tended to be associated with rejection of evolution in some countries. European studies that investigated both acceptance of evolution and knowledge about evolution varied highly concerning the existence and strength of the relationship between these factors. However, some trends are visible, such as an increase of strength of the relationship the higher the education level. Conclusions: The present review highlights the lack of a standardized assessment of evolutionary knowledge and acceptance of evolution across Europe and, therefore, of reasonably comparable data. Moreover, the review revealed that only about one-third of all studies on acceptance and/or knowledge about evolution provided evidence for local validity and reliability. We suggest the use of assessment categories for both knowledge and acceptance instruments to allow for interpretation and comparison of sum scores among different sample groups. This, along with prospective comparative research based on similar samples, paves the way for future research aimed at overcoming current biases and inconsistencies in results.

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Section: Relationships Between Knowledge Acceptance and Religious Faithmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Relationships Between Knowledge Acceptance and Religious Faithmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Measuring Issuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Objectivementioning

confidence: 99%

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Towards common ground in measuring acceptance of evolution and knowledge about evolution across Europe: a systematic review of the state of research

et al. 2020

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“…Note that there are complex interactions between challenges of understanding and acceptance, since emotional factors often cannot be separated from conceptual learning, as learning is understood by many scholars to involve affective and motivational aspects (Sinatra, 2005). This is why evolution education has been particularly concerned with the apparent problem that understanding of evolution does not appear to coincide with acceptance, or motivation, or perceived relevance of evolution to students (Dunk et al, 2019;Pobiner, 2016).…”

Section: Persistent Challenges In Evolution Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Educational potential of teaching evolution as an interdisciplinary science

Hanisch¹,

Eirdosh²

2020

Preprint

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Evolution education continues to struggle with a range of persistent challenges spanning aspects of conceptual understanding, acceptance, and perceived relevance of evolutionary theory by students in general education. This article argues that a gene-centered conceptualization of evolution may precisely contribute to and exacerbate these challenges. Against that background, we also argue that a trait-centered, generalized, and interdisciplinary conceptualization of evolution may hold significant learning potential for addressing some of these persistent challenges facing evolution education. We outline a number of testable hypotheses about the educational value of teaching evolutionary theory from this more generalized and interdisciplinary conception.

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Validity aspects in measuring evolution acceptance: Evidence from surveys of preservice biology teachers and creationists

2022

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Over the past decades, a large body of research has examined students' magnitudes of evolution acceptance and related measurement issues resulting in questions concerning instruments' validity and operationalization. Until now, several studies investigated validity aspects of often‐used evolution acceptance instruments and came to diverging conclusions about instruments' scores comparability. Within the last years, religious identity was identified as a significant predictor for magnitudes of evolution acceptance. However, religious identity can also point to validity issues if aspects of the content under investigation are interpreted differently based on specific religious identity. Additionally, self‐identified creationists could serve as a source of validity evidence due to the assumption that creationists should score lower on an evolution acceptance instrument than groups with more scientifically adequate views. Thus, we aim to provide additional validity evidence for often‐used evolution acceptance instruments within a European context (i.e., Germany) by comparing two groups of particular interest for research in science education: preservice biology teachers and self‐identified creationists. Exploring evidence based on (1) internal structure, (2) relationships with other variables, and (3) test content provides arguments for test interpretations' validity. A total of 286 persons (206 preservice biology teachers and 81 self‐identified creationists) participated in a survey comprised of six often‐used evolution acceptance measures (i.e., MATE, GAENE, I‐SEA, ATEVO, Gallup question, and 100 point questions). Overall, our findings indicate that the six applied instruments demonstrate differences concerning their evidence for sound interpretation. In particular, the DIF and dimensionality analyses lead to the assumption that the GAENE may be multidimensional other than theoretically expected. In general, the multi‐item measures were stronger related to each other than to the general public polls. Using an instrument that differentiates between microevolution and macroevolution is advisable for creationist samples or samples with a remarkable share of creationists' views.

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Evolution education is a complex landscape

Cited by 46 publications

References 29 publications

Towards common ground in measuring acceptance of evolution and knowledge about evolution across Europe: a systematic review of the state of research

Towards common ground in measuring acceptance of evolution and knowledge about evolution across Europe: a systematic review of the state of research

Educational potential of teaching evolution as an interdisciplinary science

Validity aspects in measuring evolution acceptance: Evidence from surveys of preservice biology teachers and creationists

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