scholarly journals University Students' Acceptance of Evolution: Basis for STEM-based Instructional Design

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-44
Author(s):  
Odessa D. Aberilla ◽  
Monera H. Salic ◽  
Ronaldo R. Orbita ◽  
Joy B. Bagaloyos ◽  
Cesar G. Demayo ◽  
...  

This study was conducted to explore the overall acceptance of evolution among undergraduate students in a State University as basis for developing a STEM-based instructional design to address the misconceptions about evolution. The research was conducted using the 20-item questionnaires of the Measurement of Acceptance of the Theory of Evolution (MATE) instrument assessing undergraduate students' acceptance of evolution in relations to; the process of evolution, the scientific validity of the evolutionary theory, the evolution of humans, evidence of evolution, scientific community's view of evolution and age of the Earth. The study is within a quantitative and qualitative framework using descriptive and inferential analysis. The findings revealed that all the colleges in the science group acquired a moderate level of acceptance except for the CED non-science group who received a low degree of acceptance of the theory of evolution. Although among the six concepts in the study, they generally agree on the statements and only in the idea on the age of the earth where the students were undecided. This research confirms that the level of acceptance is not positively related to the students' specialization. Based on the result of this study there is a need to develop a STEM based instructional design and this should be emphasized in the science curriculum. The teaching design will fill in the gaps in understanding concepts of evolution and its significance to the lives of many organisms and for the teachers to look evolution from very broad flexible and interdisciplinary perspectives.

2012 ◽  
Vol 84 (2) ◽  
pp. 551-554 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivan A. Dias ◽  
Rodrigo H. Willemart ◽  
Antonio C. Marques

Although the theory of evolution is more than 150 years old, a substantial proportion of the world population does not mention it when explaining the origin of human beings. The usual alternative conception is offered by creationism, one of the main obstacles to full acceptance of evolution in many countries. National polls have demonstrated that schooling and religiosity are negatively correlated, with scientists being one of the least religious professionals. Herein we analyzed both (1) the profile of 1st semester undergraduate students and (2), thesis and dissertations, concerning religious and evolutionary thoughts from Biology and Veterinary Schools at the largest university of South America. We have shown that students of Biology are biased towards evolution before they enter university and also that the presence of an evolutionary-thinking academic atmosphere influences the deism/religiosity beliefs of postgraduate students.


SAGE Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 215824402110063
Author(s):  
MaryJoy Umoke ◽  
Prince Christian Ifeanachor Umoke ◽  
Chioma Adaora Nwalieji ◽  
Rosemary N. Onwe ◽  
Ifeanyi Emmanuel Nwafor ◽  
...  

Lassa fever is a zoonotic disease characterized by acute viral hemorrhagic fever, endemic in West Africa including Nigeria. The study assessed the knowledge and sources of information on Lassa fever infection among the undergraduate students of Ebonyi State University, Nigeria. This was a descriptive cross-sectional survey conducted among a sample of 389 students (18 years above). A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. Data were analyzed with SPSS (Version 20), and hypotheses were tested at p < .05 level of significance. Results showed that the majority of the students had good knowledge of Lassa fever description, 232 (60.75%); the signs and symptoms, 221 (57.9%); mode of transmission, 261 (68.41%); and preventive measures, 291 (76.13%). Radio, 23 (84.6%), and television, 307 (80.4%), were their major sources of information. Age ( p = .424), sex ( p = .082), and academic level ( p = .553) were not significant in the study, while faculty (social sciences; p = .000*) was strongly associated with the knowledge of Lassa fever. In conclusion, the overall knowledge of Lassa fever was good among students, though knowledge gaps were observed in the signs and symptoms. We recommend that health education on endemic diseases in the state be made a compulsory course as a general study (GST) in the university. Also, the internet, social media, and campus campaign be further used to educate and sensitize students on the effect of Lassa fever.


1989 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 515-521 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marilyn Perlmutter

As a result of a recent law passed in Ohio, a program was designed to improve the oral intelligibility of International Teaching Assistants at Bowling Green State University. To evaluate the efficacy of the training, naive undergraduate students were asked to evaluate the pre- and postrecorded speech samples of the international students, both in terms of intelligibility of the sample and the identification of the topic of the monologue. Analysis showed a significant improvement in the intelligibility ratings between pre- and posttraining samples. Further, the average number of correct subject matter identifications was shown to increase, while the average number of incorrect judgments decreased significantly from pre- to posttraining evaluations.


