Pre-service biology teachers' acceptance of evolutionary theory and their preference for its teaching

Abstract

Background: Fostering pre-service teachers' acceptance of evolutionary theory and their preference for its teaching implies knowledge of the factors which influence both constructs. This study aims to explore how cognitive (knowledge of evolution), affective (attitude towards religion and science, scientism, and creationism), and contextual factors (age, gender, parents' educational qualification, semester, teacher education program) are related to acceptance and preference. Furthermore, the study aims at exploring the relationship between acceptance and preference. Methods: A total of 180 German pre-service biology teachers participated in the study. Results: Our regression analysis reveals that the acceptance of evolutionary theory is significantly related to creationism, the attitude towards science, the knowledge of evolution, gender, and the pre-service teachers' semester. Furthermore, the regression analysis shows that a preference for teaching evolution is significantly related to creationism, the knowledge of evolution, and also gender. Interestingly, after controlling for these variables, the attitude towards religion is not significantly related to either the acceptance of evolutionary theory or the preference for teaching evolution. Finally, the regression analysis shows that acceptance and preference are weakly, but significantly related. Conclusions: For teacher education, these results point out that religiosity should not be considered a barrier to acceptance and preference in principle. Moreover, fostering a profound knowledge of evolution could be one way to improve teaching practices.