Following Darwin’s footsteps: Evaluating the impact of an activity designed for elementary school students to link historically important evolution key concepts on their understanding of natural selection

Sá-Pinto, Xana; Pinto, Alexandre; Ribeiro, Joana; Sarmento, Inês; Pessoa, Patrícia; Rodrigues, Leonor R.; Vázquez-Ben, Lucía; Mavrikaki, Evangelia; Lopes, J. Bernardino

doi:10.1002/ece3.7849

Cited by 13 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 65 publications

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“…Typical students in these grades are 13–14 years old. It is therefore obvious that despite having been an increase in the last few decades in the number of calls in various countries to implement evolution in early science education (e.g., Adler et al, 2022 ; Campos & Sá-Pinto, 2013 ; Chanet & Lusignan, 2009 ; Frejd et al, 2022 ; Nadelson et al, 2009 ; Sá-Pinto et al, 2021 ; Vázquez-Ben & Bugallo-Rodríguez, 2018 ; Wagler, 2012 ), in Colombia, teaching evolution in early childhood and primary school level is not yet the norm. In this regard, our results corroborate that the need for education on evolution from the initial years of schooling is warranted.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

STEM and Non-STEM Misconceptions About Evolution: Findings from 5 Years of Data

et al. 2023

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Even though it is widely held that the theory of evolution is one of the pillars of the biological sciences, as we begin the third decade of the twenty-first century, it is alarming how little we know about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors and non-STEM majors’ misconceptions about evolution in countries such as Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Greece, to name a few. The situation is even more complicated if we acknowledge that contemporary educational approaches (e.g., student-centered learning) mean that students’ misconceptions are one of the multiple aspects that influence the construction of meaningful learning. Here, we present a picture of Colombian STEM/non-STEM majors’ misconceptions about evolution. Participants were 547 students from different STEM/non-STEM majors (278 females and 269 males, 16–24 years old). During 5 years (10 academic semesters), data were collected from students’ responses to an 11-item questionnaire administered in a Colombian university. We hypothesized that the academic semester within these 5 years in which each student completed the instrument as well as respondents’ age, gender, and/or major may influence their misconceptions about evolution. Results reveal that participants had a moderate understanding of evolution. Also, we found a limited understanding of microevolution among participants. Furthermore, cross-sectional analyses of differences in undergraduates’ responses across demographic variables showed that despite apparent differences, these were not reliable since the differences were not statistically significant. Implications for evolution education are discussed.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

STEM and Non-STEM Misconceptions About Evolution: Findings from 5 Years of Data

et al. 2023

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“…We did not look for evidence of students mentioning speciation as divergence between populations, as it was not an expected outcome from the proposed biological scenario. Furthermore, we did not evaluate the key concepts related to the dimensions of heredity and variation, as, following Sá-Pinto et al (2017a, 2021a, the information related to these key concepts was provided to the students in the test. The expected fittest phenotype was considered to be the larger mandibles, unless the student provided information in the answer to support a credible biological scenario in which other phenotypes increase the progeny of the individuals more than the larger mandibles.…”

Section: Evaluation Of Students' Understanding Of Evolution By Sexual...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A study by Brown et al (2020) also shows that, although primary school students reveal some common evolution misconceptions, these are easily overcome with instruction, a picture that strongly contrasts with what is known regarding older students, whose misconceptions are shown to resist instruction (Bishop & Anderson, 1986;Nehm & Reilly, 2007). Although these studies support primary school students' ability to learn about natural selection, the results of Sá-Pinto et al (2017a, 2021a show that differential reproduction is not frequently mentioned by students. This is particularly worrying, as differential reproduction is the most important parameter determining individuals' fitness, and because students tend to believe that fitness is determined by the individual's ability to survive, their strength or intelligence (Gregory, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

The Impact of Exploring Sexual Selection on Primary School Students’ Understanding of Evolution

Sá-Pinto

Pessoa

Pinto

et al. 2023

CEPSj

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Several researchers and scientific institutions argue that evolution should be explored from the first school years. However, few studies have analysed primary school students’ understanding of evolutionary processes or evaluated the impact of educational activities on such knowledge. The available data: i) suggest that primary school students can learn about evolution; and ii) identify differential reproduction as the key evolution concept less often used by students to make and justify evolutionary predictions. In the present study, we evaluate the impact of an educational programme on primary school students’ level of understanding of evolution by sexual selection and on their ability to employ differential reproduction to propose and justify evolutionary predictions. An evaluation framework was applied to estimate primary school students’ level of understanding of evolution by sexual selection in third- and fourth-grade classes, before and after the students were exposed to the educational programme. A significant increase in the level of understanding of evolution by sexual selection was observed in the target classes, but not in the control classes. This result was primarily driven by a significant increase in the students’ justifications employing the concept of differential reproduction. The results suggest that activities that model and simulate biological evolution through sexual selection can contribute to primary school students’ understanding of evolutionary processes.

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“…It is therefore necessary to provide pupils and students with as many opportunities as possible to encounter evolution and natural science. For a better understanding of evolutionary processes, classroom activities (as described by Sá-Pinto et al, 2021) or an active pedagogical approach to teaching evolution (as described by Buckberry & Burke de Silva, 2012) could be helpful.…”

Section: Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Evolutionary Education on Knowledge and Understanding the Evolution

Martincová¹,

Fančovičová²,

Iľko³

et al. 2022

EUROPEAN J ED RES

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<p style="text-align: justify;">Evolution is one of the most difficult and controversial topics. Scientific knowledge of evolution should belong to general knowledge of people, it should be the part of their natural science knowledge or biological education because it is the basis for accepting or refusing of other important topics such as genetical modification, global climatic change and others. Our aim was to analyse the inclusion of evolution in the teaching process in Slovakia in the subjects of history and biology and the associated potential threats to the formation of misconceptions. We measured the level of knowledge and understanding of evolution and evolutionary processes among high school graduates (N = 200). In doing so, we hypothesized that graduating high school students who have received evolutionary education achieve higher levels of both knowledge and understanding of evolutionary processes compared to those who have not received such education. We hypothesized that interest in science and acceptance of evolution would also positively influence levels of knowledge about evolutionary phenomena and understanding of evolutionary processes. Having used research, we claimed the impact of interest in natural science. We suggest to include the evolution as a main topic of biology into education through exploration- oriented teaching.</p>

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Following Darwin’s footsteps: Evaluating the impact of an activity designed for elementary school students to link historically important evolution key concepts on their understanding of natural selection

Cited by 13 publications

References 65 publications

STEM and Non-STEM Misconceptions About Evolution: Findings from 5 Years of Data

STEM and Non-STEM Misconceptions About Evolution: Findings from 5 Years of Data

The Impact of Exploring Sexual Selection on Primary School Students’ Understanding of Evolution

The Impact of Evolutionary Education on Knowledge and Understanding the Evolution

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