TY - JOUR
T1 - European first-year university students accept evolution but lack substantial knowledge about it
T2 - a standardized European cross-country assessment
AU - EuroScitizen
AU - Kuschmierz, Paul
AU - Beniermann, Anna
AU - Bergmann, Alexander
AU - Pinxten, Rianne
AU - Aivelo, Tuomas
AU - Berniak-Woźny, Justyna
AU - Bohlin, Gustav
AU - Bugallo-Rodriguez, Anxela
AU - Cardia, Pedro
AU - Cavadas, Bento Filipe Barreiras Pinto
AU - Cebesoy, Umran Betul
AU - Cvetković, Dragana D.
AU - Demarsy, Emilie
AU - Đorđević, Mirko S.
AU - Drobniak, Szymon M.
AU - Dubchak, Liudmyla
AU - Dvořáková, Radka M.
AU - Fančovičová, Jana
AU - Fortin, Corinne
AU - Futo, Momir
AU - Geamănă, Nicoleta Adriana
AU - Gericke, Niklas
AU - Grasso, Donato A.
AU - Lendvai, Ádám Z.
AU - Mavrikaki, Evangelia
AU - Meneganzin, Andra
AU - Mogias, Athanasios
AU - Möller, Andrea
AU - Mota, Paulo G.
AU - Naciri, Yamama
AU - Németh, Zoltán
AU - Ożańska-Ponikwia, Katarzyna
AU - Paolucci, Silvia
AU - Pap, Péter László
AU - Petersson, Maria
AU - Pietrzak, Barbara
AU - Pievani, Telmo
AU - Pobric, Alma
AU - Porozovs, Juris
AU - Realdon, Giulia
AU - Sá-Pinto, Xana
AU - Savković, Uroš B.
AU - Sicard, Mathieu
AU - Sofonea, Mircea T.
AU - Sorgo, Andrej
AU - Stermin, Alexandru N.
AU - Tăușan, Ioan
AU - Torkar, Gregor
AU - Türkmen, Lütfullah
AU - Uitto, Anna E.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s).
PY - 2021/12
Y1 - 2021/12
N2 - Background: Investigations of evolution knowledge and acceptance and their relation are central to evolution education research. Ambiguous results in this field of study demonstrate a variety of measuring issues, for instance differently theorized constructs, or a lack of standardized methods, especially for cross-country comparisons. In particular, meaningful comparisons across European countries, with their varying cultural backgrounds and education systems, are rare, often include only few countries, and lack standardization. To address these deficits, we conducted a standardized European survey, on 9200 first-year university students in 26 European countries utilizing a validated, comprehensive questionnaire, the “Evolution Education Questionnaire”, to assess evolution acceptance and knowledge, as well as influencing factors on evolution acceptance. Results: We found that, despite European countries’ different cultural backgrounds and education systems, European first-year university students generally accept evolution. At the same time, they lack substantial knowledge about it, even if they are enrolled in a biology-related study program. Additionally, we developed a multilevel-model that determines religious faith as the main influencing factor in accepting evolution. According to our model, knowledge about evolution and interest in biological topics also increase acceptance of evolution, but to a much lesser extent than religious faith. The effect of age and sex, as well as the country’s affiliation, students’ denomination, and whether or not a student is enrolled in a biology-related university program, is negligible. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that, despite all their differences, most of the European education systems for upper secondary education lead to acceptance of evolution at least in university students. It appears that, at least in this sample, the differences in knowledge between countries reflect neither the extent to which school curricula cover evolutionary biology nor the percentage of biology-related students in the country samples. Future studies should investigate the role of different European school curricula, identify particularly problematic or underrepresented evolutionary concepts in biology education, and analyze the role of religious faith when teaching evolution.
AB - Background: Investigations of evolution knowledge and acceptance and their relation are central to evolution education research. Ambiguous results in this field of study demonstrate a variety of measuring issues, for instance differently theorized constructs, or a lack of standardized methods, especially for cross-country comparisons. In particular, meaningful comparisons across European countries, with their varying cultural backgrounds and education systems, are rare, often include only few countries, and lack standardization. To address these deficits, we conducted a standardized European survey, on 9200 first-year university students in 26 European countries utilizing a validated, comprehensive questionnaire, the “Evolution Education Questionnaire”, to assess evolution acceptance and knowledge, as well as influencing factors on evolution acceptance. Results: We found that, despite European countries’ different cultural backgrounds and education systems, European first-year university students generally accept evolution. At the same time, they lack substantial knowledge about it, even if they are enrolled in a biology-related study program. Additionally, we developed a multilevel-model that determines religious faith as the main influencing factor in accepting evolution. According to our model, knowledge about evolution and interest in biological topics also increase acceptance of evolution, but to a much lesser extent than religious faith. The effect of age and sex, as well as the country’s affiliation, students’ denomination, and whether or not a student is enrolled in a biology-related university program, is negligible. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that, despite all their differences, most of the European education systems for upper secondary education lead to acceptance of evolution at least in university students. It appears that, at least in this sample, the differences in knowledge between countries reflect neither the extent to which school curricula cover evolutionary biology nor the percentage of biology-related students in the country samples. Future studies should investigate the role of different European school curricula, identify particularly problematic or underrepresented evolutionary concepts in biology education, and analyze the role of religious faith when teaching evolution.
KW - Acceptance
KW - Assessment
KW - Attitude
KW - Europe
KW - Evolution
KW - Higher education
KW - Knowledge
KW - Multilevel modeling
KW - Religious faith
KW - Socioscientific issues
KW - 1181 Ecology, evolutionary biology
KW - 516 Educational sciences
U2 - 10.1186/s12052-021-00158-8
DO - 10.1186/s12052-021-00158-8
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85120171727
SN - 1936-6426
VL - 14
JO - Evolution: Education and Outreach
JF - Evolution: Education and Outreach
M1 - 17
ER -