Teachers Back Away From Evolution In Class

RedEaredSlider writes "A study (abstract) from Penn State shows that a lot of teachers — some 60 percent — are reluctant to teach evolutionary theory in the classroom either because they fear controversy or they just aren't comfortable with the material (as not every biology teacher was a science major). It shows the importance, the authors say, of training teachers well before they step into the class."

Comments

Re:Summary wrong, not so bleak

[witherstaff]

How is 72% still teaching superstition any better? I went to a catholic school and they taught evolution as fact, of course there was a religion class but biology was science.

Re:Science is being bullied

[Alarash]

It's really only in the US I think. Nobody in Europe will contest (except the occasional, marginal and fortunately exceptionally rare nutjob) the teaching of evolution. Maybe it's because Public Schools are actually good in Europe, and many countries are officially agnostic, so it's a moot point ; whereas in the US there are much more private schools that have to tread carefully not to alienate their customers.. err.. student's parents?

Re:America has jumped the shark

[Rob the Bold]

If even the teachers aren't educated enough to understand this - what hope is there for the rest.

That's not what TFA really says. TFS is somewhat misleading. Teachers aren't unprepared, they're uncomfortable. And while it doesn't say exactly why they're uncomfortable, I'd wager they're more afraid of one set of parents than the other.

Re:Show us the evidence of evolution!

[arthurpaliden]

When chicken embryos first start to develop they have teeth buds along their jaw lines and the beginnings of multi segmented tails. As they develop their DNA tells the developing embryo to absorb them. Much like human embryo's absorb our own embryonic gill slits. Now if you turn off the genes that control this absorption instruction you get chicken embryos that develop long multi segmented dinosaur tails and meat eating dinosaur teeth complete with the serrated inside edge.

And a few news sites discussing this:

• http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/03/05/dinosaur-chicken.html
• http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/11/12/60minutes/main5629962.shtml
• http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-08/scientist-vows-backwards-engineer-dinosaur-chicken

Some of the people involved:

• Raul Cano, professor of microbiology at California Polytechnic State University
• Jack Horner, professor of palaeontology at Montana State University
• Hans Larsson, a paleontologist at McGill University in Canada
• Matt Harris and John Fallon, developmental biologists at the University of Wisconsin
• Dewey Kramer, at Texas A&M University

Re:America has jumped the shark

[timeOday]

The summary is also misleading in that "backing away" implies they're becoming less likely to teach evolution than in the past. In fact the article does address this, and it's the opposite of what the summary implies:

"The data Berkman and Plutzer gathered didn't show trends over time. But Berkman says one bright spot is that standards are being imposed in more school systems. Since many of these standards include evolution, younger teachers are more likely to hew to them"

If true, a more accurate summary would be, "Teachers Embrace Evolution in the Class."