Developing a cross-curricular session about evolution for initial teacher education: findings from a small-scale study with pre-service primary school teachers

The study reported here is part of a larger project which began when it was announced that the science curriculum for primary schools in England would include the teaching of evolution. Evolution is widely seen by teachers and pre-service teachers as an area of science that is challenging to teach; one of the reasons often given is a concern that the science may conflict with some children’s religious beliefs. Teacher education courses were provided for pre-service primary school teachers to address the teaching of science and also RE (religious education). The motivation for the current study was to discover how, if at all, pre-service primary teachers changed their planned approaches to teaching evolution as a result of a cross-curricular seminar session that explored issues and questions that are frequently raised by school students and teachers as areas of concern. In particular, we looked for changes in pre-service teachers’ attitudes to teaching about evolution, their planned approach to teaching evolution, subject knowledge of science and perception of the relationship between religion and the nature of science before and after participating in the workshop. The data indicated that the experience of taking part in a cross-curricular session informed participants’ own understanding of evolution and of how science and religion relate and prompted this cohort to consider using this strategy as part of their own teaching

Controversial Before Entering My Classroom: Exploring Pre-Service Teacher Experiences with Evolution Teaching and Learning in the Southeastern United States

Evolution continues to be a polarizing topic amongst the public as well as in K-12 and post-secondary classrooms. One issue that contributes to the polarization is the absence of accurate and meaningful instruction on evolution. The divide is especially pronounced in regions such as “The South”—Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Tennessee—where cultural underpinnings strongly align against scientific topics dealing with human origins and change. Research shows that acceptance or rejection of evolution provides a reference for teachers’ choice whether to teach controversial topics such as evolution as well as the depth, breadth and duration of instruction. In this chapter we take a deeper look at the lived experiences of pre-service science teachers at a teaching college in the Southeastern United States in an effort to frame a context within the region by which later choices regarding teaching are made. Furthermore, we provide suggestions for improvements to teaching and learning that have implications beyond this critical region. Although public controversy surrounding evolution is widely regarded as being defining of the United States, the implications of studies here have translational value to teaching and learning evolution around the world