Teaching biological adaptation: a meta-analysis from science didactics

Abstract

The phenomenon of biological adaptation is present in the science curriculum at different educational levels, being critically analyzed by didactic researchers. This article introduces a systematic review of 15 articles about a set of key ideas related to the teaching of the phenomenon in question, aimed to determine aspects involved in the epistemological obstacles reported in the literature; identifying some teleological implications related to the construction of explanations about the phenomenon of adaptation, based on three categories called: representational analysis, cognitive biases and didactic approach. It has been determined that the epistemological obstacles reported in the literature regarding the phenomenon of biological adaptation are strongly linked to teleology. To address this situation, the field of biology education proposes designing and implementing teaching proposals that provide evidence against inadequate teleological assumptions.