Evolution Theory Teaching and Learning: What Conclusions Can We Get From Comparisons of Teachers’ and Students’ Conceptual Ecologies in Greece and Turkey?

Abstract

In this study, we make an effort to compare studies that explore the factors related to acceptance of evolutionary theory among Greek and Turkish students-future teachers, using conceptual ecology for biological evolution as the theoretical framework. We aimed to look into the acceptance and the understanding of evolutionary theory and also to look into the relationship of the acceptance with understanding of evolutionary theory, parents’ educational level, thinking dispositions and frequency of religious practising as independent variables by the use of studies conducted in both countries. Both studies found a correlation between students’ understanding of evolutionary theory with acceptance of evolutionary theory, the same was recorded for religious practising and acceptance of evolution. A difference was observed in the case of contribution of parents’ educational level and acceptance of evolution, where, we did not find any significant positive correlation between parents’ educational level and acceptance of evolution, while that was true for Turkish society. Our findings with the comparative study of this type indicate that studying a controversial issue such as the acceptance of evolutionary theory in a multivariate fashion, using conceptual ecology as a theoretical lens to interpret the findings, is informative. They also, indicate the differences that exist from society to society and how sociocultural factors such as the type of religion as part of the conceptual ecology influence acceptance of evolution and have strong influence on evolution education.