History and Philosophy of Science and the Teaching of Evolution: Students’ Conceptions and Explanations

Kampourakis, Kostas; Nehm, Ross H.

doi:10.1007/978-94-007-7654-8_13

Cited by 22 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 84 publications

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Section: Students' Explanations May Not Reflect Problematic Teleologimentioning

confidence: 99%

Causal mapping as a teaching tool for reflecting on causation in human evolution

Hanisch¹,

Eirdosh²

2020

Preprint

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Teleological reasoning is viewed as a major hurdle to evolution education, and yet, eliciting, interpreting, and reflecting upon teleological language presents an arguably greater challenge to the evolution educator and researcher. This article argues that making explicit the role of behavior as a causal factor in the evolution of particular traits may prove productive in helping students to link their everyday experience of behavior to evolutionary changes in populations in ways congruent with scientific perspectives. We present a teaching tool, used widely in other parts of science and science education, yet perhaps underutilized in human evolution education - the causal map - as a novel direction for driving conceptual change in the classroom about the nature of evolutionary change. After describing the scientific and conceptual basis for using such causal maps in human evolution education, we describe a classroom intervention within the context of a larger Design-Based Implementation Research (DBIR) project. An overview of the teacher-researcher collaborative design process and preliminary results from classroom interventions using causal maps within a human evolution unit are described. Initial results of the interventions indicate that causal maps allow students to make visible their causal reasoning about complex processes in human evolution, and can facilitate classroom reflection and conceptual change. Based on these insights, we offer considerations for future research and educational design.

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Section: Students' Explanations May Not Reflect Problematic Teleologimentioning

confidence: 99%

Causal mapping as a teaching tool for reflecting on causation in human evolution

Hanisch¹,

Eirdosh²

2020

Preprint

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“…Education researchers have pointed out that often, we do not really know what a student is thinking because students are not given more prompts and opportunities to elaborate on their thinking (Kelemen 2012; Kampourakis and Nehm 2014;Gouvea and Simon 2018). Categorizing short student explanations based on simple phrases that students might use such as "in order to", "so that", and "because it needs it" may be problematic because these tell us very little about the nuances of their thinking.…”

Section: Students' Explanations May Not Reflect Problematic Teleologimentioning

confidence: 99%

Causal Mapping as a Teaching Tool for Reflecting on Causation in Human Evolution

Hanisch

Eirdosh

2020

Sci & Educ

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Teleological reasoning is viewed as a major hurdle to evolution education, and yet, eliciting, interpreting, and reflecting upon teleological language presents an arguably greater challenge to the evolution educator and researcher. This article argues that making explicit the role of behavior as a causal factor in the evolution of particular traits may prove productive in helping students to link their everyday experience of behavior to evolutionary changes in populations in ways congruent with scientific perspectives. We present a teaching tool, used widely in other parts of science and science education, yet perhaps underutilized in human evolution education—the causal map—as a novel direction for driving conceptual change in the classroom about the role of organism behavior and other factors in evolutionary change. We describe the scientific and conceptual basis for using such causal maps in human evolution education, as well as theoretical considerations for implementing the causal mapping tool in human evolution classrooms. Finally, we offer considerations for future research and educational design.

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“…In this study, students explored the hypotheses of two important evolution‐focused scientists, Darwin and Lamarck, in the context of habitat destruction. In the unit, students investigated important concepts of evolution, such as how variation within various populations leads to survival of those with beneficial characteristics, how those that reproduce pass their traits to their offspring, and how evolution occurs over many generations with changes in the overall population (Kampourakis & Nehm, ). Students investigated a series of simulations that depicted changes to populations of fish, visualized in a pond, to distinguish among the hypotheses of each scientist (See Method Section for more detail on the simulations).…”

Section: Alternative Explanations Of Evolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhancing student explanations of evolution: Comparing elaborating and competing theory prompts

et al. 2016

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In this study we explore how two different prompt types within an online computer-based inquiry learning environment enhance 392 7th grade students' explanations of evolution with 3 teachers. In the elaborating prompt condition, students are prompted to write explanations that support the accepted theory of evolution. In the competing prompt condition, students are prompted to write explanations that differentiate two views of evolution associated with Darwin and Lamarck. Data sources included a pretest and posttest, an embedded item, observations, logged teacher guidance, and teacher interviews. Findings show similar pretest to posttest gains in students' understanding of evolution for both conditions, but this pattern was not uniform across all three teachers.For one teacher, students who received competing theory prompts produced significantly higher gains than those who received elaborating theory prompts. A closer look at embedded student work reveals a higher degree of teacher participation (i.e., grading and guidance) than for the other teachers. Our findings illustrate how helping students distinguish between competing scientific claims can support learning in an inquiry unit, but may require a higher degree of teacher participation and reinforcement. We discuss the implications of these findings for enhancing students' scientific explanations.

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History and Philosophy of Science and the Teaching of Evolution: Students’ Conceptions and Explanations

Cited by 22 publications

References 84 publications

Causal mapping as a teaching tool for reflecting on causation in human evolution

Causal mapping as a teaching tool for reflecting on causation in human evolution

Causal Mapping as a Teaching Tool for Reflecting on Causation in Human Evolution

Enhancing student explanations of evolution: Comparing elaborating and competing theory prompts

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