Understanding Of Selection Research Articles

The effects of religious views and creationism on teleological reasoning, acceptance and understanding of natural selection: a preliminary mixed-methods study

BackgroundCreationist religious views have a large influence on the public’s views and learning related to evolution, especially human evolution. Creationism has been shown to reinforce students’ design teleological stance, which creates a challenging conceptual obstacle for learning evolution. The purpose of the current study was to determine if students with creationist views responded differently to education intended to directly challenge design teleological reasoning in the context of a human evolution course, compared to students with naturalist views. In a convergent mixed methods design this study combined pre- and post-semester quantitative survey data (N = 48) on student endorsement of teleological reasoning, acceptance of evolution (Inventory of Student Evolution Acceptance), and understanding of natural selection (Conceptual Inventory of Natural Selection), with a thematic analysis of student reflective writing on their understanding and acceptance of natural selection and teleological reasoning.ResultsThis study found that students with creationist views had higher levels of design teleological reasoning and lower levels of acceptance of evolution at the beginning of the semester, compared to students with naturalist views (p < 0.01). Students with creationist views experienced significant (p < 0.01) improvements in teleological reasoning and acceptance of human evolution. While the changes in teleological reasoning, understanding and acceptance experienced by students with creationist views were similar in magnitude to changes in students with naturalist views, creationists never achieved levels of evolution understanding and acceptance seen in students with naturalist views. Multiple linear regression showed that student religiosity was a significant predictor of understanding of evolution, while having creationist views was a predictor of acceptance of evolution. Thematic analysis revealed that more students believed that religion and evolution are incompatible than compatible. However, more than one-third of students expressed openness to learning about evolution alongside their religious views.ConclusionsStudents with creationist views made gains on nearly all measures, but significantly underperformed their counterparts with natural views. For many students, religiosity and creationism challenge their thinking about evolution. This paper describes pedagogical practices to help students understand their own teleological reasoning and support students with creationist views who are learning about evolution.

Floral economies

Biology and economics are surprisingly similar disciplines. At their core, both fields are the study of competitive interactions for scarce resources and the consequences of those interactions over time. Perhaps the first person to notice this similarity was Charles Darwin, who credited his reading of the influential economist Thomas Robert Malthus with catalysing his understanding of natural selection as the driving force of evolution. While it may not have been recognised at the time, this was not the only area of Darwin's thinking to parallel economic concepts.

The impact of direct challenges to student endorsement of teleological reasoning on understanding and acceptance of natural selection: an exploratory study

BackgroundTeleological reasoning is a cognitive bias purported to disrupt student ability to understand natural selection. Few studies have described pedagogical efforts to decrease student endorsement of teleological reasoning and measure the effects of this attenuation on the understanding and acceptance of evolution. This exploratory study examined the influence of explicit instructional activities directly challenging student endorsement of teleological explanations for evolutionary adaptations on their learning of natural selection over a semester-long undergraduate course in evolutionary medicine. In a convergent mixed methods design this study combined pre- and post-semester survey data (N = 83) on understanding natural selection, student endorsement of teleological reasoning, and acceptance of evolution, with thematic analysis of student reflective writing on their understanding and acceptance of natural selection and teleological reasoning.ResultsStudent endorsement of teleological reasoning decreased and understanding and acceptance of natural selection increased during a course on human evolution with teleological intervention (p ≤ 0.0001), compared to a control course. Endorsement of teleological reasoning was predictive of understanding of natural selection prior to the semester. Thematic analysis revealed that prior to the course students were largely unaware of the concept of teleological reasoning and their own tendency to think about evolution in a purpose-directed way, but perceived attenuation of their own teleological reasoning by the end of the semester.ConclusionsThis exploratory study provides initial evidence that class activities to directly challenge student endorsement of unwarranted design teleological reasoning reduces the level and effects of teleological reasoning in an evolution course. Students were unaware of their high levels of endorsement of teleological reasoning upon entrance into the undergraduate human evolution course, which is consequential because teleological reasoning is a predicter of natural selection understanding. As a result of developed anti-teleological pedagogy, students had decreased unwarranted teleological reasoning and increased acceptance and understanding of natural selection over the course of the semester. The data presented show that students are receptive to explicit instructional challenges to their teleological reasoning and that attenuation of this bias is associated with gains in natural selection understanding and acceptance.

