Legare Cristine H, Opfer John E, Busch Justin T A, Shtulman Andrew
The University of Texas at Austin, United States.
The Ohio State University, United States.
Evol Hum Behav. 2018 May;39(3):257-268. doi: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2018.01.002. Epub 2018 Jan 31.
The theory of evolution by natural selection has begun to revolutionize our understanding of perception, cognition, language, social behavior, and cultural practices. Despite the centrality of evolutionary theory to the social sciences, many students, teachers, and even scientists struggle to understand how natural selection works. Our goal is to provide a field guide for social scientists on teaching evolution, based on research in cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, and education. We synthesize what is known about the psychological obstacles to understanding evolution, methods for assessing evolution understanding, and pedagogical strategies for improving evolution understanding. We review what is known about teaching evolution about nonhuman species and then explore implications of these findings for the teaching of evolution about humans. By leveraging our knowledge of how to teach evolution in general, we hope to motivate and equip social scientists to begin teaching evolution in the context of their own field.
自然选择的进化论已开始彻底改变我们对感知、认知、语言、社会行为和文化习俗的理解。尽管进化理论在社会科学中占据核心地位，但许多学生、教师甚至科学家都难以理解自然选择是如何起作用的。我们的目标是基于认知心理学、发展心理学和教育学的研究，为社会科学家提供一份关于进化教学的实地指南。我们综合了关于理解进化的心理障碍、评估进化理解的方法以及提高进化理解的教学策略的已知信息。我们回顾了关于非人类物种进化教学的已知内容，然后探讨这些发现对人类进化教学的启示。通过利用我们对一般进化教学方法的了解，我们希望激励并帮助社会科学家在他们自己的领域中开始教授进化知识。
