Teaching and communicating

Evolution

2009 is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, the father of the concept of evolution, and the 150th anniversary of the publication of “On the Origin of Species”.

Since Darwin and Wallace published their conclusions, the idea of evolution of life is the basis of biological studies. Developments in genetics and molecular biology have brought forth material evidence of evolutionary phenomena, constantly deepening and consolidating explanatory models. However, evaluations of public knowledge of the subject, including samples of high school graduates with scientific diplomas, have revealed great confusion and broad lack of knowledge.

These difficulties are not solely linked to external factors such as religion and ideas related to creationism and “intelligent design”. A number of these problems also originate in the functioning of the scientific community itself. There are still dysfunctions in education, including at the university level, and in communication of these ideas by museums and the media. Researchers writing articles in scientific reviews and organizing exhibits in reputed museums unknowingly include in their presentations traces of finalism and concepts such as Homo sapiens being at the summit of a pyramid of beings! It would seem that the scientific models of evolution have not been fully assimilated.

In teaching programs, including university-level, evolutionary knowledge is presented diversely as an intangible fact, an array of phenomena to be explained, a structuring paradigm etc. The links between traditional genetics, population genetics, genomics, paleontology and molecular biology are not clearly established. Evolutionary arguments either remain very implicit, or underlying, or are taught at the end of a program as a “crowning achievement”! Divergences and disagreements between rival scientific schools of thought regarding explanatory methods help maintain pseudo-scientific vagueness. Historical and epistemological approaches – in which researchers are ill prepared – should be more widely introduced in curricula, so as to analyze distorted reasoning processes and more or less clearly defined opposing concepts.

Furthermore, mentally integrating the idea of evolution is no simple matter, for it requires going beyond the obvious. Teaching evolution is fraught with pitfalls. Unfortunately, secondary and university textbooks and the usual frontal or constructivist approaches are not up to the task of broadly sharing this knowledge. The answer lies in proposing diverse didactical research in biology that can produce tools and resources to train teachers, communicators and researchers.

André Giordan

To know more

Teaching and communicating Evolution. Proposals for innovative approaches and didactic researches

Diaporama (Powerpoint)