The role of religiosity in the acceptance of Evolution

Postgraduate Thesis uoadl:2419834 626 Read counter

Unit:
Κατεύθυνση Διδακτική της Βιολογίας
Library of the School of Science
Deposit date:
2017-12-20
Year:
2017
Author:
Mantelas Nikolaos
Supervisors info:
Ευαγγελία Μαυρικάκη, Αναπληρώτρια Καθηγήτρια, Παιδαγωγικό Τμήμα Δημοτικής Εκπαίδευσης, ΕΚΠΑ
Κυριάκος Αθανασίου, Καθηγητής, ΤΕΑΠΗ, ΕΚΠΑ
Ισιδώρα Παπασιδέρη, Καθηγήτρια, Τμήμα Βιολογίας, ΕΚΠΑ
Original Title:
Ο ρόλος της θρησκευτικότητας στην αποδοχή της Εξέλιξης
Languages:
English
Greek
Translated title:
The role of religiosity in the acceptance of Evolution
Summary:
In the present study, we explore the role of religiosity in the acceptance of evolution. The theory of evolution is the central unifying theory of biology. From this point of view, its teaching is considered particularly important in the secondary education, and also the understanding and acceptance of the theory by both students and teachers. Scientific factors, such as knowledge of evolution and evidence for it, understanding of the Nature of Science etc., and non-scientific factors, such as social, emotional, demographic factors, and religious factors, have a significant impact on the acceptance of evolution in students. Religion in particular is emerging as one of the factors that, based on the literature, negatively affects the acceptance of evolution.
In our study, we examine the acceptance of evolution in a country with strong religiosity, such as Greece, where the teaching of evolution for years has been downgraded from secondary education. The main research objective of the work was to investigate the relationship between acceptance of evolution and religiosity, as well as exploring issues such as differences in the acceptance of evolution between students who have attended and have not attended a course focused on evolution, between students who have passed and have not pass the lesson, between biology students of different institutions but also between students of the two sexes (men and women).
The research was a quantitative research with a questionnaire, to students of Biology departments in Greece (n = 603). The reason we chose this particular population was that a significant proportion of future secondary school teachers who will teach evolutionary theory in schools, comes from this population. The questionnaire was shaped by the composition of the MATE scale for exploring the acceptance of evolution, the CRS scale and five questions from the survey questionnaire by Katakos et al. (2011) to investigate the level of religiosity. The way of collecting the questionnaires included both the on-site gathering of questionnaires for the case of the students of the Department of Biology of the National University of Athens and the collection of questionnaires online using an electronic platform for all departments all over Greece. The characteristics of the sample (sex, semester, institution, etc.) are described in detail in tables.
The results indicate that: a) Biology students have a high acceptance of evolution, b) religion has a significant negative correlation with the acceptance of evolution, c) students who have attended a course focused on evolution have higher acceptance than students who have not, d) the students who have passed the exam course have higher acceptance than the students who have not passed it, e) the students of the different Departments of Biology do not show statistically significant differences in terms of acceptance of evolution, f) men have higher acceptance of progression than women.
The main conclusions of the research are summarized as follows: The acceptance of evolution is significantly negatively affected by religiosity. Biology students in Greece have higher acceptance than students from other countries and other departments of the country's Higher Education Institutions. The teaching of evolution within the curriculum of the Departments of Biology contributes positively and contributes to increasing the acceptance of evolution. Respectively, it seems that students who come in better contact with the content of evolutionary theory and with the knowledge of the object of the course, resulting in successful examinations, have a higher acceptance than those who have not passed the lesson of evolution.
Main subject category:
Science
Keywords:
theory of Evolution, acceptance of Evolution, religiosity, biology students
Index:
No
Number of index pages:
0
Contains images:
Yes
Number of references:
136
Number of pages:
115
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