Teaching evolution to students with compromised backgrounds and lack of confidence about evolution-is it possible?

Alexandria Schauer, Sehoya H Cotner, Randy Moore

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

Students regard evolutionary theory differently than science in general. Students' reported confidence in their ability to understand science in general (e.g., posing scientific questions, interpreting tables and graphs, and understanding the content of their biology course) significantly outweighed their confidence in understanding evolution. We also show that those students with little incoming confidence in their understanding of evolution demonstrated more confidence and the most improved performance by the end of the semester. Collectively, our data indicate that regardless of prior experiences with evolution education, and in spite of myriad social challenges to teaching evolution, students can learn evolution.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)93-98
Number of pages6
JournalAmerican Biology Teacher
Volume76
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2014

Keywords

  • Evolution education
  • science confidence

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