Secondary students' responses to perceptions of the relationship between science and religion: Stances identified from an interview study

Abstract

It has been argued that learning science may be complicated, and even compromised, when students hold worldviews that may seem at odds with what is presented in science lessons. In particular, in some parts of the world, there has been considerable concern that students from particular religious backgrounds may reject some science teaching if perceived as inconsistent with their faith commitments. In this paper, we report the findings from an interview study that investigated how 12 13–14‐year‐olds from four diverse English schools perceived the relationship between science and religion. In particular, we consider how these students responded to any perceived contradiction and conflict between science and religion. We found a spectrum of stances among this small sample of secondary students. The more extreme positions represented a choice for either science or religion when conflict was perceived. However, other stances were found that sought a synthesis, accommodated inconsistent frameworks, or considered science and religion as noninteracting domains. These alternative stances present a similar range of possibilities to the possible outcomes that have been discussed when students' informal ideas in science are inconsistent with formal science teaching. The implications for further research and for curriculum development and teaching are considered. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed 95:1000–1025, 2011

Insights Into the Diversity of Attitudes Concerning Evolution and Creation: A Multidimensional Approach

“…There is a range of primarily qualitative studies that have described different views regarding the science and religion issue. Many of these studies use Barbour's () typology of science and religion relationships to identify students’ or teachers’ views (e.g., Mansour, ; Taber et al., ). In our study, several attitude profiles match the conflict view ( P1 , P3 , P4 , and P7 ), whereas the more‐harmonious profiles ( P2 and P5 ) belong to dialogue, independence or integration.…”

“…Several authors from the field of science education have recently reflected on the diversity of views concerning the relationship between science and religion and its relevance for evolution education (e.g., Billingsley, ; Reiss, ; Taber, ). Empirical evidence for positions beyond conflict provides a glimpse into the diversity of positions and is available for college and university students (Brickhouse et al., ; Hokayem & BouJaoude, ; Roth & Alexander, ; Shipman, Brickhouse, Dagher, & Letts, ; Winslow, Staver, & Scharmann, ), clergy (Colburn & Henriques, ), scientists (Ecklund, ), and secondary school students (Hanley et al., ; Taber, Billingsley, Riga, & Newdick, ). Diversity among secondary school students’ views has been described, for example, via the following five different stances: (1) giving religion precedence, (2) being open to science supporting faith, (3) compartmentalizing science and religion, (4) using multiple frameworks, and (5) choosing science over religion (Taber et al., ).…”

Evolution acceptance among pre-service primary teachers

“…This relationship is part of a wider relationship between science and religion. The relationship between science and religion is not a dichotomous choice but a gradient of views one might take (Mahner & Bunge, 1996;Barber 1990;Yasri, Arthur, Smith and Mancy (under review);Smith 2010a;Taber et al 2011). In the same way, evolutionist and creationist positions are not mutually exclusive and diametrically opposed.…”

‘Science disproves the biblical account of creation’: exploring the predictors of perceived conflict between science and religion among 13- to 15-year-old students in the UK

“…According to this survey, 26% of the participants agreed with the sentiment 'Science and religion disagree on so many things that you cannot believe both'; 28% of the participants agreed that 'Religious ideas about how the universe began have been proved wrong by science'; and 22% of the participants agreed that 'A good scientist cannot believe that life was created by God or a higher being'. These quantitative findings were supported by a second study reporting interviews with 12 13-to 14-year-old students (see Taber et al 2011b).…”