Evolution is the unifying theory in biological sciences, yet in the United States, a majority of the population holds beliefs that are in conflict with those concepts and therefore are not completely open to considering evolutionary theory. The Gallup poll on evolution, creationism and intelligent design is one of the longest running polls…

There exists a disconnect between instruction about biological evolution and acceptance of evolution by students. This disconnect prevents students from applying the theory to their lives or to their understanding of the field of biology. We examine the literature for common barriers to the acceptance of evolution, correlates with acceptance of…

I consider the case of the "simplest" living beings--bacteria--and examine how their embodied activity constitutes an organism/environment interaction, out of which emerges the possibility of learning from an environment. I suggest that this mutual co-emergence of organism and environment implies a panbiotic educational interaction that…

Understanding of evolution helps solve biological problems in areas that affect our lives. One of the ways of adopting the concept of evolution leads through a conceptual change. We investigated whether inductively prepared educational activities, focused on evolution, have the potential to create conceptual changes in students' conceptual…

In June 2013, the third World Evolution Summit convened on San Cristóbal, hosting scientists from around the world (Paz-y-Miño-C and Espinosa 2013)--neither the first nor likely the last gathering of biologists on these remote islands. Clearly, both locals and an international audience perceive Galápagos as figuring prominently in discourse about…

Natural selection is a central concept throughout biology; however, it is a process frequently misunderstood. Bacterial resistance to antibiotic medications provides a contextual example of the relevance of evolutionary theory and is also commonly misunderstood. While research has shed light on student misconceptions of natural selection, minimal…

Prior studies have shown that students have difficulty understanding the role of mutation in evolution and genetics. However, little is known about unifying themes underlying students' difficulty with mutation. In this study, we examined students' written explanations about mutation from a cognitive science perspective. According to one cognitive…

Evolutionary trees are key tools for modern biology and are commonly portrayed in textbooks to promote learning about biological evolution. However, many people have difficulty in understanding what evolutionary trees are meant to portray. In fact, some ideas that current professional biologists depict with evolutionary trees are neither clearly…

This study examines how third-graders' conceptions about the origin of species are affected by formal instruction and whether children can learn not only about evolution but also about natural selection. We interviewed the same group of third-grade children (8-9 years old) twice, before and after following a curriculum about these topics.…

The teaching of evolution in American high schools has long been a source of controversy. The past decade has seen an important shift in the rhetoric of anti-evolutionists, toward arguments of a strongly mathematical character. These mathematical arguments, while different in their specifics, follow the same general program and rely on the same…

Student reasoning about cases of natural selection is often plagued by errors that stem from miscategorising selection as a direct, causal process, misunderstanding the role of randomness, and from the intuitive ideas of intentionality, teleology and essentialism. The common thread throughout many of these reasoning errors is a failure to apply…

Computerized classification of student answers offers the possibility of instant feedback and improved learning. Open response (OR) questions provide greater insight into student thinking and understanding than more constrained multiple choice (MC) questions, but development of automated classifiers is more difficult, often requiring training a…

Although some creationist objections to evolutionary biology are simplistic and thus are easily refuted, when more technical arguments become widespread it is important for science educators to explain the relevant science in a straightforward manner. An interesting case study is provided by misguided allegations about how cytochrome c data…

Curriculum statements and textbooks are considered to be vital support tools for teachers, particularly during times of curriculum innovation. A recent change in South Africa was the controversial inclusion of evolution in the school curriculum, raising serious concerns amongst biology teachers regarding the adequacy of their content and…

To learn why natural selection acts only on existing variation, students categorize processes as either creative or sorting. This activity helps students confront the misconception that adaptations evolve because species need them.