Anyone had any experience with the challenges and problems of teaching evolution in schools?
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.As I said in an earlier response to another post, I was teaching biology in a central Florida high school. My principal asked me not to teach evolution. My response was I di not have the right to withhold valid scientific information and sound ideas based on scientific evidence. He was not happy, but shrugged his shoulders and said, "it's you ass."
I went ahead and taught a unit on evolution, and had no complaints from the students or their parents. I think is was because I had the respect and trust of the students.
wordywalt
Level 9
Nov 22, 2019
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I haven't but my colleague has. It wasnt the students moreso the parents. The parents were concerned about what would be said and how the student would be influenced. The reply I offered was to share the state website of the Evolution learning standard and its requirement for graduation. Any further questions or concerns should be directed to the state department of education because "teachers" do not "make up" the information we teach. We are held by contract to teach what the state directs us to teach. How it is taught is at teacher discretion but must align to the state's expectations.
PeacefulChaos
Level 5
Sep 2, 2019
0
Do the state's expectations vary significantly from state to state?
I would suggest that one of the most common misconceptions of evolution is that is has a direction, that is, that natural selection pushes us towards progress or greater sophistication.
Heraclitus
Level 8
June 15, 2018
0
Yes agree but surely it is an unknown and unpredictable direction.
Indeed … far too often the discussion on evolution is too narrowly focused on Homo sapiens vs the rest. Somehow this discourse seems to imply that humans are the pinnacle, but might be a consequence of humans being the only species having these discussions. Ants or sea urchins might have different priorities in life. I do not often reflect upon the future expression of evolution. The term certainly implies the concept of progress and refinement. Perhaps it ought to be redefined to more broadly reflect the nature of a process that continues without placing value.
For me the dilemma of the term lies in the fact that it was coined from within human experience and only 140 years ago.
As a physical science teacher, I've not had to deal with this issue, but as a science educator faculty member in teacher education programs, I don't avoid the issue in my science methods courses. I've made it a point to discuss the issue and the correct perspective (that will probably get a comment) for dealing with it. Any biology teacher who does not teach evolution the way it has been supported scientifically should not be allowed to teach biology, simple as that. I remember when I was on the faculty at the University of Alabama and the state passed a law to stamp something along the lines of "evolution is just a theory" inside all of the biology textbooks used in the public schools. That was an excellent example for discussion of the issue and of how important it is to understand what science is.
wdwyer
Level 5
June 9, 2018
2
Wasn't this law very misleading? Scientific theories are not "theories' in the popular sense that they are not supported by evidence or facts. Imagine a law requiring gravity or electromagnetism or thermodynamics is to be taught as "just a theory."
Exactly. But it satisfied the religious right who wouldn't know evidence is it smacked them in the gob. My motto is, "If you want to teach creationism in the classroom, I'll come to your church and preach evolution."
@Heraclitus Theories are Theories wether they are popular or not. It is a stage in the scientific processes between hypothesis and law which explains the connections between reproducible facts. A law is more definite and is more difficult to think up exceptions for but they do happen and so the word theory applies whilst exceptions are being explored. In some cases it hangs around for a long time. "Just a theory" is a put down as it is a natural stage in the progression.
@Mcflewster Not what I meant at all. I wasn't referring to whether on not a scientific theory is popular, but rather how "theory" is meant in popular parlance. I find that most people nowadays have not been schooled in Karl Popper's philosophy of science and will discount evolution as "just a theory" the same way they would dismiss a conspiracy theory. They say they will not "believe" in evolution until it becomes a fact. If I ask them if they will also refuse to believe in gravity until the Theory of Gravity becomes a fact, they just give me a blank look because they never thought of that, let alone understood what a scientific theory actually is. (Note that wdwter above knew exactly what I meant.)
@Heraclitus Exactly, the use of "theory" in everyday parlance is a very loosely defined term. In science, like most terms, it has a very specific meaning and requires scientific evidence. If any evidence turns up that counters a scientific theory, that theory needs to be trashed or modified to account for the new evidence. The religious idiotards don't get it. "Believing" has not meaning in science. I don't believe in anything and tell people that all the time. I don't care how they interpret it.
The most dangerous misuse of a soundbite regarding evolution is " Evolution is the survival of the fittest ". It should always be replaced with "Evolution is the survival of the most adaptable".
Mcflewster
Level 8
June 8, 2018
1
Good point! I read a question the other day in which someone seemed to get the word "fittest" mixed up with "intelligent".
No it should be, "best fitted" most adaptable implies that adaption has purpose and is itself intended, evolution has no foresight.
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