Projet de recherche
(FNS)
PI: Kostas Kampourakis
There exist very few studies on the acceptance and understanding of evolutionary theory in Switzerland. On the one hand, there are official polls about people’s religious beliefs, which show that about 60% of people in Switzerland consider evolutionary theory as the most coherent explanation for the origin of humans - which entails that about 40% do not. On the other hand, there exist a few short-scale studies with school students and 1st year undergraduates that show that many among them have misconceptions about evolution. In most cases, the knowledge that school students and 1st year undergraduates have about evolutionary theory is expected to likely be due to schooling. As teachers are a central agent in the process of teaching and learning in schools, and as a recent large scale study of teachers’ acceptance of evolutionary theory in Switzerland has documented issues, we consider important to investigate teachers' conceptualizations - in particular, their construal of key evolution concepts.
