Students with religious beliefs often find it difficult to accept the theory of evolution. It is important that educators feel comfortable addressing student questions on the compatibility of evolution and religion. We designed an online professional development course that taught the foundational principles of both evolution and religion in order…

The issue of the secular state is pertinent in Latin America, especially in countries like Brazil, where religion may influence the political and educational field. Data from a survey of biology teachers regarding the teaching of evolution in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay were analysed, recognising the secularity of the countries. The…

Although John Scopes and his famous "Monkey Trial" strongly influenced the ongoing evolution-creationism controversy, relatively little is known about Scopes's post-trial life. Moreover, many questions about his trial remain unanswered (e.g., did he actually teach evolution in Dayton?). This paper answers these questions with new…

The historical dimension of biology attests to the various conceptions of living organisms that have governed the construction of scientific knowledge over time, some of which still persist today. The present study aimed to identify and characterise the various conceptions of living organisms held by future teachers and biologists and the…

Jill Williams and Sara Tolbert (2021) suggest that neoliberal reforms in Arizona have 'ironically positioned science classrooms and science teachers as high potential sites of/for resistance' to these reforms (p. 72). This forum response explores a number of ethical questions for American science teachers that arise from the political influence of…

Can a teacher aim for students to "believe" evolution without indoctrinating them? Recent discussions of indoctrination in evolution education suggest that such teaching must inevitably indoctrinate but is "warranted" in some cases; while science educators concerned about teaching for "belief" argue that such teaching…

This piece responds to the article by Arif Rachmatullah, Soonhye Park, and Minsu Ha "Crossing borders between science and religion: Muslim Indonesian biology teachers' perceptions of teaching the theory of evolution," in which the authors are among the first researchers to explore the views of Indonesian science teachers regarding…

Over the past decades, a large body of research has examined students' magnitudes of evolution acceptance and related measurement issues resulting in questions concerning instruments' validity and operationalization. Until now, several studies investigated validity aspects of often-used evolution acceptance instruments and came to diverging…

This review explores Thomas Lessl's "Demarcation as a classroom response to creationism: A critical examination of the National Academy of Science's "Science, Evolution, and Creationism" (2008)." Lessl's work examines philosophical debates about the relationship between science and religion from the perspective of communication…

Students possess alternative conceptions of many science topics, and these conceptions can act as obstacles for learning scientific concepts. In the field of biology education, students' alternative conceptions of evolution have been widely investigated. However, there is little research on how teachers diagnose and deal with these alternative…

Scientific literacy is an important and relevant 21st century skill. People with a strong scientific literacy are better equipped to be involved in public discourse which can drive social and political decision-making processes and are more adept at determining valid scientific information. Unfortunately, American citizens have consistently…

Educators constantly hear the mantras "develop relationships with students" or "add a personal touch"? They know they will be better teachers if they connect with their students, but how can they if their students come from very different backgrounds than they do? How do educators find common ground? The common ground is the…

The aim of the present study was to find out whether the pre-service teachers' perception of biological evolution theory is affected after attending an evolution course that specifically addresses the perceptions and acceptance of the theory. The study was designed as a qualitative phenomenological study. Data were obtained from document analyses…

The issue of the proper goals of science education and science teacher education have been a focus of the science education and philosophy of science communities in recent years. More particularly, the issue of whether belief/acceptance of evolution and/or understanding are the appropriate goals for evolution educators and the issue of the precise…

The purpose of this study was to explore science content used during college students' negotiation of biology-based socioscientific issues (SSI) and examine how it related to students' conceptual understanding and acceptance of biological evolution. The Socioscientific Issues Questionnaire (SSI-Q) was developed to measure depth of evolutionary…