Over the past decades, a large body of research has examined students' magnitudes of evolution acceptance and related measurement issues resulting in questions concerning instruments' validity and operationalization. Until now, several studies investigated validity aspects of often‐used evolution acceptance instruments and came to diverging conclusions about instruments' scores comparability. Within the last years, religious identity was identified as a significant predictor for magnitudes of evolution acceptance. However, religious identity can also point to validity issues if aspects of the content under investigation are interpreted differently based on specific religious identity. Additionally, self‐identified creationists could serve as a source of validity evidence due to the assumption that creationists should score lower on an evolution acceptance instrument than groups with more scientifically adequate views. Thus, we aim to provide additional validity evidence for often‐used evolution acceptance instruments within a European context (i.e., Germany) by comparing two groups of particular interest for research in science education: preservice biology teachers and self‐identified creationists. Exploring evidence based on (1) internal structure, (2) relationships with other variables, and (3) test content provides arguments for test interpretations' validity. A total of 286 persons (206 preservice biology teachers and 81 self‐identified creationists) participated in a survey comprised of six often‐used evolution acceptance measures (i.e., MATE, GAENE, I‐SEA, ATEVO, Gallup question, and 100 point questions). Overall, our findings indicate that the six applied instruments demonstrate differences concerning their evidence for sound interpretation. In particular, the DIF and dimensionality analyses lead to the assumption that the GAENE may be multidimensional other than theoretically expected. In general, the multi‐item measures were stronger related to each other than to the general public polls. Using an instrument that differentiates between microevolution and macroevolution is advisable for creationist samples or samples with a remarkable share of creationists' views.

Zusammenfassung Der dramatische Rückgang der Biodiversität gehört derzeit zu den größten Problemen weltweit. Das Verständnis, der Erhalt und die Förderung von Biodiversität sind eng verbunden mit Artenkenntnis. Einige Studien zeigten bereits, dass in der Gesellschaft – insbesondere auch bei jungen Menschen – die Kenntnis heimischer Arten gering ist und stetig abnimmt. Es liegen bislang noch keine Daten für Berlin vor. Wir haben daher in einer Querschnittsstudie 186 Schüler_innen der siebten Jahrgangsstufe an drei Schulen in Berlin hinsichtlich ihrer persönlichen Einschätzung der Kenntnis von acht in Berlin häufig vorkommender Vogelarten befragt und anschließend die tatsächlich vorhandene Artenkenntnis geprüft. Die Berliner Schüler_innen erkannten visuell im Mittel zwei Vogelarten und akustisch keine der getesteten Arten. Damit kann die Annahme einer geringen Artenkenntnis in Bezug auf heimische Vogelarten auch für Schüler_innen in Berlin bestätigt werden. Diese Ergebnisse zeigen, dass ein erhöhter Bedarf an der Vermittlung von Artenkenntnis besteht. Dem Erkennen und Beobachten von Tieren und Pflanzen – und damit die Wertschätzung der Vielfalt der Natur – muss mehr Bedeutung zugesprochen werden und geeignete Lernangebote weiterentwickelt und gefördert werden.

The conservation of pollinators requires social understanding to catalyse restoration action. Citizen science (CS) is discussed as a way to promote interest and action for pollinating insects. Yet, the drivers behind pro-pollinator behaviour are largely unclear, especially in urban areas. To better understand public engagement in pollinator conservation, we studied urban community gardeners’ identity, nature-relatedness, emotions, and attitudes toward pollinators and their intentions to get involved in pro-pollinator behaviour in their gardening practice. We surveyed community gardeners in Berlin and Munich, Germany, some of which were participating in a citizen science project. In this scientific study, we created four different sets of generalized linear models to analyse how the gardeners’ pro-pollinator behaviour intentions and behaviour were explained by socio-psychological factors. The responses of 111 gardeners revealed that gardeners that were fascinated by pollinators, held positive attitudes and felt joy about seeing pollinators reported intentions to protect or support pollinators, suggesting that fascination and joy can be harnessed for research and conservation on pollinators. Similarly, joy about seeing pollinators predicted participation in the CS project. We believe that CS may represent a pathway through which urban residents may become key actors in conservation projects within their nearby greenspaces.

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