Maley Carlo C, Seyedi Sareh
Arizona Cancer Evolution Center, Biodesign Institute and School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, USA.
Evolution (N Y). 2022;15(1):2. doi: 10.1186/s12052-022-00160-8. Epub 2022 Feb 16.
Does asking students to apply concepts from evolution to a fictional context, compared to a novel biological context, improve their understanding, exam performance or enjoyment of the material? Or does it harm their education by taking time away from true biology? At our institution, we sometimes ask students to apply life history theory to species from fictional movies, television shows or books. Previously, we had used a factual article on life history theory, to supplement our textbook. We wrote an alternative introduction to life history theory (included in the additional files for educational use), using Tolkien's fictional species from his Lord of the Rings books. We also introduce the biological species definition, sexual selection, sexual dimorphism, kin selection, and the handicap principle, as those concepts arose naturally in the discussion of the fictional species. Life history theory predicts strong correlations between traits affecting reproduction, growth and survival, which are all shaped by the ecology of the species. Thus, we can teach life history theory by asking students to infer traits and aspects of the ecology of a fictional species that have never been described, based on the partial information included in the fictional sources. In a large, third year undergraduate evolution course at Arizona State University, we randomized 16 tutorial sections of a total of 264 students to either read our article on the life history theory of Lord of the Rings, or the factual article we had used previously in the course. We found that the exam performance on life history questions for the two groups were almost identical, except that fans of The Lord of the Rings who had read our article did better on the exam. Enjoyment, engagement and interest in life history theory was approximately a full point higher on a 5-point Likert scale for the students that had read the fictional article, and was highly statistically significantly different (T-test < 0.001 for all questions). There was no difference between the two groups in their familiarity or enjoyment of The Lord of the Rings stories themselves. Reading the article that taught life history theory by applying it to the species of The Lord of the Rings neither helped nor harmed exam performance, but did significantly improve student enjoyment, engagement and interest in life history theory, and even improved exam scores in students who liked The Lord of the Rings. Using fiction to teach science may also help to engage non-traditional students, such as world-builders, outside of our institutions of education. By encouraging students to apply the scientific ideas to their favorite stories from their own cultures, we may be able to improve both inclusivity and education.
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12052-022-00160-8.
与将进化概念应用于全新的生物学情境相比，要求学生将进化概念应用于虚构情境，是否能提高他们对相关内容的理解、考试成绩或学习兴趣？还是说这会因占用学习真正生物学知识的时间而对他们的教育造成损害？在我们学校，我们有时会要求学生将生活史理论应用于虚构电影、电视剧或书籍中的物种。此前，我们曾使用一篇关于生活史理论的事实性文章来补充教材。我们用托尔金《指环王》系列书籍中的虚构物种，撰写了一篇生活史理论的替代介绍（包含在教育用途的附加文件中）。我们还引入了生物物种的定义、性选择、两性异形、亲缘选择和不利条件原理，因为这些概念在对虚构物种的讨论中自然出现。生活史理论预测，影响繁殖、生长和生存的性状之间存在强相关性，而这些性状均由物种的生态环境塑造。因此，我们可以通过要求学生根据虚构资料中包含的部分信息，推断从未被描述过的虚构物种的性状和生态环境方面的内容，来教授生活史理论。在亚利桑那州立大学的一门大三本科进化课程中，我们将总共264名学生的16个辅导小组随机分为两组，一组阅读我们关于《指环王》生活史理论的文章，另一组阅读我们此前在课程中使用的事实性文章。我们发现，两组学生在生活史问题上的考试成绩几乎相同，只是读过我们文章的《指环王》粉丝在考试中表现更好。对于阅读了虚构文章的学生，他们对生活史理论的喜爱程度、参与度和兴趣在5分量表上大约高出整整一分，且在统计学上有高度显著差异（所有问题的T检验 < 0.001）。两组学生对《指环王》故事本身的熟悉程度或喜爱程度没有差异。阅读将生活史理论应用于《指环王》物种的文章，对考试成绩既没有帮助也没有损害，但显著提高了学生对生活史理论的喜爱程度、参与度和兴趣，甚至提高了喜欢《指环王》的学生的考试成绩。利用虚构作品来教授科学，可能还有助于吸引教育机构之外的非传统学生，比如世界构建者。通过鼓励学生将科学思想应用于他们自己文化中最喜欢的故事，我们或许能够提高包容性和教育水平。
在线版本包含可在10.1186/s12052 - 022 - 00160 - 8获取的补充材料。