2014 ◽  
Vol 76 (2) ◽  
pp. 101-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathrin F. Stanger-Hall ◽  
Julianne A. Wenner

We assessed the performance of students with a self-reported conflict between their religious belief and the theory of evolution in two sections of a large introductory biology course (N = 373 students). Student performance was measured through pretest and posttest evolution essays and multiple-choice (MC) questions (evolution-related and non-evolution-related questions) on the final exam and posttest. The two class sections differed only in exam format: MC with or without constructed-response (CR) questions. Although students with a reported conflict scored significantly lower on the final exam in the MC-only section, they scored equally well in the MC+CR section, and all students in the MC+CR section performed significantly better overall. As a result, (1) a religious conflict with evolution can be negatively associated with student achievement in introductory biology, but (2) assessment with constructed response was associated with a closed performance gap between students with and without a conflict. We suggest that differences in exam format and focus on student acceptance of evolution (either evidence-based or opinion), rather than reported conflict, may contribute to the inconsistencies in student learning of evolution across research studies, and that CR questions may help students overcome other obstacles to learning evolution.


2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 478-484
Author(s):  
Kirill Golikov ◽  
Ekaterina LAPTEVA ◽  
A. SOCHIVKO

The article discusses the use of live plants as the botanical exposition component supplement of the “Natural areas” (hall № 17 “Natural zonality and its components” and № 20 “Desert, subtropical, tropical countries, high-altitude zone”) and “Physico-georaphic regions” (hall № 24 “Continents and parts of the world”) departments in order to visualize information presented in the Earth Science Museum. Demonstration of plants originating from different regions of the world representing different life forms and being structural components of various plant communities allows to visually characterizing thematic aspects of an exposition. That in turn reveal such principles of systematic nature organization as ecobiomorphic and phytocenotic.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 45
Author(s):  
Dian Ratna Sawitri

Career exploration reflects activities conducted to collect information about oneself and potential occupations to become self-aware and understand the job market. Career exploration guides the realization of career aspirations and is thus crucial for young adults. It helps the youth make appropriate career-relevant decisions. However, it is unknown whether career aspirations mediate the links between positive parenting and career exploration activities undertaken by urban third-year undergraduate students. This study aimed to bridge this gap in the literature, and to this end, a survey was administered to 125 third-year undergraduate students attending a state university in Semarang, Central Java. The Career Exploration Scale, Career Aspirations Scale, Positive Parenting Subscale, and questions on demographic characteristics were employed for data collection. Structural equation modeling demonstrated that career aspirations fully mediated the path between positive parenting and career exploration. The findings of this study underline the importance of career aspirations in translating the effects of positive parenting into specific career exploration activities undertaken by college students. Finally, suggestions based on the study results are offered for third-year undergraduate students, parents, and practitioners.


2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hooshang Khoshsima ◽  
Monirosadat Hosseini ◽  
Seyyed Morteza Hashemi Toroujeni

Advent of technology has caused growing interest in using computers to convert conventional paper and pencil-based testing (Henceforth PPT) into Computer-based testing (Henceforth CBT) in the field of education during last decades. This constant promulgation of computers to reshape the conventional tests into computerized format permeated the language assessment field in recent years. But, enjoying advantages of computers in language assessment raise the concerns of the effects that computerized mode of testing may have on CBT performance. Thus, this study investigated the score comparability of Vocabulary in Use test taken by 30 Iranian undergraduate students studying at a state university located in Chabahar region of Iran (CMU) to see whether scores from two administrations of testing mode were different. Therefore, two similar tests were administered to the male and female participants on two testing mode occasions with four weeks interval. Employing One-Way ANOVA statistical test to compare the mean scores and Pearson Correlation test to find the relationship between mode preference and performance revealed that two sets of scores were not different and gender difference was not also considered a variable that might affect performance on CBT. Based on the results, computerized version of the test can be considered a favorable alternative for the state undergraduate students in Iran.


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