Student Teachers’ Approaches to Teaching Biological Evolution

Abstract

Evolution is fundamental to biology and scientific literacy, but teaching high school evolution is often difficult. Evolution teachers face several challenges including limited content knowledge, personal conflicts with evolution, expectations of resistance, concerns about students' conflicts with religion, and curricular constraints. Evolution teaching can be particularly challenging for student teachers who are just beginning to gain pedagogical knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge related to evolution teaching and who seek approval from university supervisors and cooperating teachers. Science teacher educators need to know how to best support student teachers as they broach the sometimes daunting task of teaching evolution within student teaching placements. This multiple case study report documents how three student teachers approached evolution instruction and what influenced their approaches. Data sources included student teacher interviews, field note observations for 4-5 days of evolution instruction, and evolution instructional artifacts. Data were analyzed using grounded theory approaches to develop individual cases and a cross-case analysis. Seven influences (state exams and standards, cooperating teacher, ideas about teaching and learning, concerns about evolution controversy, personal commitment to evolution, knowledge and preparation for teaching evolution, and own evolution learning experiences) were identified and compared across cases. Implications for science teacher preparation and future research are provided.

Accepting, understanding, teaching, and learning (human) evolution: Obstacles and opportunities

“…Even for teachers who accept evolution, many teachers’ refusals to teach evolution are due to pressure (from administrators, school board members, colleagues, parents, clergy, other community members, and students themselves); negative attitudes and mixed messages from state and local leaders; state, district, and school guidelines, standards, and exams for teaching evolution; actual or perceived support within the school itself for teaching evolution; their awareness of the attitudes toward the importance and teaching of evolution in their communities; their positions in their respective professional communities; their ideas about teaching and learning; unfamiliarity with laws about teaching evolution and creationism in science classrooms; lack of time; lack of knowledge, training, and preparation to teach evolution; lack of awareness of available instructional resources; and their own evolution learning experiences (Aguillard, 1998; Van Koevering and Stiehl, 1989; McGinnis and Simmons, ; Chuang, ; Brem et al, ; Griffith and Brem, ; Moore, ; Lazarowitz and Bloch, ; Moore and Kraemer, ; National Science Teachers Association, ; Asghar et al, ; Sanders and Ngxola, ; Goldston and Kyzer, ; Dotger et al, ; Fowler and Meisels, ; Nadelson and Nadelson, ; Nadelson and Sinatra, ; Bramschreiber, ; Hermann, ; Berkman and Plutzer, ; Borgerding et al, ; Glaze et al, ). In a study of Ohio high school biology teachers, 10% had been pressured not to teach evolution, and 11% had received pressure to teach creationism (Zimmerman, 1987).…”

“…Bramschreiber () notes that every teacher in his study—which took place in an area with pervasive anti‐evolution sentiment—felt unprepared for resistance they would face and received no formal training in this area from their teacher preparation programs. Even pre‐service teachers are already thinking about how they will deal with evolution in their own classrooms and report feeling pressure to teach or not teach it (Van Koevering and Stiehl, 1989; Borgerding et al, ; Glaze et al, ). In a study of pre‐service teachers, Borgerding et al () found that cooperating (mentor) teachers had a strong influence on evolution instruction via planning, pressuring for test preparation, and guiding how the relationship between religion and science was addressed; one teacher described how his cooperating teacher even urged him not to compassionately address his students’ religious tensions.…”

“…Even pre‐service teachers are already thinking about how they will deal with evolution in their own classrooms and report feeling pressure to teach or not teach it (Van Koevering and Stiehl, 1989; Borgerding et al, ; Glaze et al, ). In a study of pre‐service teachers, Borgerding et al () found that cooperating (mentor) teachers had a strong influence on evolution instruction via planning, pressuring for test preparation, and guiding how the relationship between religion and science was addressed; one teacher described how his cooperating teacher even urged him not to compassionately address his students’ religious tensions. All teachers in this study described the influence of the state exam on their teaching, including causing the decision to eliminate non‐tested aspects of evolution from their curriculum—despite the desire to teach them—because their first priority needed to be preparing students for their state exam and simply felt they did not have the time to include any additional content (Borgerding et al, ).…”

“…In a study of pre‐service teachers, Borgerding et al () found that cooperating (mentor) teachers had a strong influence on evolution instruction via planning, pressuring for test preparation, and guiding how the relationship between religion and science was addressed; one teacher described how his cooperating teacher even urged him not to compassionately address his students’ religious tensions. All teachers in this study described the influence of the state exam on their teaching, including causing the decision to eliminate non‐tested aspects of evolution from their curriculum—despite the desire to teach them—because their first priority needed to be preparing students for their state exam and simply felt they did not have the time to include any additional content (Borgerding et al, ). In a study of pre‐service teachers in the southeastern US, Glaze () noted that when there was a conflict among the major influences in the teachers’ lives (parents, family, peers, and religion), they side with their oldest held belief systems: their parents and church.…”

Development and pilot testing of a three-dimensional, phenomenon-based unit that integrates evolution and heredity

“…Yet elementary through postsecondary students, and the general public, have a poor grasp of this essential science idea (reviewed in Gregory 2009). Research has documented that evolution is difficult to teach and learn (Borgerding et al 2015). A national assessment of students' ideas about evolution and natural selection found that misconceptions related to common ancestry were among the most prevalent (Flanagan and Roseman 2011).…”