What now for evolution education?

Knowledge and understanding of evolution is generally poor. Yet evolution is foundational to the science of biology. Here, we review the contributions made by the other chapters in this book and suggest ways forward for the field. The chapters in this book demonstrate that knowledge and understanding of evolution are aided by the sorts of pedagogical approaches that are known to work well in other areas of science education and beyond. In particular, there is evidence that the appropriate use of teaching for metacognition, multimodal approaches, argumentation, inquiry-based science education, reinforcement of learning, context-based learning, models, intercultural dialogic approach and object-based learning can all help promote learning about evolution. To this list we can add that teacher expertise is of great importance. In addition, as the chapters in this book show, there are some reasons for optimism as the biology education community is gradually building up a corpus of knowledge about what works well when teaching specific aspects of evolution. Nevertheless, one of the conclusions of this book is that there is much that still remains to be done in researching evolution education; we know more about the problems learners have in in acquiring a good understanding of evolution that about how to help them so acquire this. While there are an increasing number of research-based interventions in evolution education that are leading to greater conceptual understanding, the curriculum and pedagogical approaches that these interventions draw on are rarely ones that are robustly established. Furthermore, we still lack consensus about the best instruments for measuring cognitive gains and there is a paucity of longitudinal studies. Overall, the field of evolution education, while perhaps no longer in its infancy, still has a long way to go before it matures

An investigation of the impact of haptics for promoting understanding of difficult concepts in cell biology

This paper reports on a study which investigated whether the addition of haptics (virtual touch) to a three-dimensional (3D) virtual reality (VR) simulation promotes learning of key concepts in biology for students aged 12 to 13 years. We developed a virtual model of a section of the cell membrane and a haptic-enabled interface that allows students to interact with the model and to manipulate objects in the model. Students, in two schools in England, worked collaboratively on activities, in pairs, designed to support learning of key difficult concepts. These concepts included the dynamic nature of the cell membrane, passive diffusion and facilitated diffusion. Findings from observation of the activities and student interviews revealed that students were very positive about using the system and believed that being able to feel structures and movements within the model assisted their learning. Results of pre- and post-tests of conceptual knowledge showed significant knowledge gains but there were no significant differences between the haptic and non-haptic condition

What is the role of statistics in integrating STEM education?

Statistics has the potential to facilitate the integration of STEM disciplines. This is possible due to its inclusion in individual STEM curricula and its utility in designing learning experiences using the pedagogical framework, the practice of statistics. Besides this, the fundamental concept of variation, which underpins statistics, is the starting point for meaningful activities in STEM contexts. In this chapter, the introduction of data and the practice of statistics, as appropriate for the school level, is shown to be essential for addressing the shortage of statisticians across STEM fields and the need for a community that is STEM literate. Implementation of learning experiences in an integrated fashion in classrooms, however, has not yet been extensive. Examples of STEM learning experiences, provided in Years 3–5, illustrate the role statistics plays in enabling students to make evidence-based decisions in a variety of disciplines and contexts