The following paper was published by three graduate students and myself. This paper was one of the products of an Advanced Topics Course I taught. The course was centered on a Learning Sciences perspective on Evolution and was published in the journal Evolution Education.It centers on the notion that Evolution is the underlying framework upon which all biology is based; however, when it comes to learning evolutionary concepts, many students encounter obstacles. There are many reasons as to why these obstacles occur. These reasons deal with evolution being treated as a discrete topic among many within a biology curriculum, misunderstanding the nature of science, and personal difficulties with understanding due to evolution’s seemingly abstract nature. In this article, we propose a different way of thinking about and teaching evolution in grades K-12, and it surrounds four core areas essential to the understanding of evolution: variation, selection, inheritance, and deep time. Possibilities for how these areas can affect learning are described and implications for assessment are also discussed.
Seeing the Forest for the Trees
Picture: The Spa-- Hudson Street in Hoboken (circa 1975)
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