The authors wanted to improve student learning of evolutionary concepts by integrating content across the biology major. In this article they describe the process used to develop support among members of the department and administration to implement and measure the outcomes of curricular reforms.

The variety of explanations to questions about the origin of life, life after death or about the role itself of being in the world are built on the rational reflection that integrates the ideology of human beings as well as less rational practices and more emotional ones than in the whole nourish what has been called "beliefs".…

EvoluZion is a forward-in-time genetic simulator developed in Java and designed to perform real time simulations on the evolutionary history of virtual organisms. These model organisms harbour a set of 13 genes that codify an equal number of phenotypic features. These genes change randomly during replication, and mutant genes can have null,…

Despite scientific evidence suggesting close phylogenetic relationship between chimpanzees and humans, the inclusion of these apes in the genus "Homo" is controversial. Several tools have been used to analyse this issue such as fossils, molecular clock and genome. This work intended to understand the biology teachers' conceptions about…

Science and religion are two indisputably profound and durable cultural forces with a complex history of interaction. As ASTE members are aware, these interactions often manifest themselves in classrooms and in the surrounding communities. In this essay, we encourage science teacher educators to broaden their perspectives of science-religion…

A qualitative investigation into American Muslim undergraduates' views on evolution revealed three main positions on evolution: theistic evolution, a belief in special creation of all species, and a belief in special creation of humans with evolution for all non-human species. One can conceive of the manner in which respondents chose their…

This study examined the acceptance of evolutionary theory among Chinese preservice biology teachers. We explored the nature of relationship between acceptance of evolutionary theory and potential predictors of acceptance such as understanding of evolutionary theory, mother's education level, thinking dispositions, religious orientation, and years…

In this paper a multi-level theoretical and methodological framework for educational neuroscience is presented. The framework incorporates levels of explanation and methodologies both from education and brain sciences. The purpose is to initiate a discussion on the major goals of educational neuroscience as a field, discuss which approaches can…

Evolution and ecology are essential to an understanding of biology, but questions remain as to when and how young children can learn about these concepts. The concept of adaptation represents an opportunity for children to engage with these ideas, and this article presents several lessons used to teach adaptation to children aged three through six…

Experiential learning provides students the time and space to participate in the process of learning by engaging in real, modern situations. Via hands on activities and reflection, students are able to assimilate new experiences with previous ones, and it has been repeatedly shown to improve student learning. We assessed how ten days of…

Two-stage exams have gained traction in education as a means of creating collaborative active-learning experiences in the classroom in a manner that advances learning, positively increases student engagement, and reduces test anxiety. Published analyses have focused almost exclusively on the increase in student scores from the first individual…

Given the centrality of evolutionary theory to the study of biology, we present a strategy for reinforcing its importance by appropriately recontextualizing classic and well-known experiments that are not explicitly linked with evolution in conventional texts. This exercise gives students an appreciation of the applicability of the theory of…

Evolutionary theory is central to the biological sciences, and to critical aspects of everyday life, and yet a significant proportion of Americans reject evolution. Our study sets out to examine the role of a second year college general education course in affecting students' acceptance of evolution. We report three years of data using the Measure…

This study explores the concept of link-making in relation to communicative strategies applied in the teaching and studying of biological evolution. The analysis focused on video recordings of 11 lessons on biological evolution conducted in a Swedish 9th grade class of students aged 15 years. It reveals how the teacher and students connected…

A qualitative research focused on a case study aiming to monitor emergent knowledge in a discourse group by tracking the development of the concept "goal." The analysis, based on "Semiotic Evolution" methodology facilitates the description of interactions between personal perceptions in the group discourse, illustrating the…