Tolman Ethan R, Ferguson Daniel G, Hubble Gabriella, Kaloi Mahealani, Niu Megan, Jensen Jamie L
Department of Plant and Wildlife Sciences, Brigham Young University, 4125 LSB, Provo, UT 84602 USA.
Department of Biology, Brigham Young University, 4102 LSB, Provo, UT 84602 USA.
Evolution (N Y). 2021;14(1):12. doi: 10.1186/s12052-021-00151-1. Epub 2021 Aug 13.
Although progress has been made in evolution education, many educators face significant barriers in their efforts to teach evolution specifically, and science in general. The purpose of this study was to identify faculty-perceived barriers to teaching evolution, specifically in religiously affiliated institutions or institutions with a highly religious student body, as well as resources faculty feel would help promote discourse around faith, evolution and science. To do this, we held a workshop with teams consisting of a science professor, a theologian and a pastor (of the predominant on-campus faith tradition) from 17 different institutions of higher education with highly religious student bodies for the purpose of helping them to create a curriculum to address perceived conflicts between science and faith. During the workshop, participants created posters identifying barriers they face and resources they perceive as helpful. These posters were analyzed for prevalent themes and framed within an ecological model of behavior.
These teams identified prevalent barriers at each level of the ecological model. Intrapersonal factors included a fear of rocking the boat and a fear of student conflict. Interpersonal factors included perceived student lack of knowledge, student ideology, and student apathy. Institutional factors included work politics, a lack of relevant discourse surrounding the conflict, and mixed messaging to students. Community factors included social norms associated with various student demographics. And public policy factors included local and state government attempts to limit the teaching of evolution. Additionally, participants identified resources that they felt would facilitate overcoming conflict including colleagues as change agents, various assets, and tools to negate conflict.
We determined that many of the concerns are addressable, and many resources are attainable. We urge the community to work toward these solutions. Additionally, we compare our findings to what the literature has shown and discuss the implications of faculty perceptions as compared to the published literature.
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12052-021-00151-1.
尽管在进化教育方面已取得进展，但许多教育工作者在专门教授进化论以及总体上教授科学时面临重大障碍。本研究的目的是确定教师所感知到的教授进化论的障碍，特别是在宗教附属机构或学生宗教氛围浓厚的机构中，以及教师认为有助于促进围绕信仰、进化和科学展开讨论的资源。为此，我们与来自17所不同高等教育机构（学生宗教氛围浓厚）的团队举办了一个研讨会，每个团队由一位科学教授、一位神学家和一位（校园内占主导地位的宗教传统的）牧师组成，目的是帮助他们创建一门课程，以解决所感知到的科学与信仰之间的冲突。在研讨会上，参与者制作了海报，列出他们面临的障碍以及他们认为有帮助的资源。对这些海报进行了分析，以找出普遍存在的主题，并将其置于行为生态模型中进行阐述。
这些团队在生态模型的每个层面都确定了普遍存在的障碍。个人层面的因素包括害怕惹是生非和害怕与学生发生冲突。人际层面的因素包括学生知识欠缺、学生意识形态以及学生冷漠。机构层面的因素包括工作中的政治因素、缺乏围绕冲突的相关讨论以及向学生传递的信息不一致。社区层面的因素包括与不同学生群体相关的社会规范。而公共政策层面的因素包括地方和州政府试图限制进化论的教学。此外，参与者还确定了他们认为有助于克服冲突的资源，包括作为变革推动者的同事、各种资产以及消除冲突的工具。
我们确定许多担忧是可以解决的，许多资源是可以获得的。我们敦促各界朝着这些解决方案努力。此外，我们将我们的研究结果与文献所示内容进行比较，并讨论教师认知与已发表文献相比的意义。
在线版本包含可在10.1186/s12052-021-00151-1获取的补充材料。
