Student variables addressed in the study included gender, ethnicity, grade level, and evolution knowledge self-rating, while teacher variables included gender, terminal degree, bachelor's degree major, years' teaching experience, college education evolution emphasis, hours dedicated to teaching evolution, and evolution knowledge self-rating.
Demographic data requested from teacher participants included gender, terminal degree, bachelor's degree major, years of teaching experience, college education emphasis on evolution, hours dedicated to teaching evolution, and self-rating of evolution knowledge (Table 1).
Significant relationships between student acquisition of misconceptions and teachers' bachelor's degree field, terminal degree, and hours dedicated to evolution instruction were also revealed.
Past examples of this approach have yielded special issues on the evolution of the eye (our complexity issue) guest-edited by Dr. T. Ryan Gregory, the transitional fossils issue edited by Dr. Donald Prothero, and an issue dedicated to evolution education guest-edited by Dr. Kristin Jenkins of the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center.
Because this retesting took place three months after the activity, we suspect that rather than simply retaining this information, students continued to build their understanding of natural selection (and thereby their ability to answer this question without displaying misconceptions) in the four additional weeks dedicated to evolution.
Teacher variables included terminal degree, bachelor's degree major, years of teaching experience, college emphasis placed on evolution, evolution knowledge rating, and number of hours dedicated to teaching evolution in the Biology I course.
Results also indicated significant differences in participants' mean index scores related to biological evolution knowledge self-rating and hours dedicated to teaching evolution.
This result reveals a positive correlation between teachers' index scores (i.e., biological evolution knowledge) and the number of hours dedicated to teaching evolution concepts in the public high school biology classroom.
Later in evolution, dedicated signalling lines (nerves) appear, connecting the receptor cells with a central group of nerve cells – neurons – that are the forerunners to our own brains.
I was sorry to read that Deborah Orr thinks there has never been "a museum dedicated to the evolution of female emancipation" (Forget the V&A, 7 November).
