Teaching evolution as an interdisciplinary science: concepts, theory, and network infrastructure for educational design research

Evolution is an interdisciplinary science. Evolutionary theory is routinely employed across the overlapping domains of the natural, social, and computational sciences, as a high level generalization of processes of change within complex adaptive systems. Despite this interdisciplinary character of evolutionary science, evolution education remains almost exclusively the purview of the biology classroom within general education curricula around the world. This thesis engages conceptual clarification and educational design research to map and explore the educational potential of teaching evolution as the interdisciplinary science that it is. Beginning with a foray into student conceptions of the capacities for and causes of cooperation in chimpanzees and human children, it is argued that research in comparative psychology provides a fertile entry point for engaging the interdisciplinarity of evolutionary sciences. A considered analysis of persistent challenges within traditional approaches to biological evolution education then outlines core conceptual issues and pedagogical strategies for an interdisciplinary approach. This conceptual work supports the exploratory development of two novel directions in evolution education. First, in human evolution, a new toolkit is presented to engage students in causal mapping of the many processes and information streams that have shaped human origins. Second, an interdisciplinary approach to community-based school improvement has been developed that empowers youth to become drivers of valued change within their school community, while challenging them to reflect on the evolutionary theoretical context for such cultural change. Future directions in research are discussed within the context of the OpenEvo learning hub, an online educational innovation and design research lab to drive continued development in this space

Studying Great Apes and Cultural Diversity to Understand the Human Mind

Psychologists want to understand how the human mind is extraordinary among animal minds and where the unique aspects of human minds and behaviors come from. To build scientific understanding of human minds, we must study the wide range of humans across cultures, to know what all humans have in common and which aspects of human minds are diverse. However, this is not enough-studying humans across cultures tells us how humans think and act, not how they are unique among animals. To understand how humans are similar and dierent from other animals, we must study other animals too, especially our close primate relatives, the great apes, who have minds that are similar to ours in many, but not all, ways. So, to understand human minds and behaviors, researchers should study humans and non-humans at a scale that allows us to explore the origins of the similarities and dierences of minds and behaviors across our world today

Studying Great Apes and Cultural Diversity to Understand the Human Mind

Psychologists want to understand how the human mind is extraordinary among animal minds and where the unique aspects of human minds and behaviors come from. To build scientific understanding of human minds, we must study the wide range of humans across cultures, to know what all humans have in common and which aspects of human minds are diverse. However, this is not enough-studying humans across cultures tells us how humans think and act, not how they are unique among animals. To understand how humans are similar and dierent from other animals, we must study other animals too, especially our close primate relatives, the great apes, who have minds that are similar to ours in many, but not all, ways. So, to understand human minds and behaviors, researchers should study humans and non-humans at a scale that allows us to explore the origins of the similarities and dierences of minds and behaviors across our world today

Analysis of differences and commonalities in wildlife hunting across the Africa-Europe South-North gradient

Hunting and its impacts on wildlife are typically studied regionally, with a particular focus on the Global South. Hunting can, however, also undermine rewilding efforts or threaten wildlife in the Global North. Little is known about how hunting manifests under varying socioeconomic and ecological contexts across the Global South and North. Herein, we examined differences and commonalities in hunting characteristics across an exemplary Global South-North gradient approximated by the Human Development Index (HDI) using face-to-face interviews with 114 protected area (PA) managers in 25 African and European countries. Generally, we observed that hunting ranges from the illegal, economically motivated, and unsustainable hunting of herbivores in the South to the legal, socially and ecologically motivated hunting of ungulates within parks and the illegal hunting of mainly predators outside parks in the North. Commonalities across this Africa-Europe South-North gradient included increased conflict-related killings in human-dominated landscapes and decreased illegal hunting with beneficial community conditions, such as mutual trust resulting from community involvement in PA management. Nevertheless, local conditions cannot outweigh the strong effect of the HDI on unsustainable hunting. Our findings highlight regional challenges that require collaborative, integrative efforts in wildlife conservation across actors, while identified commonalities may outline universal mechanisms for achieving this goal.publishedVersio

Causal mapping as a teaching tool for reflecting on causation in human evolution

Developing causal mapping tools for teaching about the role of human behavior as a causal factor in human evolutio

Teaching evolution as an interdisciplinary science

Should we teach evolution as an interdisciplinary science in general education

Developing Teacher Competencies for Teaching Evolution across the Primary School Curriculum: A Design Study of a Pre-Service Teacher Education Module

Numerous studies indicate that evolutionary concepts can and should be taught at the primary school level. However, teaching evolution in primary school is presumably not yet the norm globally. At the same time, the educational potential of evolutionary concepts lies in their applicability to many curriculum topics in the natural and social sciences. Capitalizing on this potential requires broad teacher content knowledge (CK) and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) about the teaching of evolutionary concepts. However, not much is known regarding ways to develop primary teacher CK and PCK during pre-service training. In this article, we present the iterative design, implementation, and mixed methods formative evaluation (based on a design-based research framework) of a pre-service teacher education module. Its aim was to promote the development of pre-service primary school teacher CK, PCK, as well as motivation and confidence for teaching evolution across the primary school curriculum. Results indicate that pre-service teachers can be supported and motivated to teach evolutionary concepts across various themes in the primary school curriculum through a semester long course. Participants were able to develop core aspects of CK and PCK regarding the teaching of evolutionary concepts in primary school. The resulting module design integrates existing collective PCK on teaching evolution at the primary level as well as novel design considerations and teaching approaches that can be integrated into pre-service teacher education programs. However, challenges remain, particularly regarding the integration of evolutionary concepts in mandated curriculum standards such that the educational potential of evolution can be fully capitalized on by teachers

What is fair is not the same everywhere

When people must share things, what does it mean to share fairly? Do all people around the world have the same idea of what is fair or unfair? Are humans born with a feeling about what is fair and unfair, or is it something we learn as we grow up? Scientists study how people from different cultures choose to share things in various situations, and whether people think different ways of sharing are fair or unfair. The article describes an experiment in which scientists studied whether children from different cultures have different ideas about what is fair. These studies are important for understanding how humans are similar and different from each other and from other animals, and they also help us understand how we can work to create a world that is considered fair by everyone

Analysis of differences and commonalities in wildlife hunting across the Africa-Europe South-North gradient

Hunting and its impacts on wildlife are typically studied regionally, with a particular focus on the Global South. Hunting can, however, also undermine rewilding efforts or threaten wildlife in the Global North. Little is known about how hunting manifests under varying socioeconomic and ecological contexts across the Global South and North. Herein, we examined differences and commonalities in hunting characteristics across an exemplary Global South-North gradient approximated by the Human Development Index (HDI) using face-to-face interviews with 114 protected area (PA) managers in 25 African and European countries. Generally, we observed that hunting ranges from the illegal, economically motivated, and unsustainable hunting of herbivores in the South to the legal, socially and ecologically motivated hunting of ungulates within parks and the illegal hunting of mainly predators outside parks in the North. Commonalities across this Africa-Europe South-North gradient included increased conflict-related killings in human-dominated landscapes and decreased illegal hunting with beneficial community conditions, such as mutual trust resulting from community involvement in PA management. Nevertheless, local conditions cannot outweigh the strong effect of the HDI on unsustainable hunting. Our findings highlight regional challenges that require collaborative, integrative efforts in wildlife conservation across actors, while identified commonalities may outline universal mechanisms for achieving this goal

Data Fig 2C.

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