Using human case studies to teach evolution in high school A.P. biology classrooms

Abstract

Background: While recent research indicates that using human examples can be an engaging way to teach core evolutionary concepts such as natural selection and phylogenetic thinking, teachers still face potential conflicts and challenges that arise from cultural barriers to teaching and learning about evolution. The "Teaching Evolution through Human Examples" (TEtHE) project developed (1) a set of four curriculum mini-units for advanced placement (A.P.) biology that use human examples to teach evolutionary principles (Adaptation to Altitude, Evolution of Human Skin Color, Malaria, and What Does It Mean To Be Human?), and (2) a cultural and religious sensitivity (CRS) teaching strategies resource that includes background materials and two in-class activities to help teachers create a classroom environment to increase student willingness to engage the topic. Methods: This paper reports on the development and field test of the TEtHE materials in A.P. biology classes in 10 schools in 8 states during the 2012-2013 school year using a design-based research framework (cf. Anderson and Shattuck in Educ Res 41:16-25, 2012). We chose A.P. classrooms to study the potential impacts of the materials in a "best case scenario" and analyzed data about understanding and acceptance of evolution from pre-post assessments in the 10 classrooms separately to mitigate potential validity concerns arising from the design (Anderson and Shattuck in Educ Res 41:16-25, 2012; Shadish et al. in Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for generalized causal inference. Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 2002). These data were treated as a secondary source of formative data to add additional perspective to teacher self-reports, observations, student and teacher questionnaires, teacher interviews, and student focus groups. Results: Results indicate that the use of the three curriculum mini-units which focus on natural selection and the CRS classroom activities generally increased A.P. biology students' understanding and acceptance of evolution. Students whose teachers used one of the CRS activities showed generally larger increases in understanding of evolution than those whose teachers did not use one of the CRS activities. Conclusions: Although the utility of using human examples to teach evolution in college-level classes has been demonstrated in a few previous studies, this is the first national project of which we are aware to systematically explore the effect of a similar approach in high school biology classes. While we recognize that the results may be mitigated by the limitations of design-based research, particularly the absence of a comparison or control group, the general effectiveness of this approach suggested by qualitative and quantitative data in increasing student understanding and acceptance of evolution suggests that using human examples and explicitly creating a classroom environment to help students engage the topic of evolution are worth considering for further development and more robust testing.

Evolution education is a complex landscape

“…In the context of evolution education, it is clear (and confirmed by research) that certain religious and sociocultural experiences tend to make students less receptive to the presentation of evolution. Culturally competent pedagogy uses appropriate strategies to reduce conflicts and obstacles induced by such experiences [18][19][20] . This approach should lead to an increase in both understanding and acceptance of evolution-indeed, in one study, identification with evolution acceptors was found to be the only factor significantly related to change in evolution acceptance 21 .…”

Hidden Identities Shape Student Perceptions of Active Learning Environments

“…Specifically, students are not compelled to "out" themselves in the traditional large-lecture setting, but the nature of informal group discussions can demand more personal sharing-revelations that can be stressful. Similarly, our work suggests that religious students and politically conservative students may feel less comfortable sharing ideas in classes that emphasize evolution (often considered at odds with religious doctrine; Pobiner et al, 2018) or climate change (the acceptance of which is generally aligned with more liberal ideologies; McCright and Dunlap, 2011;Walker et al, 2017). And group work that requires inperson, out-of-class commitments may be especially difficult for non-traditional students, commuters, or those with full-time work responsibilities.…”

Acknowledging students’ concerns about evolution: a proactive teaching strategy

“…The CRS resource is part of an exploratory designbased study, the Teaching Evolution through Human Examples (TEtHE) project, which created four curriculum units for advanced placement (AP) biology classes that use human evolution case studies to teach core evolutionary principles outlined in the AP Biology learning objectives (Pobiner et al 2018). While the focus of the overall project was AP biology classes, we think that the classroom activities described in the CRS are appropriate for general biology classes as well and the results reported here have implications for all high school evolution instruction.…”

“…While the focus of the overall project was AP biology classes, we think that the classroom activities described in the CRS are appropriate for general biology classes as well and the results reported here have implications for all high school evolution instruction. As noted in Pobiner et al (2018), AP biology classrooms provide a "best case" learning context for the formative evaluation of the TEtHE curriculum mini-units and CRS because AP students are generally more motivated to learn and are more sufficiently aware of the impact of teaching materials on their own learning. We are currently exploring the impact of these materials in an introductory high school biology population.…”

“…Quantitative measures of the success of the resource in terms of structure and function, from the perspective of both teachers and students, and the impact of the resource activities on students' understanding and acceptance of evolution are reported elsewhere (Pobiner et al 2018). The qualitative data we provide here contribute to one of the main questions guiding the research and evaluation of the While key points about the development and field-testing of the CRS resource, and quantitative measures of its impact on understanding and acceptance of evolution are summarized in this paper, readers are referred to Pobiner et al (2018) for details about the design-based research approach of the TEtHE project including quantitative measures of the impact of the curriculum units and CRS resource on students' understanding and acceptance of evolution. Provided below are details about the CRS methodology, including a description of the CRS resource, field testing, focus groups and analysis of transcripts.…”