Abstract
BackgroundTeleology is one of the critical aspects of students’ intuitive concepts about living beings and, specifically, their evolution. This cognitive bias imposes a substantial restriction on the process of learning such content. In this work, we rely on epistemological, psychological and pedagogical analyses to substantiate an educational proposal centered on the concepts of epistemological obstacles and metacognitive vigilance.ResultsBased on Michael Ruse’s epistemological analysis, according to which teleology in biology persists because the scientific explanation of adaptation necessarily involves appeal to the metaphor of design, and on research in cognitive psychology, especially in relation to metacognition and self-regulated learning, we argue that the primary educational aim must be to encourage students to develop metacognitive skills to regulate the use of teleological reasoning. We develop our instructional proposal based on the didactic concepts of epistemological obstacles and metacognitive vigilance (consistent with epistemological and psychological analyses).ConclusionWe briefly discuss the instructional implications of our analysis and some possible relationships between our proposal and other lines of research in psychology and science education.
Highlights
Introduction and purposeDespite the consensus on the importance of all citizens learning evolutionary biology, especially the theory of natural selection (Kampourakis 2014; Miller-Friedmann et al 2019; WGTE 1998; Wilson 2007), there is substantial evidence from the last 40 years from different countries suggesting that most high-school graduates have an insufficient understanding of these topics (Smith 2010a, b)
We do not ignore the differences among these forms of reasoning, we suggest that they all involve teleological assumptions
We initially review the epistemological problem of teleology in biology
Summary
Despite the consensus on the importance of all citizens learning evolutionary biology, especially the theory of natural selection (Kampourakis 2014; Miller-Friedmann et al 2019; WGTE 1998; Wilson 2007), there is substantial evidence from the last 40 years from different countries suggesting that most high-school graduates have an insufficient understanding of these topics (Smith 2010a, b). Even worse, this conclusion applies to many teachers and undergraduates as well (Gresch and Martens 2019; Nehm and Schonfeld 2007; Sickel and Friedrichsen 2013). We rely on epistemological, psychological and pedagogical analyses to substantiate an educational proposal centered on the concepts of epistemological obstacles and metacognitive vigilance
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