Understanding Student Approaches to Learning Evolution in the Context of their Perceptions of the Relationship between Science and Religion

Yasri, Pratchayapong; Mancy, Rebecca

doi:10.1080/09500693.2012.715315

Cited by 39 publications

(63 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…These include two distinct sets of problems. One derives from objections rooted in religion (e.g., Billingsley et al 2015;Basel et al 2014;Rissler et al 2014;Basel et al 2013;Yasri and Mancy 2012), while the other stems from the fact that many evolutionary concepts may seem, at least initially, counter-intuitive to students. An overview of these problems is given by Kampourakis (2014).…”

Section: Basic Problems In the Teaching Of Evolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biological Principles and Threshold Concepts for Understanding Natural Selection

2017

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Modern evolutionary theory is both a central theory and an integrative framework of the life sciences. This is reflected in the common references to evolution in modern science education curricula and contexts. In fact, evolution is a core idea that is supposed to support biology learning by facilitating the organization of relevant knowledge. In addition, evolution can function as a pivotal link between concepts and highlight similarities in the complexity of biological concepts. However, empirical studies in many countries have for decades identified deficiencies in students' scientific understanding of evolution mainly focusing on natural selection. Clearly, there are major obstacles to learning natural selection, and we argue that to overcome them, it is essential to address explicitly the general abstract concepts that underlie the biological processes, e.g., randomness or probability. Hence, we propose a twodimensional framework for analyzing and structuring teaching of natural selection. The first-purely biological-dimension embraces the three main principles variation, heredity, and selection structured in nine key concepts that form the core idea of natural selection. The second dimension encompasses four so-called thresholds, i.e., general abstract and/or nonperceptual concepts: randomness, probability, spatial scales, and temporal scales. We claim that both of these dimensions must be continuously considered, in tandem, when teaching evolution in order to allow development of a meaningful understanding of the process. Further, we suggest that making the thresholds tangible with the aid of appropriate kinds of visualizations will facilitate grasping of the threshold concepts, and thus, help learners to overcome the difficulties in understanding the central theory of life. Sci & Educ (2017) 26:953-973 https://doi

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Section: Basic Problems In the Teaching Of Evolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biological Principles and Threshold Concepts for Understanding Natural Selection

2017

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“…The Catholic interpretation of the origins of life does not second-guess or dispute the Darwinian model, but it does seek to place it in a larger rational awareness of the history of being and the evolution of a full, accomplished humanity from out of the processes of species interaction and development. This is no mere superficial 'mystification' of the material origins of humanity scientifically understood, but rather an insistence on the legitimacy of questions of purpose, causality and teleology from the gradual answers to which science and revelation may proceed once again to communicate equitably (Yasri and Mancy 2012). Here, as elsewhere, the Catholic curriculum asks for no special privileges or academic exemptions, but argues correspondingly for the cultivation of an enhanced scientific discourse amenable to the examination of questions once assumed to be central to scientific discovery and advance and peremptorily delegitimised in the modern era by a falsely truncated view of Enlightenment rationality.…”

Section: International Studies In Catholic Education 43mentioning

confidence: 97%

A Catholic curriculum for the twenty-first century?

Davis

Franchi

2013

International Studies in Catholic Education

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“…Taking the assertion of Reiss (2009a), it is argued in this paper that religious beliefs have their own values and should not be judged as either right or wrong, especially not "en masse" in the sense of constituting misconceptions. However, it is undeniable that there are different sets of religious beliefs that obviously contradict scientific discoveries (Yasri et al 2013;Yasri & Mancy, 2014) and thus it is possible to consider these beliefs as misconceptions, at least from a scientific point of view. For example, the young-earth creationist claim that the world is only about 6000-10000 years old, has been shown to be factually incorrect by strong and coherent evidence in the geological sciences.…”

Section: Non-scientific Misconceptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In relation to the theory of evolution, Scott (2004) classifies a range of positions in which religious beliefs are used to explain the scientific knowledge of the origin of life and biodiversity such as flat eartherism, geocentrism, young earth creationism, gap creationism, day-age creationism and progressive creationism. More broadly, a range of views for relating scientific and religious perspectives are identified both from philosophical (Yasri et al, 2013) and empirical perspectives (Yasri & Mancy, 2014).…”

Section: Non-scientific Misconceptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A systematic classification of student misconceptions in biological evolution

Yasri¹

2014

IJOBED

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The paper considers student understandings of particular aspects of biological evolution from the perspective of misconceptions. Although lists of misconceptions and possible categories have been proposed in educational research studies, individual misconceptions have not been categorised systematically. This paper therefore explores student misconceptions in biological evolution in greater detail. It synthesises existing categorisation schemes for misconceptions and categorise each misconception within a synthesised scheme. According of this new scheme, student misconceptions in biological evolution can be systematically classified into five groups: common sense, content-based, NOS-based (misconceptions related to the nature of science), non-scientific and vernacular misconceptions. This categorisation serves as an organisational scheme for future research on student misconceptions in evolutionary theory, providing both fundamental and analytical frameworks for researchers interested in biology education.Key words: misconceptions, evolution, classification, biology education Misconception in evolution 32 Fundamental scientific concepts of biological evolutionThis section reviews fundamental concepts of biological evolution as explained by scientists and science educators. The review aims to present a standard understanding of the theory of biological evolution which is later used to compare with student misconceptions in biological evolution. To begin with the definition of evolution, Scott (2004, p. 23) defines the term evolution broadly as "a cumulative change through time", pointing out that there are various meanings of evolution including astronomical, geological, chemical and biological evolution. However, in this paper, the term evolution is limited only to the strand of biological evolution. Wiles (2010, p. 18) defines this as the explanation for "the diversity of life on Earth [which] has arisen via descent with modification from a common ancestry" (p. 18). Scott (2004, p. 27) specifically explains that biological evolution is not the explanation of the origin of life itself but "the descent of living things from ancestors from which they differ" (p. 27). Taking her broad and specific definitions together, Scott (2004, p. 27) comments that "descent with modification through time" is an effective explanation of biological evolution.Instead of focusing on defining the term evolution, Alexander (2009) distinguishes between three main aspects of biological evolution: evolutionary devices (i.e. DNA and genes), evolutionary mechanisms (i.e. natural selection and reproductive success) and the result of their combination in the form of macroevolution (i.e. speciation and fossils). These aspects are relevant to five core aspects of biological evolution guided by Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (2005) which are suggested as important to introduce to high school students in the US, consisting of how species evolve over periods of time, how species evolve from common ancestors, how new forms of ...

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Understanding Student Approaches to Learning Evolution in the Context of their Perceptions of the Relationship between Science and Religion

Cited by 39 publications

References 27 publications

Biological Principles and Threshold Concepts for Understanding Natural Selection

Biological Principles and Threshold Concepts for Understanding Natural Selection

A Catholic curriculum for the twenty-first century?

A systematic classification of student misconceptions in biological evolution

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