Abstract

The theory of evolution is the backbone of the biological sciences. Arguably, this is the reason why evolution education is an extensively investigated issue in several countries around the world. Little is known, however, about the views of university students in Colombia. Here, we report on 7 years of data generated by a three-question anonymous survey to identify Colombian university students’ views about evolution and creationism. We hypothesized that university students’ views may be related to their major and/or age. In total, 1132 students (ages 16–23 years) from different majors at a private university in Bogota were surveyed. Our findings showed that (1) 66% of the university students held the view that human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life and that God had no part in this process, (2) 85% of university students believed that humans have developed from other species, (3) 84% of university students held the view that life on Earth has evolved over time through natural selection, and (4) the chi-square analyses of the responses to the three-question survey revealed that university students’ views about evolution and creationism were not related to their major and/or age. Our findings reinforce the key role of students’ views, which should be valued and integrated into evolution education practice.

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