Evolution is challenging to understand for students. Frequently, students hold coexisting intuitive conceptions based on cognitive biases and scientific conceptions of evolution. For the self-regulation of intuitive and scientific conceptions, metacognitive awareness is fundamental. However, students are mostly unaware of their conceptions. A…

When students think of evolution, they might imagine T. rex, or perhaps an abiotic scene of sizzling electrical storms and harsh reducing atmospheres, an Earth that looks like a lunar landscape. Natural selection automatically elicits responses that include "survival of the fittest," and "descent with modification," and with…

Biology education research has shown that deeply rooted intuitions can influence students' understanding of biological phenomena. One example is design teleology, the intuition that organisms' traits were designed to fulfill a goal. Another example is psychological essentialism, the intuition that organisms have fixed essences. Past research has…

Despite being a fundamental concept in biology, evolution continues to be one of the most challenging topics to teach in science education. Ideas of evolution emphasising anatomical or behavioural features of individuals, as opposed to the interplay between genetics and the environment, are reinforced through language and culture, making them…

The importance of introducing evolution in primary schools has been highlighted in evolution education research, but few studies have approached the understanding of evolution of prospective teachers who are being prepared to teach at primary school level. The present exploratory study aims to answer three research questions about the ability of…

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…

This study examined the impact of a pedagogy that is culturally influenced and laced with technological and contextual elements known as the culturo-techno-contextual approach (CTCA) on promoting knowledge retention of biology concepts. The research design was mixed methods, and the sample consisted of 88 senior secondary school II students…

There is an emphasis on survival-based selection in biology education that can allow students to neglect other important evolutionary components, such as sexual selection, reproduction, and inheritance. Student understanding of the role of reproduction in evolution is as important as student understanding of the role of survival. Limiting…

Teaching materials frequently answer objections to evolution by demarcating science from religion. Because definitions of science shaped by demarcation tend to magnify its empirical features, they weaken students' understanding of science's theoretical dimension. Demarcation fails to answer creationism for the opposite reason; by insisting that…

Here, we present a ten-year assessment of core concept retention, with an emphasis on evolution, by senior biology majors at a small, private liberal arts college. For concepts that are regularly revisited throughout the biology curriculum, we found that knowledge retention was robust. However, for concepts that are encountered only during the…

Evolution by natural selection is a theory that constitutes a powerful paradigm capable of conveying the teaching-learning of multiple concepts in biology. However, it has been controversial from its formulation to the present, which also affects education. For instance, while some of the basic curricula of primary education in Europe are arranged…

Learning about evolution can be challenging for students, as a full understanding may require them to see the world in new ways, to master a disciplinary language and to understand complex processes. Drawing on a long line of theoretically grounded arguments of philosophers and researchers for including wonder in science teaching, we report on the…

Students' understanding of the concepts that underlie evolution are often less than optimal and make it difficult for them to accept the theory of evolution. The aimed of this study were to: 1) map students' knowledge of Mutation and Recombination (M and R); and 2) analyze the effect of gender on their chairperson. This survey research involving…

This study researches relationships between 12th-grade students' epistemological beliefs towards science and their conceptual understanding of evolution by natural selection. Forty-two 12th-grade students in a suburban high school in Cyprus, who participated in a biology course, completed measures of their: (1) epistemological beliefs towards…

This paper examines how Buddhists in America have been able to integrate evolution into their worldview to a much greater extent than other religious groups in the United States. Not only is evolution and science in general in line with the main teachings of Buddhism, but Buddhist teachers in the US have consistently encouraged Buddhists to…