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The primary objective of this research was to compare various groups of Greek university students for their level of knowledge of Evolution by means of Natural Selection (ENS). For the purpose of the study, we used a well known questionnaire the Conceptual Inventory of Natural Selection (CINS) and 352 biology majors and non-majors students from the University of Athens took part in it. A principal components analysis revealed problems with the items designed to assess the concepts of population stability, differential survival and variation inheritable, therefore these items need to be reconsidered. Nonetheless, the results of the CINS for each Greek sub-group showed that the higher the involvement in evolution education, the higher the students' performances on the CINS test. This linear correlation, together with other evidence, supports the CINS authors' claims about the usefulness of the CINS as an assessment of instruction. Unfortunately, Greek university students gave many teleological and proximate answers to many of the CINS items. Comparisons between least and most evolutionary educated university students revealed that the latter gave more evolutionary answers. Oddly, advanced biology majors students did not show an improvement in all the 20 items of the CINS (only in 14 out of the 20 items) compared to novice biology students. They even gave more teleological answers to the concept natural resources are limited than novice biology majors students. Finally, Greek university students' level of knowledge of ENS seems to be closer to Canadian than US students'. IntroductionThe theory of evolution is an important milestone in the history of biology and is considered by many as its central unifying theory since it can explain both the diversity and the unity of life

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Background: The work is part of a wider research project wherein we are trying to further explore the conceptual ecology of evolutionary theory of present and prospective teachers in Greece. Methods: Quantitative and qualitative research was applied. In the former a questionnaire was answered by 318 secondary school teachers who teach biology. We further interviewed eight of the teachers by means of semi structured interviews and analyzed the interviews using the QSR nVivo program. Results: Acceptance of evolution levels was found moderate both in the total cohort and among science teachers; on the one hand, this was correlated with the prevalence of low level of knowledge and understanding due to lack of previous instruction; on the other hand, their type of religiosity was not a serious obstacle to accepting evolution, since it was correlated with a high degree of thinking dispositions. Conclusions: The results are in agreement with our previous findings that the type of religiosity is crucial for the acceptance or rejection of evolution, particularly when it does not prevent someone from being "open-minded". At the same time, the fact that geologists who teach science showed the highest level of acceptance of evolution, indicates, when paired with other evidence, that the geological data are the most convincing evidence to help students and teachers to make a first step in their multistep route towards accepting and understanding the theory of evolution.

R 2 = 0,257 for Step 1; ΔR 2 = 0,048 for step 2; B= unstandardized regression coefficient; SE of B=standard error of B; b=standardized regression coefficient. a p<0,01, b p<0,05.