Abstract
Biology education in the U.S. is under threat due to resistance to the principles of modern evolutionary theory. Although religious and cultural prejudices heavily influence this resistance, poor understanding of evolutionary theory itself is at least partly responsible. Thus, coherent and aggressive strategies are needed in order to rectify this poor understanding and properly educate the next generation of the electorate and its policy makers. Herein, we examine acceptance of evolutionary concepts among students in a majors-level introductory biology course and those in a gender studies course on sex, gender, and sexuality. Through pre- and post-course surveys, we measured the change in their acceptance. Surprisingly, students in the gender studies course consistently displayed greater improvement in their acceptance of evolutionary theory than the biology students, despite only tangential coverage of these topics in the gender studies course and substantial coverage of them in the biology course. These results provide evidence that one strategy for advancing the proper education of biology and natural history is through teaching of the biological basis of reproduction and sexuality, topicsthat exhibit a high level of student interest and uniquely convey the effects and consequence of evolutionary forces such as natural and sexual selection, adaptation, mutation, and genetic drift.
Highlights
The field of biology education is under threat in the United States from select school boards, religious institutions, elected civic leaders, and parents of school children regarding the proper teaching of evolution, the grand unifying theory of all of biology [1,2]
We found that students in the gender studies course improved in their acceptance of evolutionary theory to a much higher degree than students in the majors-level biology course
One group enrolled in a majors-level biology course that places a large focus on evolution, natural history, and the mechanisms of selection
Summary
The field of biology education is under threat in the United States from select school boards, religious institutions, elected civic leaders, and parents of school children regarding the proper teaching of evolution, the grand unifying theory of all of biology [1,2]. While beginning the course with a similar level of acceptance to that of the science-major students, the gender studies students ended the course in a state of near unanimous strong support for the biological theory of evolution These results reveal that sometimes the best way to teach evolution to resistant students is to do so implicitly, rather than explicitly, within courses where the products and consequences of evolution can be readily incorporated. There is a seven-choice question that asks students to circle the statement that best represents their opinion about evolution by natural selection These seven choices came from open-ended responses recorded from student populations during the development of the survey and are presented in a random order with respect to their level of resistance or acceptance of evolutionary theory. Topics Covered: Bio-104 principles of natural selection; evolution of populations origin of species; history of life on earth phylogenetics; classification; biodiversity evolution/properties of domains and kingdoms of life evolution, form, classification of microbes evolution, form, classification of plants evolution, form, classification of animals animal body plan, tissues, organ systems circulatory, respiratory, and immune systems osmoregulation, urinary system, homeostasis endocrine system, reproduction, development motor, skeletal, digestive systems nervous and sensory systems population and community ecology; adaptation
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