COMBATING CULTURAL-BASED NONSCIENTIFIC ATTITUDES AND BIASES TOWARDS EVOLUTIONARY THEORY IN INTRODUCTORY COLLEGE SCIENCE COURSES

Teaching of biologic evolution in the public school system in the U.S. is currently under serious attack from the intelligent design movement. A movement that is taking advantage of the scientific illiteracy of the general public to emplace a faith-based, nonscientific alternative to evolutionary theory into the public school science classroom. This is really a social, cultural, and political attack rather than one that has any scientific merit. It is a “stealth” attempt to undermine real scientific inquiry and emplace the old-fashioned creationistic view into the public school science classroom. This movement is also becoming ever more evident in college and university introductory science classrooms.

During the summer and fall 2005 and spring 2006 semesters at West Virginia University at Parkersburg, a science attitudes survey was administered to 206 students in physical science, earth science, physical geology, astronomy, and some sections of introductory biology. Over 50% of these students are education majors. This ongoing process for several semesters will eventually allow a determination of any changes in attitudes by administering both a pre-course and post-course survey.

Current results of the pre-course survey indicate that 59% of the students think that “creation science” should be taught in the public schools alongside evolutionary theory. This decreases to 49% for the 115 students that have completed the post-course survey. About 57% of pre-course survey students think that the Bible is an accurate and adequate explanation for the origin and development of Earth, life, and humans; as compared to about 51% for post-course survey students. Today, with the dangers to science education inherent in the intelligent design movement, explaining evolutionary theory and stressing its strong basis in sound scientific inquiry to college students, some that are future public school teachers, is extremely important.