Sá-Pinto, X., Beniermann, A., Børsen, T., Georgiou, M., Jeffries, A., Pessoa, P., Sousa, B., & Zeidler, D.L. (Eds.). (2023). Learning Evolution Through Socioscientific Issues. Aveiro: UA Editora.

LiteratureBase

Learning Evolution Through Socioscientific Issues

Abstract

Evolutionary theory is arguably one of the most important unifying conceptual and theoretical frameworks that subsumes the natural sciences (National Research Council, 2012). It is the model case of an interrelated set of amalgamating observations, inferences, predictions, and retrodictions that hold explanatory power to make sense of our living world. Yet, evolution understanding has been shown to be low in many countries, even for students attending biology related study programs at a university (Kuschmierz et al., 2021). Scientific understanding of evolution is not bounded by geopolitical borders, but it may certainly be impacted by it, for public understanding of science is both facilitated and hindered by a plethora of sociocultural considerations. Sometimes these considerations may range from the innocuous, such as misunderstandings, to the deliberately deceptive, such as reshaping scientific evidence and transmuting it to serve religious or political ends (Jørgensen et al., 2019). Other factors that impinge on public understanding of science in general, or evolutionary theory in particular, require that scientific and science education professional communities look inward on the efficacy of our own teaching practices. In doing so, we may uncover a pedagogical irony– that some of our conventional time-worn traditions of teaching get in the way of students’ understanding (Zeidler et al., 2011).