European first-year university students accept evolution but lack substantial knowledge about it: a standardized European cross-country assessment

Autor: Kuschmierz, Paul, Beniermann, Anna, Bergmann, Alexander, Pinxten, Rianne, Aivelo, Tuomas, Berniak-Woźny, Justyna, Bohlin, Gustav, Bugallo-Rodriguez, Anxela, Cardia, Pedro, Cavadas, Bento Filipe Barreiras Pinto, Cebesoy, Umran Betul, Cvetković, Dragana, Demarsy, Emilie, Đorđević, Mirko, Drobniak, Szymon, Dubchak, Liudmyla, Dvořáková, Radka, Fančovičová, Jana, Fortin, Corinne, Futo, Momir, Geamănă, Nicoleta Adriana, Gericke, Niklas, Grasso, Donato, Lendvai, Ádám, Mavrikaki, Evangelia, Meneganzin, Andra, Mogias, Athanasios, Möller, Andrea, Mota, Paulo, Naciri, Yamama, Németh, Zoltán, Ożańska-Ponikwia, Katarzyna, Paolucci, Silvia, Pap, Péter László, Petersson, Maria, Pietrzak, Barbara, Pievani, Telmo, Pobric, Alma, Porozovs, Juris, Realdon, Giulia, Sá-Pinto, Xana, Savković, Uroš, Sicard, Mathieu, Sofonea, Mircea, Sorgo, Andrej, Stermin, Alexandru, Tăușan, Ioan, Torkar, Gregor, Türkmen, Lütfullah, Tutnjević, Slavica, Uitto, Anna, Varga, Máté, Varga, Mirna, Vazquez-Ben, Lucia, Venetis, Constantinos, Viguera, Enrique, Virtbauer, Lisa Christine, Vutsova, Albena, Yruela, Inmaculada, Zandveld, Jelle, Graf, Dittmar, Cavadas, Bento, Cebesoy, Umran, Geamănă, Nicoleta, Pap, Péter, Virtbauer, Lisa
Přispěvatelé: University of Helsinki, Organismal and Evolutionary Biology Research Programme, Helsinki One Health (HOH), The Academic Outreach Network, Maker@STEAM, Global Change and Conservation Lab, Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS), Helsinki Institute of Urban and Regional Studies (Urbaria), Department of Education, European Commission, Yruela Guerrero, Inmaculada, Yruela Guerrero, Inmaculada [0000-0003-3608-4720], Laboratoire de Didactique André Revuz (LDAR (URP_4434)), Université de Rouen Normandie (UNIROUEN), Normandie Université (NU)-Normandie Université (NU)-Université de Lille-Université Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne - Paris 12 (UPEC UP12)-Université de Paris (UP)-CY Cergy Paris Université (CY), Normandie Université (NU)-Normandie Université (NU)-Université de Lille-Université Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne - Paris 12 (UPEC UP12)-Université Paris Cité (UPCité)-CY Cergy Paris Université (CY)
Rok vydání: 2021
Předmět:
Zdroj: Digital.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
instname
Evolution: Education and Outreach
Evolution: Education and Outreach, 2021, 14 (1), ⟨10.1186/s12052-021-00158-8⟩
Evolution: Education and Outreach, Vol 14, Iss 1, Pp 1-22 (2021)
RUC. Repositorio da Universidade da Coruña
ISSN: 1936-6434
1936-6426
Popis: 22 Pags.- 4 Figs.- 6 Tabls. © The Author(s) 2021. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.
Background Investigations of evolution knowledge and acceptance and their relation are central to evolution education research. Ambiguous results in this field of study demonstrate a variety of measuring issues, for instance differently theorized constructs, or a lack of standardized methods, especially for cross-country comparisons. In particular, meaningful comparisons across European countries, with their varying cultural backgrounds and education systems, are rare, often include only few countries, and lack standardization. To address these deficits, we conducted a standardized European survey, on 9200 first-year university students in 26 European countries utilizing a validated, comprehensive questionnaire, the “Evolution Education Questionnaire”, to assess evolution acceptance and knowledge, as well as influencing factors on evolution acceptance. Results We found that, despite European countries’ different cultural backgrounds and education systems, European first-year university students generally accept evolution. At the same time, they lack substantial knowledge about it, even if they are enrolled in a biology-related study program. Additionally, we developed a multilevel-model that determines religious faith as the main influencing factor in accepting evolution. According to our model, knowledge about evolution and interest in biological topics also increase acceptance of evolution, but to a much lesser extent than religious faith. The effect of age and sex, as well as the country’s affiliation, students’ denomination, and whether or not a student is enrolled in a biology-related university program, is negligible. Conclusions Our findings indicate that, despite all their differences, most of the European education systems for upper secondary education lead to acceptance of evolution at least in university students. It appears that, at least in this sample, the differences in knowledge between countries reflect neither the extent to which school curricula cover evolutionary biology nor the percentage of biology-related students in the country samples. Future studies should investigate the role of different European school curricula, identify particularly problematic or underrepresented evolutionary concepts in biology education, and analyze the role of religious faith when teaching evolution.
Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. Networking activities for the purpose of this project, as well as a professional proofread, were funded by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology; www.cost.eu) via COST Action 17127.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
Externí odkaz: