Evolution is foundational to biology but is controversial for many undergraduate students. Although evolution and religion are potentially compatible, students' perceived conflict between their religious beliefs and evolution can negatively affect their acceptance of evolution. In a previous study, we found that illustrating the potential compatibility of religion and evolution decreased the number of students who perceived a conflict between religion and evolution by 53 percent. However, in the previous study, the instruction on the potential compatibility of religion and evolution took a significant amount of instructional time, which could be a barrier for implementation. In this current study, we condensed the instruction illustrating the potential compatibility of religion and evolution to six minutes. By conducting qualitative analyses on data gathered from ten students who perceived a conflict before the evolution module, we found that eight of these students reduced their level of perceived conflict after the evolution module. We identified eight distinct aspects of the evolution instruction that students stated reduced their perceived conflict, including that the instructor did not force student acceptance of evolution, the instructor was respectful of students with multiple viewpoints on evolution, and students experienced a greater exposure to evolution content.
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February 2018
Research Article|
February 01 2018
Can Six Minutes of Culturally Competent Evolution Education Reduce Students' Level of Perceived Conflict Between Evolution and Religion?
Jasmine M. Truong,
Jasmine M. Truong
4Jasmine Truong is an undergraduate researcher in the Biology Education Research Lab at Arizona State University, AZ; email: jmtruong@asu.edu.
5contributed equally to this work
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M. Elizabeth Barnes,
M. Elizabeth Barnes
2Elizabeth Barnes is a doctoral candidate in the Biology Education Research Lab at Arizona State University, AZ; email: liz.barnes@asu.edu.
3contributed equally to this work
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Sara E. Brownell
Sara E. Brownell
1Sara Brownell is an Assistant Professor in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University, AZ; email: sara.brownell@asu.edu.
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The American Biology Teacher (2018) 80 (2): 106–115.
Citation
Jasmine M. Truong, M. Elizabeth Barnes, Sara E. Brownell; Can Six Minutes of Culturally Competent Evolution Education Reduce Students' Level of Perceived Conflict Between Evolution and Religion?. The American Biology Teacher 1 February 2018; 80 (2): 106–115. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/abt.2018.80.2.106
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