Cross-Curricular Nature of Evolutionary Biology: A Call, Perceptions, and Teaching Approaches

Introduction

Evolutionary Biology is a comprehensive discipline in science that is aimed at explaining the history of life in this planet. Understanding the Theory of Biological Evolution is therefore key to the different branches of Biology and other fields of knowledge. However, there are many authors who have reported difficulties in the teaching-learning processes, among others: Van Dijk & Reydon (2010), Tamayo (2010), González-Galli & Meinardi (2017). Recently, Gefaell et al. (2020) have identified a poor knowledge about the Theory of Evolution through the KEE questionnaire (Knowledge of Evolution Exam; Moore et al., 2009) in undergraduate students belonging to different degrees, including samples from the Bachelor of Biology Degree in Spain, despite the high acceptance of this theory among students as a result of the MATE questionnaire (Measure of Acceptance of the Theory of Evolution; Rutledge & Warden, 1999). Similar results have been reported by Kuschmierz et al. (2021) in a cross-country study at European level. This fact suggests a review of the teaching strategies of Evolutionary Biology from the pre-university levels

In this sense, the acceptance of the Theory of Evolution has also been evaluated in Secondary Education students (Martínez-Hernández et al., 2017) finding a high acceptance in last-course students, with respect to those of previous ones, in schools located in Almería (Spain). In fact, the level of acceptance of the Theory of Evolution in these students was not far from that reported for undergraduate students in Spain (Gefaell et al., 2020) and was higher than that of Biology students from other countries (Turkey: Deniz & Sahin, 2016; United States: Barnes et al., 2019). However, the information regarding the knowledge in Secondary Education students about the Theory of Evolution is less satisfactory, as mentioned before, and even a low understanding of the Theory of Evolution has been also described in Secondary Education teachers (Yates & Marek, 2015 – USA; To et at., 2017 – UK; Hermann et al., 2020 – USA). Acosta-Pérez (2014) reported difficulties in High School students when distinguishing between facts, theories, evidence and results of Biological Evolution. Gallego & Muñoz (2015) also observed a significant percentage of students who showed Lamarckian interpretations of the Theory of Evolution both in Secondary Education and High School.

One of the problems underpinning this situation could lie in a lack of knowledge among teachers about the factors that would improve the students’ understanding about the Theory of Evolution. For instance, the study by Gefaell et al. (2020), mentioned above, suggests a positive impact of the hours dedicated to Evolutionary Biology to understand the Theory of Evolution in undergraduate students. There are also data supporting that teaching Genetics prior to Evolutionary Biology improves the understanding of the latter, but not necessarily its acceptance (Mead et al., 2017). Some time ago, Jensen & Finley (1996) detected a slight improvement in the understanding of the Theory of Evolution after the use of peer problem-solving with a historically enriched curriculum as teaching strategy compared to traditional approaches. Therefore, there are indicators that point to a relevant role of the teaching-learning processes to improve the understanding and acceptance of the Theory of Biological Evolution.