INTELLIGENT DESIGN AND ALTERNATIVE CONCEPTIONS

The Intelligent Design debate has attracted significant attention in recent years, bringing with it vocal debate between scientists, creationists, and educators. In communities where Intelligent Design is a common perspective, school districts have tried to offer Intelligent Design as an alternative to scientific theories. Allowing Intelligent Design into science classrooms threatens students' understanding of what a scientific theory is, and how scientific theories are developed and tested. Unlike scientific theories, Intelligent Design cannot be tested by experiment nor create new hypotheses. Instead, Intelligent Design supporters generally seek out data that fit pre-determined predictions and/or hypotheses. This discrepancy between scientific theories and Intelligent Design suggests that teaching Intelligent Design may hinder learning in other areas of science.

This study investigates in-service educators' understanding and beliefs about natural phenomena. Specifically, we address the question of whether or not in-service science educators' beliefs in evolution/Intelligent Design impact the entrenchment of alternative conceptions in their students. Teachers may believe in a theistic view of Earth and human creation, a non-belief or misunderstanding of evolution and Earth history, or possibly a dual belief system encompassing the scientific model and theistic belief systems. Investigated conceptions included evolution and Earth history topics, the age of our solar system, the appearance of humans, and the location of continents through time. Initial data suggests a relationship between beliefs and alternative conceptions held by in-service educators and their students.