@article{3058379,
    title = "European first-year university students accept evolution but lack substantial knowledge about it: a standardized European cross-country assessment",
    author = "Kuschmierz, P. and Beniermann, A. and Bergmann, A. and Pinxten, R. and Aivelo, T. and Berniak-Woźny, J. and Bohlin, G. and Bugallo-Rodriguez, A. and Cardia, P. and Cavadas, B.F.B.P. and Cebesoy, U.B. and Cvetković, D.D. and Demarsy, E. and Đorđević, M.S. and Drobniak, S.M. and Dubchak, L. and Dvořáková, R.M. and Fančovičová, J. and Fortin, C. and Futo, M. and Geamănă, N.A. and Gericke, N. and Grasso, D.A. and Lendvai, Á.Z. and Mavrikaki, E. and Meneganzin, A. and Mogias, A. and Möller, A. and Mota, P.G. and Naciri, Y. and Németh, Z. and Ożańska-Ponikwia, K. and Paolucci, S. and Pap, P.L. and Petersson, M. and Pietrzak, B. and Pievani, T. and Pobric, A. and Porozovs, J. and Realdon, G. and Sá-Pinto, X. and Savković, U.B. and Sicard, M. and Sofonea, M.T. and Sorgo, A. and Stermin, A.N. and Tăușan, I. and Torkar, G. and Türkmen, L. and Tutnjević, S. and Uitto, A.E. and Varga, M. and Varga, M. and Vazquez-Ben, L. and Venetis, C. and Viguera, E. and Virtbauer, L.C. and Vutsova, A. and Yruela, I. and Zandveld, J. and Graf, D.",
    journal = "Evolution: Education and Outreach",
    year = "2021",
    volume = "14",
    number = "1",
    publisher = "BioMed Central Ltd.",
    issn = "1936-6426, 1936-6434",
    doi = "10.1186/s12052-021-00158-8",
    abstract = "Background: Investigations of evolution knowledge and acceptance and their relation are central to evolution education research. Ambiguous results in this field of study demonstrate a variety of measuring issues, for instance differently theorized constructs, or a lack of standardized methods, especially for cross-country comparisons. In particular, meaningful comparisons across European countries, with their varying cultural backgrounds and education systems, are rare, often include only few countries, and lack standardization. To address these deficits, we conducted a standardized European survey, on 9200 first-year university students in 26 European countries utilizing a validated, comprehensive questionnaire, the “Evolution Education Questionnaire”, to assess evolution acceptance and knowledge, as well as influencing factors on evolution acceptance. Results: We found that, despite European countries’ different cultural backgrounds and education systems, European first-year university students generally accept evolution. At the same time, they lack substantial knowledge about it, even if they are enrolled in a biology-related study program. Additionally, we developed a multilevel-model that determines religious faith as the main influencing factor in accepting evolution. According to our model, knowledge about evolution and interest in biological topics also increase acceptance of evolution, but to a much lesser extent than religious faith. The effect of age and sex, as well as the country’s affiliation, students’ denomination, and whether or not a student is enrolled in a biology-related university program, is negligible. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that, despite all their differences, most of the European education systems for upper secondary education lead to acceptance of evolution at least in university students. It appears that, at least in this sample, the differences in knowledge between countries reflect neither the extent to which school curricula cover evolutionary biology nor the percentage of biology-related students in the country samples. Future studies should investigate the role of different European school curricula, identify particularly problematic or underrepresented evolutionary concepts in biology education, and analyze the role of religious faith when teaching evolution. © 2021, The Author(s)."
}