Challenges with conceptualizations of evolution in biology education

Abstract

<p>Evolution education is, by default, the domain of biology education, and as such, historical conceptions of evolutionary change drawn from the Modern Synthesis strongly influence our conceptualization of what evolution is and how evolutionary analyses are to be conducted. There is a surface logic to this influence, however, it abstracts out a robust interdisciplinary scientific discourse that has been particularly productive during the 21st century. The continued conceptualization of evolution from the idealized, gene-centric, Modern Synthesis model may be problematic in terms of evolution understanding and acceptance. In this article, we take a closer look at some examples of current discourse, standards, educational materials, and assessment tools of evolution education and point out a number of challenges regarding how our field tends to frame the evolutionary analysis of, especially, human-related traits of behavior, cognition, and culture.</p>

Educational potential of teaching evolution as an interdisciplinary science

“…While some notable efforts exist to integrate a range of more complex notions of evolutionary change into highschool evolution education (e.g. Apodaca et al, 2019), in Hanisch & Eirdosh (2020c), we provide some examples from evolution education discourse and materials that highlight how gene-focused conceptualizations prevail in standards and assessment tools, which may lead to inconsistencies, problematic representations of concepts, and problematic assessment items.…”

“…In Hanisch & Eirdosh (2020a) we provide evolution educators with a short review of current discourse in evolution science and a conceptual clarification of core concepts in evolutionary theory. In Hanisch & Eirdosh (2020c) we provide some examples of current evolution education discourse, educational materials, and assessment tools that represent a number of challenges regarding how evolution is frequently conceptualized in evolution education. Based on the outlined challenges to evolution understanding and acceptance hypothesized to stem from a gene-focused conceptualization, together with the outlined opportunities hypothesized to be capable of addressing these challenges through teaching evolution from a more generalized, interdisciplinary conceptualization, we propose that the evolution education community should focus more strongly on investigating these avenues.…”

Conceptual clarification of evolution as an interdisciplinary science

“…Müller (2017) states that "While documenting numerous empirical and theoretical advances, at the level of core assumption most current textbooks on evolution, whether explicitly or implicitly, still offer a theoretical framework that is largely based on the MS of the 1930s and 1940s." Our snapshot of current evolution education perspectives and materials (Hanisch & Eirdosh, 2020c) similarly indicates an emphasis on gene-focused characterizations of concepts such as variation and inheritance that is then applied across biological phenomena. It would seem that this point rather favors the argument made by proponents of an explicit extension of evolutionary theory, namely that the wealth of possible mechanisms in evolution as well as their complex causal interactions, is buried under a "porridge" of gene-focused conceptualizations.…”

“…Based on the previous discussions, this section presents an overview of how the concepts of evolutionary theory are currently characterized in a more gene-focused understanding stemming from the Modern Synthesis (as it also appears to be largely used in evolution Teaching evolution as an interdisciplinary science Conceptual clarification of evolution as an interdisciplinary science education, see Hanisch & Eirdosh, 2020c) vs. how these concepts are conceived in a more generalized, trait-focused, interdisciplinary, complex-systems, understanding of evolution by the various fields highlighted above.…”

“…In Hanisch & Eirdosh (2020b), we outline a set of hypotheses about the educational potential of teaching evolution from a more generalized, interdisciplinary conception, addressing a range of enduring challenges in evolution understanding and acceptance. In Hanisch & Eirdosh (2020c), we provide some examples of current evolution education discourse, educational materials, and assessment tools that represent a number of challenges regarding how evolution is frequently conceptualized in evolution education. Based on the outlined challenges to evolution understanding and acceptance hypothesized to stem from a gene-focused conceptualization, together with the Introduction Evolution science, as a broad field of study, is continuously advancing and developing, with new theoretical considerations based on new methods and empirical findings being added over the years and decades into a more nuanced understanding of how evolution operates across the biological world.…”