Science standards: The foundation of evolution education in the United States

Watts, Elizabeth; Levit, Georgy S.; Hoßfeld, Uwe

doi:10.1016/j.pisc.2016.08.004

Cited by 8 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 9 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…New standards movements such as the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States, ) are a plus for reinvigorating science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education in general, and evolution education more specifically. And yet, states such as Texas have resisted adoption of both sets of standards and instead rely on state‐determined science standards which may be inadequate in terms of evolution coverage, or, as with the Texas Educational Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), may even allow for the presentation of creationist claims (Branch, ; Mead & Mates, ; Watts, Levit, & Hoßfeld, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Declawing the dinosaurs in the science classroom: Reducing Christian teachers’ anxiety and increasing their efficacy for teaching evolution

Hawley

Sinatra

2018

J Res Sci Teach

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

America's rank among the lowest of developed countries in evolution acceptance rates is due, at least in part, to religious and political opposition. The negative correlations among religiosity, political ideology, and evolution acceptance in the United States have been documented repeatedly, and comfort with evolution varies by region with reception being especially cool in the south and southwest. Teachers are on the frontlines of the tensions between science and faith and often avoid the topic even if such avoidance violates state laws. Even non-creationist teachers in regions with creationist norms are pressured to conform to regional curricula preferences. The present study describes the outcomes of a professional development workshop that explicitly considerers motivational and identity features of largely conservative, religious science teachers residing in West Texas. Our goal was to reduce the perceived conflict between faith and science such that Christian teachers would feel less negative and more positive about the theory and teaching it, and thus more efficacious in the classroom such that they would be more willing to teach according to the standards. In a retrospective pretest-posttest design, teachers reported reductions in misconceptions and negative emotions in response to the workshop, and gains in positive emotions and self-efficacy. Change scores were particularly marked for female teachers. Moreover, the relationships between community support for teaching evolution and teacher emotions and self-efficacy were reduced post-workshop indicating that teachers became independent from the norms of their schools. Though not the first intervention to support teacher instruction of evolution, the present workshop is the first to our knowledge that seeks to

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Declawing the dinosaurs in the science classroom: Reducing Christian teachers’ anxiety and increasing their efficacy for teaching evolution

Hawley

Sinatra

2018

J Res Sci Teach

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…While Common Core, NGSS, and TEKS contain certain positive elements within their frameworks, they in many ways remain mechanistic, lack relevancy, and are minimally inclusive of statements surrounding multicultural science education content (Atwater, 2010;Rodriguez, 2015). Many state standards remain sub-par in their mention of topics surrounding climate, evolution, sex education, and race, being deemed too controversial for the classroom (Wiley and Barr, 2007;Watts et al, 2016).…”

Section: Standards and Textbooks As Official (Hidden) Science Curriculummentioning

confidence: 99%

“…( 2) Textbook content may be shaped by the values of the state and reduce the quality of content. For example, the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) has approved biology standards that eliminate climate change, scientific consensus regarding evolutionary theory, and important topics related to sexual and physical health (Valentine et al, 2013;Hall et al, 2016;Watts et al, 2016;Foss and Ko, 2019;Hall et al, 2019). (3) While current national standards have undergone revisions with sections on diversity, equity, and inclusion, standards have failed to adequately address factors such as socioeconomic status, gender, and race (Rodriguez, 1997;Rodriguez, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Science for some: examining representations of relevancy and multiculturalism in Texas biology standards and textbooks

Vasquez,

Atwood

2023

Front. Educ.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Curriculum standards play an important role in the development of instructional materials considering they are used as a framework by publishing companies to outline textbooks. Therefore, it is imperative that standards and instructional materials integrate relevant interdisciplinary content that fosters the development of scientific literacy, health literacy, environmental literacy, and multicultural awareness. This qualitative research critically examines the Texas Essential Knowledge & Skills (TEKS) biology standards and three commonly adopted biology textbooks to determine the degree of relevancy and inclusion of multicultural content using James A. Banks’ Levels of Integration of Multicultural Content. The researchers found that the inclusion of concepts of relevancy and multiculturalism are absent or minimal from the standards and textbooks and conclude that curricular transformation is needed to prioritize and support relevancy and multicultural teaching and learning in biology classrooms. Opportunities to enrich biology standards and textbooks that fall within the transformative approach and social action approach of Banks’ Levels of Integration of Multicultural Content to promote relevancy and multiculturalism are presented.

show abstract

In search of a better means of increasing student receptivity to science: a look at American Buddhists and their disproportionately high acceptance of the theory of evolution

Watts

2019

Cult Stud of Sci Educ

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Science standards: The foundation of evolution education in the United States

Cited by 8 publications

References 9 publications

Declawing the dinosaurs in the science classroom: Reducing Christian teachers’ anxiety and increasing their efficacy for teaching evolution

Declawing the dinosaurs in the science classroom: Reducing Christian teachers’ anxiety and increasing their efficacy for teaching evolution

Science for some: examining representations of relevancy and multiculturalism in Texas biology standards and textbooks

In search of a better means of increasing student receptivity to science: a look at American Buddhists and their disproportionately high acceptance of the theory of evolution

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About