Teleology and Evolution Education
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Citation: Evolution: Education and Outreach 2020 13:16
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Teaching natural selection in early elementary classrooms: can a storybook intervention reduce teleological misunderstandings?
Despite the importance of understanding the mechanism of natural selection for both academic success and everyday decision-making, this concept is one of the most challenging to learn in contemporary science. ...
Citation: Evolution: Education and Outreach 2020 13:12 -
The relationship between biological function and teleology: Implications for biology education
This paper explicates the relationship between biological function and teleology by focusing not only on difference but also on conceptual overlap. By doing so, this paper is meant to increase awareness of the...
Citation: Evolution: Education and Outreach 2020 13:11 -
Teleological explanations in evolution classes: video-based analyses of teaching and learning processes across a seventh-grade teaching unit
Students frequently explain evolutionary processes, such as adaptation, in a teleological way. These teleological explanations may involve goal-directedness, purpose, an external designer or the internal needs...
Citation: Evolution: Education and Outreach 2020 13:10 -
The self-regulation of teleological thinking in natural selection learning
Teleology is one of the critical aspects of students’ intuitive concepts about living beings and, specifically, their evolution. This cognitive bias imposes a substantial restriction on the process of learning...
Citation: Evolution: Education and Outreach 2020 13:6 -
Teleology’s long shadow
We describe the ubiquity of teleological language and thinking throughout biology, as a context for understanding how students think about evolution, as well. Examples can be found in molecular biology, physio...
Citation: Evolution: Education and Outreach 2020 13:4 -
Students’ “teleological misconceptions” in evolution education: why the underlying design stance, not teleology per se, is the problem
Teleology, explaining the existence of a feature on the basis of what it does, is usually considered as an obstacle or misconception in evolution education. Researchers often use the adjective “teleological” t...
Citation: Evolution: Education and Outreach 2020 13:1 -
Teleological pitfalls in reading evolutionary trees and ways to avoid them
Despite evolution being the central idea in modern biology, considerable variation exists in its acceptance around the globe, and reports of anti-evolutionist and creationist movements are widespread. Educator...
Citation: Evolution: Education and Outreach 2019 12:20