Understanding patterns of evolution acceptance—A new implementation of the Measure of Acceptance of the Theory of Evolution (MATE) with Midwestern university students

William Lee Romine · Emily Marie Walter · Ephiram Bosse · Amber Todd

59 citations0/0 files storedJournal of Research in Science Teaching

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Evolution and Science Education Science Education and Pedagogy Science Education and Perceptions

Abstract

Abstract We validate the Measure of Acceptance of the Theory of Evolution (MATE) on undergraduate students using the Rasch model and utilize the MATE to explore qualitatively how students express their acceptance of evolution. At least 24 studies have used the MATE, most with the assumption that it is unidimensional. However, we found that the MATE is best used as two separate dimensions. When used in this way, the MATE produces reliable (α > 0.85) measures for (i) acceptance of evolution facts and data and (ii) acceptance of the credibility of evolution and rejection of non‐scientific ideas. Using k‐means cluster analysis, we found students express their acceptance of evolution in five distinct profiles: (i) uniform high acceptance; (ii) uniform moderate acceptance; (iii) neutral acceptance; (iv) acceptance of facts, but rejection of credibility; and (v) rejection of both facts and credibility. Furthermore, we found that knowledge of macroevolution moderately explains students’ acceptance profiles, corroborating previous claims that teaching macroevolution may be one way to improve students’ acceptance. We use these findings to express the first set of operational definitions of evolution acceptance and propose that educators continue to explore additional ways to operationalize evolution acceptance. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 54:642–671, 2017

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References

1977The Measurement of Observer Agreement for Categorical Data 1968The Discovery of Grounded Theory; Strategies for Qualitative Research 2012Interrater reliability: the kappa statistic 1987Qualitative Analysis for Social Scientists 1971Measuring nominal scale agreement among many raters.1978Theoretical Sensitivity: Advances in the Methodology of Grounded Theory 1982A Rasch Model for Partial Credit Scoring 1992Basics of Grounded Theory Analysis: Emergence Vs. Forcing

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2017Development and validation of an instrument to assess student attitudes toward science across grades 5 through 10 2019How strongly does statistical reasoning influence knowledge and acceptance of evolution?2019Do you see what I‐SEA? A Rasch analysis of the psychometric properties of the Inventory of Student Evolution Acceptance 2017The relationship between biology teachers’ understanding of the nature of science and the understanding and acceptance of the theory of evolution 2021European first-year university students accept evolution but lack substantial knowledge about it: a standardized European cross-country assessment

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