Exploring the Social, Moral, and Temporal Qualities of Pre-Service Teachers' Narratives of Evolution
Deirdre Hahn, Sarah K Brem, Steven Semken 2005 Journal of Geoscience Education v. 53, no. 4, p. 456-461.
This study, published in the Journal of Geoscience Education, presents the idea that addressing personal barriers and misunderstandings that might impede geoscience education may become an effective tool for teaching scientific principles. Many factors may contribute to teachers' discomfort when teaching evolution, including personal conceptualizations of the evolutionary process - especially human evolution, the most controversial aspect of evolutionary theory. Knowing more about the mental representations of an evolutionary process could help researchers to understand the challenges educators face in addressing scientific principles. These insights could inform educators of alternative methods in providing support and assistance. In this study, the authors examined pre-service teachers' conceptual representations of an evolutionary process through their personal narratives of evolution for an imaginary humanoid species on a far-off planet. The connection among social and moral issues, evolution, and difficulties envisioning the future may provide important clues into pre-service teachers' conceptualizations of human evolution.
