Vision of pedagogy course students on the origin and evolution of the human species

Abstract

Evolution and its teaching generate controversy in society. Therefore, understanding how pedagogues conceive this topic is important, as they are the first to introduce it to children. Human evolution has been proven by scientific evidence and the intelligent design hypothesis does not find academic support. The objective was to analyze how students of pedagogy perceive the origin of man and the hypothesis of intelligent design. Pedagogy students of UNIFOR-MG participated. The questions of the BIOHEAD-CITIZEN questionnaire, A33: the improbability of the emergence of humanity; and B44: the role of intelligent design in the evolution of species were analyzed. Most students of the second period believe that man came to chance. In the 4th period, those who did not agree increased and in the 6th period the students mostly aligned with this view. Most of the students in the 2nd period showed that intelligent design was important in evolution, but in the 4th and 6th period, this percentage decreased. It was found that in the course there was the consolidation of scientific knowledge, leading to the decline in acceptance of the intelligent design hypothesis, in a contradictory way did not measure tendency over chance in the origin of the human species.