Decentralized thinking and understanding of evolution in K-12 evolution education

Petrosino, Anthony; Lucero, Margaret M.; Mann, Michele J.

doi:10.1186/s12052-014-0028-x

Cited by 9 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…If this warm-up is conducted in small groups, we encourage instructors to circulate among groups to get a sense of student understanding. We have highlighted some common misconceptions in Table 2 (AAAS Project 2061 2017; Bishop and Anderson 1990;Coley and Tanner 2012;Nehm et al 2010;Nehm and Reilly 2007;Petrosino et al 2015;UCMP and NCSE 2012;Yates and Marek 2014).…”

Section: Warm-up Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Making evolution stick: using sticky notes to teach the mechanisms of evolutionary change

2017

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Evolution and its mechanisms of action are concepts that unite all aspects of biology, but remain some of the most difficult for students to understand. To address this challenge, we designed a hands-on activity that introduces fundamental mechanisms of evolutionary change: natural selection, genetic drift, and gene flow. In small groups, students use a population of sticky notes to reveal the consequences of each mechanism on phenotype frequency. In a followup homework assignment, students then explore how changes in phenotype frequency reflect changes in allele frequency in the population. This activity is suitable for anyone learning the basics of evolution, from high-school through the undergraduate level. We have provided detailed instructions, in-class worksheets, follow-up homework, and extensions that allow the activity to be simplified or made more complex as needed. In our own classrooms, we have observed that the concrete and collaborative nature of this activity enables students to deepen their understanding of the mechanisms through which evolution occurs. We have designed this study such that, in completing this activity, we hope to offer students the opportunity to confront potential misconceptions about evolution and gain a solid foundation for future explorations in the discipline.

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Section: Warm-up Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Making evolution stick: using sticky notes to teach the mechanisms of evolutionary change

2017

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“…Table 1. Types of persistent challenges to evolution understanding and acceptance identified in evolution education research (Shtulman, 2018;Barnes et al, 2017;Cooper, 2016;Petrosino et al 2015;Gregory, 2009;Heddy & Sinatra, 2013;Legare et al, 2018;Pobiner, 2016;Rosengren et al, 2012;Sinatra et al 2008). Note that there are complex interactions between challenges of understanding and acceptance, since emotional factors often cannot be separated from conceptual learning, as learning is understood by many scholars to involve affective and motivational aspects (Sinatra, 2005).…”

Section: Persistent Challenges In Evolution Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Evolution educators lament that students have difficulty understanding the complexity and multi-level nature of evolutionary change (Cooper, 2016;Jacobson, 2001;Petrosino et al, 2015). Elements of systems thinking include seeing multiple causes rather than single causes, understanding that small causes can have big effects (through delays and non-linear rather than linear cause-effect relationships), understanding that system dynamics result from interactions between elements in the system rather than through central control, and explaining phenomena through emergence rather than through the additive effects of isolated parts (Jacobson, 2001;Perkins & Grotzer, 2005).…”

Section: Addressing Challenges Of Systems Thinkingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Educational potential of teaching evolution as an interdisciplinary science

Hanisch¹,

Eirdosh²

2020

Preprint

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Evolution education continues to struggle with a range of persistent challenges spanning aspects of conceptual understanding, acceptance, and perceived relevance of evolutionary theory by students in general education. This article argues that a gene-centered conceptualization of evolution may precisely contribute to and exacerbate these challenges. Against that background, we also argue that a trait-centered, generalized, and interdisciplinary conceptualization of evolution may hold significant learning potential for addressing some of these persistent challenges facing evolution education. We outline a number of testable hypotheses about the educational value of teaching evolutionary theory from this more generalized and interdisciplinary conception.

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“…Causal mapping as a teaching tool for reflecting on causation in human evolution ---Preprint --- Of importance for the purpose of this paper is the fact that the directed causal relationship "favors natural selection of" explicitly links "need" or "function" to a causal mechanism of population-level change: if an organism needs or requires a particular trait, because it functions to enhance survival and reproduction (or in other words, to fulfill a survival and/or reproduction need ) relative to alternatives under the given condition (the starting point of the arrow), we can say that there is "selection pressure" on those trait variants that are able to fulfill those needs better than other trait variants, thus those trait variants are likely to become more common in the population through the mechanism of natural selection. These In the process of constructing or reflecting on such causal maps, the specific causal mechanism of natural selection, which is a kind of sorting mechanism that operates on the Causal mapping as a teaching tool for reflecting on causation in human evolution ---Preprint --level of the population, can (and should) be elaborated with the help of other teaching tools that target population thinking in order to convey the role of the other important core concepts of evolution by natural selection, namely variation, differential survival and reproduction due to trait variation, and inheritance (Andrews et al, 2011;Nehm et al, 2010;Petrosino et al, 2015). These concepts are likely foundational pre-requisites to productive engagement with causal maps of human evolution.…”

Section: Teleological Reasoning In Different Types Of Causal Explanationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Particularly during human evolution, positive feedback between several traits and between traits and the (constructed social, natural, cultural) environment have lead to the Causal mapping as a teaching tool for reflecting on causation in human evolution ---Preprint --accelerating rate of change in human brain, behavior, cognition and culture, often also affecting genes. Causal maps can visualize this complex nature of evolving systems, and may help foster a more decentralized mindset or emergent property schema about the nature of natural selection (Cooper, 2017;Petrosino et al, 2015;Xu & Chi, 2016).…”

Section: Teleological Reasoning In Different Types Of Causal Explanationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Causal mapping as a teaching tool for reflecting on causation in human evolution

Hanisch¹,

Eirdosh²

2020

Preprint

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Teleological reasoning is viewed as a major hurdle to evolution education, and yet, eliciting, interpreting, and reflecting upon teleological language presents an arguably greater challenge to the evolution educator and researcher. This article argues that making explicit the role of behavior as a causal factor in the evolution of particular traits may prove productive in helping students to link their everyday experience of behavior to evolutionary changes in populations in ways congruent with scientific perspectives. We present a teaching tool, used widely in other parts of science and science education, yet perhaps underutilized in human evolution education - the causal map - as a novel direction for driving conceptual change in the classroom about the nature of evolutionary change. After describing the scientific and conceptual basis for using such causal maps in human evolution education, we describe a classroom intervention within the context of a larger Design-Based Implementation Research (DBIR) project. An overview of the teacher-researcher collaborative design process and preliminary results from classroom interventions using causal maps within a human evolution unit are described. Initial results of the interventions indicate that causal maps allow students to make visible their causal reasoning about complex processes in human evolution, and can facilitate classroom reflection and conceptual change. Based on these insights, we offer considerations for future research and educational design.

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Decentralized thinking and understanding of evolution in K-12 evolution education

Abstract: Background: Previous work found four areas critical to understanding evolution: variation, selection, inheritance, and deep time.

Cited by 9 publications

References 42 publications

Making evolution stick: using sticky notes to teach the mechanisms of evolutionary change

Making evolution stick: using sticky notes to teach the mechanisms of evolutionary change

Educational potential of teaching evolution as an interdisciplinary science

Causal mapping as a teaching tool for reflecting on causation in human evolution

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