Evolutionary Theory In Schools

Evolution has always been a touchy subject in any educational institution. In my personal opinion, I believe this to be due to the fact of confusion about what evolution actually is, and what theories it poses. Many believe it to be the idea that we are all descended from other organisms. This, of course, could not be farther from the truth. A big portion of society confuses the ideas proposed by the sect of scientific information, which is exactly what the study in the article Evolutionary Theory, the Nature of Science & High School Biology Teachers: Critical Relationships in the BioOne: The American Biology Teacher scientific journal tried to expose. The article explained that Michael L Rutledge, who is the Assistant Professor of Biology

The results of this testing acknowledged the fact that the teachers in this particular state only had a moderate understanding of the theories that contribute to evolution. The average score on the questionnaire was a 77.59 score of understanding when held up to the scale created by the scientists conducting the test. This meant that the teachers did not completely understand how evolution worked or the theories behind it. One of the ideas that were least accepted or understood by the teachers was the ability to test the theories behind evolution. 38% of the teachers questioned believed that there was no way to test the idea that evolution was a credible theory. The idea that seemed to be agreed upon by a majority of the teachers was that the scientific community accepted the evolutionary theory. In addition, the teachers were also shown to only moderately understand the evolutionary theory itself. This just shows what the scientists supposed in the first place: that there is a lack of understanding when evolution is involved. The teachers only understood and answered 71% of the questions correctly. Quite surprisingly, the biology teachers only displayed a moderate understanding of the nature of science as a

The conclusion the study came to was that whether or not a teacher accepted the evolutionary theory was strongly positively correlated to the understanding they have of how the theory works and what the theory says. Interestingly enough, there was also a strongly positive correlation between whether or not a teacher accepted the theories of evolution and the understanding the teacher has of how science works. The article ended with the scientists who conducted the survey discussing the importance of evolutionary theory and understanding what it actually means. The importance of teachers making professional decisions that were based on knowledge rather than personal acceptance was noted. The article then concluded that for a teacher to be able to make these professional decisions regarding this touchy area of study, they must have an understanding of how important the evolutionary theory is in the field of