Contemporary mathematics education is at a crossroads. It has become exposed to forces, both static and dynamic, that pose a challenge to its traditional place in academia. Mathematics has a long-established status as perhaps the most critical foundation for analytical knowledge. But the manner in which mathematics instructors choose to respond to…

Across the country, significant percentages of high school teachers are not convinced that evolution is a central concept to biology and/or are of the opinion that creation should be taught in public school science classes. Are these attitudes transferred from educators to their students? Unless educators address this kind of question, they will…

Surveys reveal that many in our society have an inadequate and inaccurate understanding of evolution (Alters & Alters, 2001). Much of this can be traced directly to popular misconceptions about the nature of science. This, in turn, can be linked to misrepresentation by those opposed to evolution, although inadequate or ineffective treatment by ill…

The evolution of the newspaper industry can be viewed within the perspective of a dialectic ecology that emphasizes the determinative influence of the environment on the development of newspapers in the three stages of variation, selection, and retention. This perspective also introduces the concept of contradictions that rupture into…

The debate over teaching evolution has once again reached a fever pitch in the United States. Earnest nineteenth-century clashes between scientific and religious worldviews have given way to the politically charged arguments of creation science and now intelligent design. The Web site of the National Center for Science Education (NCSE;…

Research suggests that intuitive parental didactics related to infants' production of vocal sounds, vocal imitation, and vocal play are a prerequisite of human language acquisition. Microanalyses of videorecords of parent-infant interactions have revealed intuitive forms of parental behaviors that parents carry out unknowingly and can hardly…

General interest, scientific, and religious periodicals responded to the theory of evolution in 1925 with the same opinions but slanted their coverage to appeal to different readerships. "Scientific American" and "Current History" differed only stylistically in their coverage of the "Australopithecus africanus"…

Science In a Social CONtext is a series of eight books based on the project SISCON-in-Schools. The books provide a new course in science and society for general studies at sixth-form level. The course has been specially designed to make scientific problems accessible to the non-scientist, as well as to explain the social aspects of science to the…

Presented are 15 papers on the theory of evolution and the evolution-creationism equal-time controversy. The papers can be divided into three categories: (1) a set of papers dealing with legal or constitutional considerations; (2) a group of resolutions, official positions, and personal viewpoints; and (3) several semi-technical articles. Included…

This study was conducted in order to assess the difference in concept development and principle learning between high school biology students studying the origin of life from a two-model approach (evolution and creation) and those using the single-model approach of evolution only. The pre-test, post-test control group design using a criterion…

This booklet examines various problems involving the moral content and implications of education and discusses some of the difficulties school officials face in trying to accommodate the diverse moral values of different segments of American society. The author argues that, because unintentional moral training takes place in all schools through…

This booklet, one of a series developed by the Frederick County Board of Education, Frederick, Maryland, provides an instruction module for an individualized or flexible approach to secondary science teaching. Subjects and activities in this series of booklets are designed to supplement a basic curriculum or to form a total curriculum, and relate…

Description of a pilot study that replaced a geographic emphasis in sixth-grade biology with an ecological and evolutionary emphasis. (ND)

Reports on a conference of scientists, secondary teachers, and science educators at which objectives and instructional activities designed to incorporate crustal evolution educational materials into grades 6-10 science courses and curricula were identified. (CP)

This laboratory exercise integrates the topics of cell structure, classification of living organisms, and evolution. It is suitable for secondary or college biology courses and was used in an interdisciplinary science course for nonscience majors. (BB)