Written By: Brooke Xu
In 2007, a survey had been conducted to find that only a third of public high school biology teachers were able to teach evolution satisfactorily. 13% of those teachers offered creationism as a “valid scientific alternative”. Evolution has always been a controversial subject in the science classroom due to religion and uncertainty, but in 2020, teaching practices involving evolution have improved greatly. Researchers from Penn State University and the National Center for Science Education published findings in the journal “Evolution: Education and Outreach”.
This project analyzed data from the “Survey of American Science Teachers” done between February to May of 2019. Both surveys reported more than 95 percent of biology teachers covering evolution to some degree. In addition, there was a 60 percent increase in the average number of class hours devoted to covering human evolution. Researchers pointed out 3 main changes:
Broad adoption of Next Generation Science Standards or state standards borrowing heavily from NGSS
Improvements in pre-service teacher education
Changing practices of in-service teachers through improved professional development
One of the questions in the survey required teachers to agree or disagree to a couple of statements.
"I emphasize that intelligent design is a valid, scientific alternative to Darwinian explanations for the origin of species"
"I emphasize that many reputable scientists view creationism or intelligent design as valid alternatives to Darwinian theory
The number of teachers disagreeing with the first statement rose from 32 to 53 percent, driven by the drop in teachers who declined to answer. There was another increase in teachers strongly disagreeing with both statements. Now, more teachers are confident in the principles of evolution. It’s concluded that the NGSS and new science-related learning standards have positively influenced instruction, though there is still room to improve.
Teaching and learning about evolution is important, offering immense value extending outside of the classroom. Evolution influences a variety of work in different fields and understanding it can benefit the work we do to solve problems. There is always room to get better, refine our understanding, and improve our methods, but the curriculum has taken massive steps forward to provide adequate instruction on the topic. As it continues to be taught in schools around the world, students will gain more valuable insight and hold powerful assets that can be applied to everyday problems. The future is looking bright for science education.
Comments