CORE
🇺🇦
make metadata, not war
Services
Services overview
Explore all CORE services
Access to raw data
API
Dataset
FastSync
Content discovery
Recommender
Discovery
OAI identifiers
OAI Resolver
Managing content
Dashboard
Bespoke contracts
Consultancy services
Support us
Support us
Membership
Sponsorship
Community governance
Advisory Board
Board of supporters
Research network
About
About us
Our mission
Team
Blog
FAQs
Contact us
European first-year university students accept evolution but lack substantial knowledge about it: a standardized European cross-country assessment
Authors
P. Kuschmierz Beniermann, A. Bergmann, A. Pinxten, R. Aivelo, T. Berniak-Woźny, J. Bohlin, G. Bugallo-Rodriguez, A. Cardia, P. Cavadas, B.F.B.P. Cebesoy, U.B. Cvetković, D.D. Demarsy, E. Đorđević, M.S. Drobniak, S.M. Dubchak, L. Dvořáková, R.M. Fančovičová, J. Fortin, C. Futo, M. Geamănă, N.A. Gericke, N. Grasso, D.A. Lendvai, Á.Z. Mavrikaki, E. Meneganzin, A. Mogias, A. Möller, A. Mota, P.G. Naciri, Y. Németh, Z. Ożańska-Ponikwia, K. Paolucci, S. Pap, P.L. Petersson, M. Pietrzak, B. Pievani, T. Pobric, A. Porozovs, J. Realdon, G. Sá-Pinto, X. Savković, U.B. Sicard, M. Sofonea, M.T. Sorgo, A. Stermin, A.N. Tăușan, I. Torkar, G. Türkmen, L. Tutnjević, S. Uitto, A.E. Varga, M. Varga, M. Vazquez-Ben, L. Venetis, C. Viguera, E. Virtbauer, L.C. Vutsova, A. Yruela, I. Zandveld, J. Graf, D.
Publication date
1 January 2021
Publisher
Abstract
Background: Investigations of evolution knowledge and acceptance and their relation are central to evolution education research. Ambiguous results in this field of study demonstrate a variety of measuring issues, for instance differently theorized constructs, or a lack of standardized methods, especially for cross-country comparisons. In particular, meaningful comparisons across European countries, with their varying cultural backgrounds and education systems, are rare, often include only few countries, and lack standardization. To address these deficits, we conducted a standardized European survey, on 9200 first-year university students in 26 European countries utilizing a validated, comprehensive questionnaire, the “Evolution Education Questionnaire”, to assess evolution acceptance and knowledge, as well as influencing factors on evolution acceptance. Results: We found that, despite European countries’ different cultural backgrounds and education systems, European first-year university students generally accept evolution. At the same time, they lack substantial knowledge about it, even if they are enrolled in a biology-related study program. Additionally, we developed a multilevel-model that determines religious faith as the main influencing factor in accepting evolution. According to our model, knowledge about evolution and interest in biological topics also increase acceptance of evolution, but to a much lesser extent than religious faith. The effect of age and sex, as well as the country’s affiliation, students’ denomination, and whether or not a student is enrolled in a biology-related university program, is negligible. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that, despite all their differences, most of the European education systems for upper secondary education lead to acceptance of evolution at least in university students. It appears that, at least in this sample, the differences in knowledge between countries reflect neither the extent to which school curricula cover evolutionary biology nor the percentage of biology-related students in the country samples. Future studies should investigate the role of different European school curricula, identify particularly problematic or underrepresented evolutionary concepts in biology education, and analyze the role of religious faith when teaching evolution. © 2021, The Author(s)
Similar works
Full text
Available Versions
Pergamos : Unified Institutional Repository / Digital Library Platform of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
See this paper in CORE
Go to the repository landing page
Download from data provider
oai:lib.uoa.gr:uoadl:3058379
Last time updated on 10/02/2023