Proportions, not numbers - a computer simulation that facilitates students' understanding of natural selection

Proportions, not numbers - a computer simulation that facilitates students' understanding of natural selection

Following Darwin's footsteps: Evaluating the impact of an activity designed for elementary school students to link historically important evolution key concepts on their understanding of natural selection.

While several researchers have suggested that evolution should be explored from the initial years of schooling, little information is available on effective resources to enhance elementary school students’ level of understanding of evolution by natural selection (LUENS). For the present study, we designed, implemented, and evaluated an educational activity planned for fourth graders (9 to 10 years old) to explore concepts and conceptual fields that were historically important for the discovery of natural selection. Observation field notes and students’ productions were used to analyze how the students explored the proposed activity. Additionally, an evaluation framework consisting of a test, the evaluation criteria, and the scoring process was applied in two fourth‐grade classes (N = 44) to estimate elementary school students’ LUENS before and after engaging in the activity. Our results show that our activity allowed students to link the key concepts, resulting in a significant increase of their understanding of natural selection. They also reveal that additional activities and minor fine‐tuning of the present activity are required to further support students’ learning about the concept of differential reproduction.

Basque secondary school students’ understanding of natural selection and teleological reasoning: knowledge vs. knowledge application

ABSTRACT Understanding natural selection requires mentally linking various key concepts and processes. Many students find it difficult to construct scientific explanations about natural selection and might display misconceptions. Our study aimed to investigate the understanding of natural selection and the existence of teleological or other misconceptions on the part of Basque secondary school students. A diagnostic test was completed by 106 Basque secondary students. Students’ responses to knowledge questions and application questions addressing evolutionary trait gain situations were assessed for consistency. Results varied between education levels without showing a clear pattern. Students in the highest grades performed better than 10th graders in knowledge questions but not in all questions requiring them to apply their knowledge. Although teleological expressions addressing intentionality tended to be common in student’s explanations, most students stated that mutations occurred randomly, suggesting that teleological wording might reflect a linguistic issue rather than an actual lack of knowledge. Our results indicate that that caution should be exercised when inferring teleological thinking from open-ended application contexts.

Geoscientists’ drawings of natural selection

Natural selection is a fundamental scientific process, yet students and educators alike demonstrate misconceptions of the process. Though images are used often in science to facilitate learning, it is less common to assess learners’ understanding through their own drawings. This study utilizes a multiple-choice assessment of evolutionary processes and a drawing prompt to investigate participants’ abilities to draw the process of natural selection. We analyzed multiple-choice assessments and drawings from 109 geoscientists from a range of career levels. Drawings were coded for the presence of six components of natural selection. We found that geoscientists scored better on the six-point multiple-choice assessment (mean = 4.2, SD = 1.1) than on the six-point drawing score (mean = 3.0, SD = 1.8). A regression analysis was performed on drawing scores to explore predictors of more complete drawings. Higher multiple-choice scores were a significant predictor of higher drawing scores. The regression analysis also indicated that women scored significantly higher on their drawings. Our results suggest that drawings may be useful assessment tools for measuring understanding of natural selection, and that images used in teaching natural selection are recalled by learners when drawing natural selection. The mismatch between recall and scientific models suggests modifications to artwork used in instruction might be beneficial.

