Evolution is controversial among students and religiosity, religious affiliation, understanding of evolution, and demographics are predictors of evolution acceptance. However, quantitative research has not explored the unique impact of student perceived conflict between their religion and evolution as a major factor influencing evolution…

The purpose of this study was to explore science content used during college students' negotiation of biology-based socioscientific issues (SSI) and examine how it related to students' conceptual understanding and acceptance of biological evolution. The Socioscientific Issues Questionnaire (SSI-Q) was developed to measure depth of evolutionary…

Despite the importance of the theory of evolution (TE) to scientific knowledge, a number of misconceptions continue to be found among biology teachers. In this context, the first objective of this study was to identify the impact of professional development programme (PDP) on teachers' understanding of nature of science (NOS) and evolution and on…

Certain scientific conclusions are controversial, in that they are rejected by a substantial proportion of nonscientists despite an overwhelming scientific consensus. Science educators are motivated to help students understand the evidence behind the scientific consensus on these matters and to move students' views into alignment with those held…

Evolution is the cornerstone of biological sciences, but anti-evolution teaching has become a global controversy since the introduction of evolutionary ideas into the United States high school science curricula in 1914. It is suggested that teachers' attitude toward and acceptance of the theory of evolution will influence their effect of teaching…

In this study, we make an effort to compare studies that explore the factors related to acceptance of evolutionary theory among Greek and Turkish students-future teachers, using conceptual ecology for biological evolution as the theoretical framework. We aimed to look into the acceptance and the understanding of evolutionary theory and also to…

Graduate-level reading groups serve as a primary forum for students to learn current and complex concepts in their field. Because graduate students lament that reading "abnormally long" articles discourage them from attending particular reading group sessions, we tested the hypothesis that attendance will decrease proportionally with…

To develop a more scientifically literate society, students need to understand the nature of science, which may be affected by controversial topics such as evolution. There are conflicting views among researchers concerning the relationships between understanding evolution, acceptance of evolution, and understanding of the nature of science. Four…

In this study, we explored some of the factors related to the acceptance of evolution theory among Greek university students training to be teachers in early childhood education, using conceptual ecology for biological evolution as a theoretical framework. We examined the acceptance of evolution theory and we also looked into the relationship…

The purpose of this study was to explore the evolution science content used during college students' negotiation of biology-based socioscientific issues (SSI) and examine how it related to students' conceptual understanding and acceptance of biological evolution. Specific research questions were, (1a) what specific evolutionary science content do…

In this study, using multiple regression analysis, we aimed to explore the factors related to acceptance of evolutionary theory among preservice Turkish biology teachers using conceptual ecology for biological evolution as a theoretical lens. We aimed to determine the extent to which we can account for the variance in acceptance of evolutionary…

Ability of five cognitive characteristics to predict students' (N=96) achievement of evolution and natural selection concepts was measured. Results, among others, indicate that disembedding ability, prior knowledge, and evolutionary belief were significantly related to achievement while developmental level and mental capacity were not. (JN)