Exploring biology education students’ responses to a course in evolution at a South African university: implications for their roles as future teachers

摘要

The present study was prompted by the introduction of evolution in the school curriculum and reports on student teachers’ responses to a course in evolution at a South African university. The concepts framing the study are conceptual change, nature of science (NOS) and the science/religion conflict. The research may be described as a qualitative study with a quantitative element. The sample was purposive as a cohort of final-year students in biology education participated in the study. Data were collected through two sets of questionnaires - pre-course and post-course - as well as interviews with a number of students. The findings show that while there was limited improvement in content knowledge, the considerable improvement in their understanding of the NOS was encouraging. Furthermore, they had altered their views of the conflict between science and religion, with students expressing a better understanding of evolution. This has implications for teacher education as it suggests that teacher education programmes in biology should not only focus on conceptual understanding but should focus on improving understanding of the NOS as well as supporting students in understanding how to deal with possible conflicts that may arise in their classrooms.View full textDownload full textKeywordsconceptual change, nature of science, science/religion conflictRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00219266.2011.560171