“I Think that Teachers Do Not Teach Evolution Because It Is Complicated”: Difficulties in Teaching and Learning Evolution in Israel

The conflict between acceptance and disapproval of evolution has led to obstacles in its teaching and learning. Other difficulties, such as both teachers’ and students’ alternative perceptions, student maturity in the face of learning this complicated topic, and teachers’ gaps in evolution knowledge, add to the difficulties in teaching and learning evolution. The aim of this study was to grasp the difficulties in the teaching and learning of evolution perceived by curriculum writers compared to those perceived by in-service junior high school science and technology teachers and high school biology teachers in Israel. The findings revealed a wide range of perceived difficulties in the teaching and learning of evolution, mainly in the fields of religion, teacher and student knowledge, student maturity, and alternative perceptions. A questionnaire distributed among in-service Israeli teachers added strength to interviews with the curriculum writers, with both referring to some of the same difficulties. However, some difficulties were heard only in the interviews. Curriculum writers were more concerned with questions of faith that teaching evolution raises, whereas in-service teachers were concerned with their students’ difficulties in understanding natural selection and mutational randomness. Teacher-training programs that focus on teachers’ lack of evolution knowledge and on pedagogical skills, as well as the design of teaching materials that take into account these difficulties, are recommended for future research.

Inhibiting intuition: Scaffolding children's theory construction about species evolution in the face of competing explanations

Acquiring the counterintuitive logic of how the mechanism of natural selection (NS) leads to the evolution of new species (speciation) represents a paradigm case of conceptual change. Given this, we examined children's intuitive preconceptions about speciation and their ability to construct, generalize, and retain an accurate understanding of the theory. We did so by conducting two multi-age, multi-session, and multi-measure intervention studies that assessed children's understanding of natural selection 4 times over three months using extended interviews. We also examined the role of Executive Function skills (EF) in these conceptual change processes. Distinctively, we explored whether—consistent with conceptual co-existence accounts—EF not only supports children's initial construction of a counterintuitive theory but also plays an ongoing role in the online reasoning of successful learners. Across two studies, North American children in Grades 2 (N = 34) and 3 (N = 34) were provided with coherent mechanistic explanations of NS through a two-storybook intervention sequence. The first storybook described the logic of NS to explain how a specialized body part evolved within a fictional species (adaptation). The second storybook extended the logic to explain how this same species evolved into a new, distinct species (speciation). Findings revealed that many second and third graders were able to learn and generalize the logic of speciation. This is a remarkable feat given that speciation conflicts with early developing essentialist and teleological intuitions, and defeats most adults. Our analyses also confirmed that constructing this counterintuitive theory draws heavily on children's EF capacities. They additionally reveal that once the theory is constructed, EF plays a continuing role in reasoning by inhibiting competing intuitive explanations that co-exist rather than being replaced during the process of conceptual change.

Homo Sapiens Adaptation and the Law of Natural Selection

The article discusses whether the general biological law of natural selection works in formed human communities. The author proceeds from the understanding of natural selection as a mechanism of self-preservation and self-development of living systems, carried out through adaptation to environmental conditions. The author considers adaptation as a modus existendi of self-purpose substantive systems of biological and social type, capable of preserving the fact and quality of their life by changing its significant parameters. The article considers modes of adaptation of biological systems (individual and collective, somatic and ethological, passive and active), which determine the criteria of intraspecific and interspecific selection by bodily or behavioral properties. Turning to the analysis of social systems, the author considers human activity not as an alternative to adaptation, but as a special kind of it — active behavioral adaptation, acting in the form of labor, based on the synthesis of verbal and conceptual thinking with an instrumental attitude to the environment. The article criticizes the point of view about the absence of qualitative boundaries between human and animal lifestyles, which gained strength after the primatological revolution in biology. The author is convinced of the uniqueness of man, whose activity creates a fundamentally new socio-cultural reality based on the production and reproduction of social life, the institutional division of labor and value-normative regulation of behavior. In the sociocultural environment, of course, the laws of biological heredity persist, affecting the way people live, but not determining it. Similarly, in human communities there is intrapopulation and interpopulation competition, which, with the development of history, loses the form of natural selection by somatic and ethological traits. The latter retains its force only at the beginning of human history, manifesting itself, in particular, in the process of formation of somatic racial differences between humans. According to the author, the action of natural selection ceases as a result of the Great Neolithic Revolution, associated with the transition from the economy of the foraging type to the economy of the producing type.

Students’ understanding of the emergent processes of natural selection: the need for ontological conceptual change

ABSTRACT The topic of natural selection presents challenges to high school students since it requires understanding of an emergent process, which is a missing schema for most students. Many interventions for teaching natural selection have limited effect in bringing about substantial ontological conceptual change. This study evaluates the effectiveness of a series of lessons to build understanding of natural selection as an emergent process. A conceptual change approach enabled students to develop explanations through their transfer of understanding when producing a series of student-generated representations, culminating in elaborated written explanations of evolutionary scenarios. This process was supported through small-group social construction of understanding, Socratic questioning in whole class discussions and teacher feedback. A quasi-experimental design was used to compare conceptual change in experimental and comparison grade 10 classes using pre/post tests and analysis of written explanations. Results showed significantly greater conceptual change in the experimental class than the comparison class in pre/post tests and adoption of many aspects of the scientific ontological model in written explanations. This approach may be further developed as a method for supporting high school students’ understanding of this difficult topic.

An active learning approach to investigate the ecosystem of tide flats using 3D modeling and printing

ABSTRACTThis paper presents an active learning approach that focuses on practical investigation of the ecosystem of tidal flats using 3D modeling and printing for biology students in order to enhance understanding of natural selection. The learning approach for the study followed a 5-step procedure: i) learning about 3D modeling and printing, ii) exploration of the ecosystem of tidal flats, iii) 3D designing of a bird beak, iv) 3D printing of a constructed beak, and v) a natural selection simulation activity. The learning method presented in this study centered on active student exploration of the tidal flats ecosystem using 3D modeling and printing. The learning approach presented in this paper could be implicated at schools to aid in students’ understanding of natural selection as it allows students to firsthand examine simulation changes to a bird beak and benthic communities. This study suggested the active learning method for natural selection as it incorporates student-designed exploration and direct investigative appraisal of the selection process.

Neutral Variation in the Context of Selection.

In its initial formulation by Motoo Kimura, the neutral theory was concerned solely with the level of variability maintained by random genetic drift of selectively neutral mutations, and the rate of molecular evolution caused by the fixation of such mutations. The original theory considered events at a single genetic locus in isolation from the rest of the genome. It did not take long, however, for theoreticians to wonder whether selection at one or more loci might influence neutral variability at linked sites. Once DNA sequence variability could be studied, and especially when resequencing of whole genomes became possible, it became clear that patterns of neutral variability in genomes are affected by selection at linked sites, and that these patterns could advance our understanding of natural selection, and can be used to detect the action of selection in genomic regions, including selection much weaker than could be detected by direct measurements of the relative fitnesses of different genotypes. We outline the different types of processes that have been studied, in approximate order of their historical development.

Evolution and development of handedness: An Evo-Devo approach.

Hand preference is a sensorimotor skill whose development both reflects and promotes the development of hemispheric lateralization for manual and cognitive functions. Extensive comparative, crosscultural, and paleoanthropological evidence demonstrates the prevalence of limb lateralized preferences across vertebrate species and the prevalence of right-handedness within hominid evolution. Many reviews of the evolution and development of human handedness have proposed adaptive explanations for its evolution. However, during the last 3 decades a new approach to understanding evolution (the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis-EES) provided a persuasive alternative to the conventional (Neo-Darwinian Synthetic Theory-ST) evolutionary and developmental accounts. EES combines modern evolutionary and developmental research (Evo-Devo) in ways that alter understanding of natural selection, adaptation, and the role of genes in development and evolution. These changes make obsolete all past accounts of the evolution and development of lateralization and handedness because EES/Evo-Devo requires new study designs. The developmental trajectories of any structural or functional trait must be specified so that it may be related to variations in the developmental trajectories of other traits. First, we describe how the EES/Evo-Devo differs from the conventional ST, particularly for understanding of how traits develop. Then, we apply Evo-Devo to the study of handedness development in infancy and its relation to the development of other cognitive functions. Finally, we argue that identifying the development of atypical traits would benefit from knowledge of the range of individual differences in typical developmental trajectories of hand-use preference and their relation to variations in the developmental trajectories of cognitive functions.

