What Conceptions do Greek School Students Form about Biological Evolution?

Lucia Prinou · Krystallia Halkia · Constantine D. Skordoulis

31 citations0/0 files storedEvolution Education and Outreach

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Evolution and Science Education Science Education and Pedagogy Philosophy and History of Science

Abstract

In Greece, since 2000, the teaching of evolutionary theory is restricted solely to lower (junior) high school and specifically to ninth grade. Even though the theory of evolution is included to the 12th grade biology textbook, it is not taught in Greek upper (senior) high schools. This study presents research conducted on the conceptions of Greek students regarding issues set out in the theory of evolution after the formal completion of the teaching of the theory. The sample comprised 411 10th grade students from 12 different schools. The research results show that the students appear to have a positive view of the idea of evolution, the evolution of man, and the common origin of organisms. However, they have retained many alternative views, or else they are completely in ignorance of basic issues in evolutionary theory regarding: what is considered evolution in biology, the main mechanism of evolutionary changes in what is considered natural selection, what the theory of evolution actually explains, and what the word theory means in science. At least in Greece, these views still prevail because the theory of evolution is marginalized in the teaching of biology in Greek schools, and biology education does not help students formulate overall conceptual structures to enable them to understand the question of biological change.

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References

1973Nothing in Biology Makes Sense except in the Light of Evolution 1990Student conceptions of natural selection and its role in evolution 2001What Evolution Is 1984Misconceptions about the concept of natural selection by medical biology students 2000Evolutionary Theory, the Nature of Science & High School Biology Teachers: Critical Relationships 2002High School Biology Teachers' Knowledge Structure, Acceptance & Teaching of Evolution 1995Students' conceptual ecologies and the process of conceptual change in evolution 2004Teaching evolutionary biology: Pressures, stress, and coping

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2015Obstáculos para el aprendizaje del modelo de evolución por selección natural, en estudiantes de escuela secundaria de Argentina*2019The Present Status of Evolution Education 2016Acceptance of evolution as one of the factors structuring the conceptual ecology of the evolution theory of Greek secondary school teachers 2015A Study Identifying Biological Evolution-Related Misconceptions Held by Prebiology High School Students 2020Religiosity and students’ acceptance of evolution

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