Acknowledging students’ concerns about evolution: a proactive teaching strategy

Abstract

Background: The religious or cultural objections by many people to the teaching of evolution in high school biology classrooms can impact both students' willingness to explore a scientific understanding of evolutionary theory and teachers' willingness to provide sound instruction on the topic. Pedagogical approaches designed to address this tension in the public or private US high school classroom during regular biology classroom instruction on evolution are needed. We developed a Cultural and Religious Sensitivity (CRS) Teaching Strategies Resource to aid teachers in acknowledging students' religious and cultural concerns about evolution, introducing the variety of possible relationships between science and religion, and focusing on the nature of science. The resource provides both background information for the teacher and activities to engage students in two 50-75 min directed classroom discussions. The CRS resource is part of a designed-based study, the Teaching Evolution through Human Examples (TEtHE) project that created and field tested four curriculum units for advanced placement high school biology classes that use human examples to teach evolution (Pobiner et al. Evol Educ Outreach. 2018;11:3 2018). Here we describe the design of the CRS resource and qualitative results of student focus groups that explore the extent to which the CRS resource activities helped to create a supportive classroom environment as well as more generally what benefits, if any, students derived from participating in these activities. Results: Focus groups were conducted with students from five classes of four different teachers in both public and private US high schools. Focus group transcripts were analyzed to identify common themes expressed in relation to the students' experience of one of the two CRS activities. Benefits of participating in these activities noted by students included reduced tension around the topic of evolution, a recognition that evolution is not necessarily in conflict with religious belief, and an increased understanding of the cultural context of modern and historical views about evolution. Conclusions: The themes identified through qualitative analyses of focus group transcripts support the conclusion that acknowledging students' concerns about evolution is a promising pedagogical approach to teaching evolution in conjunction with lessons designed to teach the content of evolutionary theory. The approach merits further research with general introductory high school biology classes.

Does knowledge of evolutionary biology change high school students’ attitudes about healthy eating?

“…This study used methods to facilitate the goal of giving each participant a "voice" that is documented and analyzed by the researcher based on a small group discussion of a pre-defined topic, framed by the aims of the study and stimulated by prepared material. In this context, as well as in collaborative learning tutorials, group size tends to be small with eight as the preferred maximum and five as the optimal number of participants (Wibeck et al 2007;Bertka et al 2019). Questionnaires consisted mostly of discursive, openended questions so that students could freely express their thoughts in response to the prompts.…”

“…Research has also indicated that the "educational divide" derives mainly from internal religious conflicts and sociocultural concerns that impede teaching and learning on the topic of evolution (Rutledge and Mitchell 2002;Berkman and Plutzer 2012). More recent initiatives to improve evolution education have explored ways to address this obstacle, such as classroom exposure to worldviews that demonstrate compatibility between religion and evolution (Barnes et al 2017;Troung et al 2018), and teaching strategies that encourage discussion and acknowledgment of students' religious concerns as a way to emphasize the scientific process and bypass the necessity of accepting evolution as the basis for learning the science of evolution (Bertka et al 2019).…”

Critical relationships in managing students’ emotional responses to science (and evolution) instruction

“…If an instructional environment that is conducive to learning generally requires the development of good student-teacher relationships, then a classroom atmosphere of trust is an especially important consideration when we engage students in the teaching and learning of scienceespecially with respect to evolution (Bertka et al 2019;Nelson et al 2019;Scharmann 2018;Pobiner et al 2018;Southerland and Scharmann 2013;Oliviera et al 2011;Woods and Scharmann 2001). Winslow et al (2011) argued further that when students perceive that their instructor lacks an emotional relationship with them, that it is almost a certainty that student apprehensions about learning evolution will be retained.…”

“…Without trust and mutual respect in the context of teaching evolutionaccording to Kampourakis (2014)-students are more likely to resist the study of evolution because they find evolutionary theory a rather counterintuitive idea. Bertka et al (2019) reported, nonetheless, that many biology teachers lacked the resource(s) necessary to engage students in discussing their cultural or religious concerns about evolution. As part of a larger research program (Bertka et al 2019;Pobiner et al 2018), Bertka et al constructed a Cultural and Religious Sensitivity (CRS) teaching strategies resource to serve as a tool that could assist teachers in facilitating conversations about students' concerns.…”

“…Bertka et al (2019) reported, nonetheless, that many biology teachers lacked the resource(s) necessary to engage students in discussing their cultural or religious concerns about evolution. As part of a larger research program (Bertka et al 2019;Pobiner et al 2018), Bertka et al constructed a Cultural and Religious Sensitivity (CRS) teaching strategies resource to serve as a tool that could assist teachers in facilitating conversations about students' concerns. Students who participated in discussions that were guided by CRS instructional formats reported reduced tensions, an increased understanding of biological phenomena through the lens of evolution and came to conclude that their religious beliefs were not necessarily in conflict with learning evolution.…”