“We do not know what is the real story anymore”: Curricular contextualization principles that support indigenous students in understanding natural selection

AbstractWe propose a process of contextualization based on seven empirically derived contextualization principles, aiming to provide opportunities for Indigenous Mexican adolescents to learn science in a way that supports them in fulfilling their right to an education aligned with their own culture and values. The contextualization principles we empirically derived account for Nahua students' cultural cognition, socialization, and cultural narratives, thus supporting Indigenous students in navigating the differences between their culture and the culture and language of school while learning complex science concepts such as natural selection. The process of curricular contextualization we propose is empirically driven, taking culture and socialization into account by using multiples sources (cognitive tasks to explore teleology, ethnographic observation of students' community and classroom, and interviews with students and community members) and builds on the scholarship in Culturally Relevant Pedagogy and Indigenous Education. We used these principles to redesign a middle school biology unit on natural selection to make it more culturally relevant for Nahua students. The enactment of this unit resulted in students being engaged in science learning and achieving significant learning gains. The significance of this study lies in presenting evidence that learning science in culturally relevant ways supports the learning of challenging biology concepts. We provide evidence that Western science can be learned in ways that are more aligned with Indigenous students' Traditional Indigenous Knowledge, thus informing the implementation of educational policies aiming to improve the quality of secondary education for Indigenous adolescents. Our proposed contextualization principles can benefit students of all cultural identities who feel that their religion, language, or traditional knowledge are not aligned with school science, facilitating their access to culturally relevant science education.

Teleological reasoning, not acceptance of evolution, impacts students\u2019 ability to learn natural selection

BackgroundHow acceptance of evolution relates to understanding of evolution remains controversial despite decades of research. It even remains unclear whether cultural/attitudinal factors or cognitive factors have a greater impact on student ability to learn evolutionary biology. This study examined the influence of cultural/attitudinal factors (religiosity, acceptance of evolution, and parents’ attitudes towards evolution) and cognitive factors (teleological reasoning and prior understanding of natural selection) on students’ learning of natural selection over a semester-long undergraduate course in evolutionary medicine.MethodPre-post course surveys measured cognitive factors, including teleological reasoning and prior understanding of natural selection, and also cultural/attitudinal factors, including acceptance of evolution, parent attitudes towards evolution, and religiosity. We analyzed how these measures influenced increased understanding of natural selection over the semester.ResultsAfter controlling for other related variables, parent attitude towards evolution and religiosity predicted students’ acceptance of evolution, but did not predict students’ learning gains of natural selection over the semester. Conversely, lower levels of teleological reasoning predicted learning gains in understanding natural selection over the course, but did not predict students’ acceptance of evolution.ConclusionsAcceptance of evolution did not predict students’ ability to learn natural selection over a semester in an evolutionary medicine course. However, teleological reasoning did impact students’ ability to learn natural selection.

Testing the effectiveness of two natural selection simulations in the context of a large-enrollment undergraduate laboratory class

BackgroundSimulations can be an active and engaging way for students to learn about natural selection, and many have been developed, including both physical and virtual simulations. In this study we assessed the student experience of, and learning from, two natural selection simulations, one physical and one virtual, in a large enrollment introductory biology lab course. We assigned students to treatments (the physical or virtual simulation activity) by section and assessed their understanding of natural selection using a multiple-choice pre-/post-test and short-answer responses on a post-lab assignment. We assessed student experience of the activities through structured observations and an affective survey.ResultsStudents in both treatments showed increased understanding of natural selection after completing the simulation activity, but there were no differences between treatments in learning gains on the pre-/post-test, or in the prevalence of concepts and misconceptions in written answers. On a survey of self-reported enjoyment they rated the physical activity significantly higher than the virtual activity. In classroom observations of student behavior, we found significant differences in the distribution of behaviors between treatments, including a higher frequency of off-task behavior during the physical activity.ConclusionsOur results suggest that both simulations are valuable active learning tools to aid students’ understanding of natural selection, so decisions about which simulation to use in a given class, and how to best implement it, can be motivated by contextual factors.

