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AAARRRGGGHH!

Makes you want to weep.


Martin
<http://www.nytimes.com/adx/bin/adx_click.html?type=goto&opzn&page=www.nytimes.com/printer-friendly&pos=Position1&sn2=336c557e/4f3dd5d2&sn1=9da27202/4ae92219&camp=foxsearch2011_emailtools_1604630e_nyt5&ad=127hrs_120x60_Jan26&goto=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Efoxsearchlight%2Ecom%2F127hours>

------------------------------
February 7, 2011
On Evolution, Biology Teachers Stray From Lesson PlanBy NICHOLAS BAKALAR

Teaching creationism in public schools has consistently been ruled
unconstitutional in federal courts, but according to a national
survey<http://www.sciencemag.org/content/331/6016/404.summary> of
more than 900 public high school biology teachers, it continues to flourish
in the nation’s classrooms.

Researchers found that only 28 percent of biology teachers consistently
follow the recommendations of the National Research
Council<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/national_research_council/index.html?inline=nyt-org>
to
describe straightforwardly the evidence for evolution and explain the ways
in which it is a unifying theme in all of biology. At the other extreme, 13
percent explicitly advocate creationism, and spend at least an hour of class
time presenting it in a positive light.

That leaves what the authors call “the cautious 60 percent,” who avoid
controversy by endorsing neither evolution nor its unscientific
alternatives. In various ways, they compromise.

The survey, published in the Jan. 28 issue of Science, found that some avoid
intellectual commitment by explaining that they teach evolution only because
state examinations require it, and that students do not need to “believe” in
it. Others treat evolution as if it applied only on a molecular level,
avoiding any discussion of the evolution of species. And a large number
claim that students are free to choose evolution or creationism based on
their own beliefs.

Eric Plutzer, a co-author of the paper, said that the most enthusiastic
proponents of creationism were geographically widely spread across the
country.

More high school students take biology than any other science course, the
researchers write, and for about a quarter of them it will be the only
science course they take. So the influence of these teachers looms large.

Randy Moore, a professor of biology at the University of
Minnesota<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/u/university_of_minnesota/index.html?inline=nyt-org>,
was unsurprised by the study’s conclusions. “These kinds of data have been
reported regionally, and in some cases nationally, for decades. Creationists
are in the classroom, and it’s not just the South,” he said. “At least 25
percent of high school teachers in Minnesota explicitly teach creationism.”

“Students are being cheated out of a rich science education,” said Dr.
Plutzer, a professor of political science at Penn
State<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/p/pennsylvania_state_university/index.html?inline=nyt-org>
University.
“We think the ‘cautious 60 percent’ represent a group of educators who, if
they were better trained in science in general and in evolution in
particular, would be more confident in their ability to explain
controversial topics to their students, to parents, and to school board
members.”

But Dr. Moore is doubtful that more education is the answer. “These courses
aren’t reaching the creationists,” he said. “They already know what
evolution is. They were biology majors, or former biology students. They
just reject what we told them.

“With 15 to 20 percent of biology teachers teaching creationism,” he
continued, “this is the biggest failure in science education. There’s no
other field where teachers reject the foundations of their science like they
do in biology.”
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Martin Weiss, PhD
Science Interpretation, Consultant
New York Hall of Science
mweiss at nyscience.org
347-460-1858
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