Edited by Karl S. Rosengren, Sarah K. Brem, E. Margaret Evans and Gale M. Sinatra
A recent poll revealed that one in four Americans believe in both creationism and evolution, while another 41% believe that creationism is true and evolution is false. A minority (only 13%) believe only in evolution. Given the widespread resistance to the idea that humans and other animals have
evolved and given the attention to the ongoing debate of what should be taught in public schools, issues related to the teaching and learning of evolution are quite timely.
Evolution Challenges: Integrating Research and Practice in Teaching and Learning about Evolution goes beyond the
science versus religion dispute to ask why evolution is so often rejected as a legitimate scientific fact, focusing on a wide range of cognitive, socio-cultural, and motivational factors that make concepts such as evolution difficult to grasp. The volume brings together researchers with diverse
backgrounds in cognitive development and education to examine children's and adults' thinking, learning, and motivation, and how aspects of representational and symbolic knowledge influence learning about evolution. The book is organized around three main challenges inherent in teaching and learning
evolutionary concepts: folk theories and conceptual biases, motivational and epistemological biases, and educational aspects in both formal and informal settings.
Commentaries across the three main themes tie the book together thematically, and contributors provide ideas for future
research and methods for improving the manner in which evolutionary concepts are conveyed in the classroom and in informal learning experiences. Evolution Challenges is a unique text that extends far beyond the traditional evolution debate and is an invaluable resource to researchers in cognitive
development, science education and the philosophy of science, science teachers, and exhibit and curriculum developers.
Eugenie C. Scott: Foreword
Section 1: Folk Theories, Conceptual and Perceptual Constraints
1. Susan A. Gelman and Marjorie Rhodes: "Two-thousand Years of Stasis": How Psychological Essentialism Impedes Evolutionary Understanding
2. John D. Coley and Tara M. Muratore: Trees,
Fish, and Other Fictions: Folk Biological Thought and its Implications for Understanding Evolutionary Biology
3. Andrew Shtulman and Prassede Calabi: Cognitive Constraints on the Understanding and Acceptance of Evolution
4. Deborah Kelemen: Teleological Minds: How Natural Intuitions about
Agency and Purpose Influence Learning About Evolution
5. Kefyn M. Catley, Laura R. Novick, and Daniel J. Funk: The Promise and Challenges of Introducing Tree Thinking into Evolution Education
6. Camillia Matuk and David Uttal: Narrative Spaces in the Representation and Understanding of
Evolution
7. Michelene T. H. Chi, Agnieszka Kosminska Kristensen and Rod Roscoe: Misunderstanding Emergent Causal Mechanism in Natural Selection
8. E. Margaret Evans, Karl S. Rosengren, Jonathan D. Lane, and Kristin S. Price: Encountering Counterintuitive Ideas: Building a Developmental
Learning Progression for Evolution
9. Karl S. Rosengren, and E. Margaret Evans: Commentary on Section 1: Constrained Learning: Reframing the Problem of Evolution Understanding and Implications for Science Education
Section IIA: Epistemological Issues
10. Clark A. Chinn and Luke A.
Buckland: Model-Based Instruction: Fostering Change in Evolutionary Conceptions and in Epistemic Practices
11. Michael Andrew Ranney: Why Don't Americans Accept Evolution As Much As People in Peer Nations Do? A Theory (Reinforced Theistic Manifest Destiny) and Some Pertinent Evidence
12.
Ryan D. Tweney: Heuristics and the Counterintuitive in Science and Religion
Section IIB: Implementing Education in Evolution: Formal Education
13. Paul M. Beardsley, Mark V. Bloom, and Sarah B. Wise: Challenges and Opportunities for Teaching and Designing Effective K-12 Evolution
Curricula
14. Craig E. Nelson: Why Don't Undergraduates Really "Get" Evolution? What Can Faculty Do?
15. Sherry A. Southerland and Louis S. Nadelson: An Intentional Approach to Teaching Evolution: Making Students Aware of the Factors Influencing Learning of Microevolution and
Macroevolution
Secttion IIC: Implementing Education in Evolution: Informal Education
16. Judy Diamond and Patrick Kociolek: Pattern and Process: Natural History Museum Exhibits in Evolution
17. Judy Diamond, E. Margaret Evans, and Amy N. Speigel: Walking Whales and Singing
Flies: An Evolution Exhibit and Assessment of its Impact
18. Anna Thanukos and Judy Scotchmoor: Making Connections: Evolution and the Nature and Process of Science
19. Sarah K. Brem and Gale M. Sinatra: Commentary on Section II: Bringing Multipke Levels of Analysis to Bear on Evolution
Teaching and Learning
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Karl S. Rosengren is a Professor of Psychology at Northwestern University. He has published widely in the fields of cognitive and motor development. In his current research he examines cultural influences in the development of causal reasoning and how children acquire different types of
beliefs. He is a fellow of APS. Sarah K. Brem is an Associate Professor in the School of Social and Family Dynamics at Arizona State University. A cognitive scientist, her research focuses on public use and understanding of scientific and technical information. She is the recipient of a National
Science Foundation Early Career Award. E. Margaret Evans is an Associate Research Scientist at the Center for Human Growth and Development at the University of Michigan. Her research, funded by NSF and the Spencer Foundation, focuses on the cognitive and cultural factors influencing the
developmental of scientific and religious concepts. In her current studies she investigates the emergence of developmental learning progressions for evolution as children and their parents encounter museum exhibitions on evolution.
Gale M. Sinatra is a Professor at the Rossier School of
Education at the University of Southern California. She has served as an editor of Educational Psychologist and the Vice President of AERA's Division C, Learning and Instruction. She is a fellow of APA and AERA. Her research focuses on the role of emotions and motivation in reasoning about
socio-scientific issues.