중국, 미국, 독일의 생물전공자와 비교한 한국 생물예비교사의 자연선택개념 이해 수준 분석

자연선택개념은 진화론의 핵심개념으로 다양한 생물학적 문제를 해결하기 위해 이해해야 될 필수 개념이다. 이 연구는 한국예비생물 교사들의 자연선택개념의 이해 수준을 조사하기 위하여 중국, 미국, 독일의 생물전공자와 비교하는 것을 목적으로 한다. 특히 이 연구에서는 자연선택개념의 두 개념요소인 생태개념과 유전개념으로 구분하여 예비생물교사의 자연선택개념을 분석하였다. 우리나라 예비생물교사 376명을 포함하여 1226명의 한국, 중국, 미국, 독일의 생물전공 예비교사의 자료를 토대로 분석하였다. 검사도구는 생태개념과 유전개념문항 각 10개씩을 포함하고 있는 Conceptual Inventory of Natural Selection의 20문항을 라쉬모델, 다변량분산분석, 일변량분산 분석을 활용하여 분석하였다. 그 결과 우리나라 예비생물교사의 자연선택개념 수준은 중국과 비슷하고 미국, 독일에 비하여 낮았다. 생태개념과 유전개념으로 구분하여 살펴보면, 우리나라 예비생물교사 1학년의 경우 중국과 독일에 비하여 유전개념이 유의미하게 낮았으며, 4학년의 경우 미국과 독일에 비하여 생태개념이 유의미하게 낮았다. 3년간의 예비생물교사 교육과정 동안 유전개념에 대한 교육은 성공적이었으나, 생태개념의 교육은 성공적이지 못하였다. 이 연구결과를 토대로 자연선택개념의 이해를 위한 예비생물 교사교육에 대해서 논의한다. Natural selection is the core idea of evolution that pre-service biology teachers need to understand to solve diverse biological problem. This study aims to investigate the level of Korean pre-service biology teachers' understanding of natural selection by comparing their knowledge with their Chinese, American, and German biology major undergraduate counterparts. In particular, this study focuses on two conceptual components of natural selection (i.e., ecology and genetics). This study used a total 1226 pre-service biology teachers and biology majors' data. The instrument measuring the understanding of natural selection concepts was Conceptual Inventory of Natural Selection, which consists of ten ecology concept items and ten genetics concept items. The Rasch model analysis, multivariate analysis of variance, and univariate analysis of variance were used for the statistical tests. The result reveals that the level of Korean pre-service biology teachers' understanding of natural selection were similar with Chinese undergraduates' understanding and significantly lower than American and German undergraduates.' In the first year student data, the level of genetics concept of Korean pre-service biology teachers were significantly lower than Chinese and German students. In the fourth year student data, the level of ecology concept of Korean pre-service biology teachers were significantly lower than American and German students. Based on these results, the ecology concept education and balanced natural selection concept education are discussed.

Secondary school students’ reasoning about evolution

This study examined age differences in young people’s understanding of evolution theory in secondary school. A second aim of this study was to propose a new coding scheme that more accurately described students’ conceptual understanding about evolutionary theory. We argue that coding schemes adopted in previous research may have overestimated students’ grasp of evolutionary concepts.Atotal of 106 students aged 12, 14, and 16 took part in individual interviews investigating their understanding of evolution. Using the newcoding scheme, wefound that while 16-year olds were more likely than 12-year olds to endorse scientific concepts when answering a question about finches, their understanding of natural selection, however, did not generalize to the other four questions. Furthermore, students began to incorporate relevant terminology (e.g., adapt, evolve, etc.) and structure their explanations using relevant language at around age 14. Students often used relevant terminology without having a more advanced understanding of evolutionary theory. Instead, they used the relevant terms in a colloquial rather than a scientific sense. Implications of the current findings for teaching and theory are discussed.

The living dead: transformative experiences in modelling natural selection

This study considers how students change their coherent conceptual understanding of natural selection through a hands-on simulation. The results show that most students change their understanding. In addition, some students also underwent a transformative experience and used their new knowledge in a leisure time activity. These transformative experiences appear in different categories where students find value both towards biological content, societal value and individual identity. Finally there is a discussion on how to transfer characteristics from the setting of this study to other educational settings in biology and science in general.