ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
*****************************************************************************
As fascinating as these studies are to get back to our original question
that had to do with the the public's acceptance and understanding of
evolution. . . . .
In a study of museum visitors to an exhibition, Explore Evolution, Evans shows
that most museum visitors (to a natural history museum!) (72%) accept
evolution -even for the human, but that the majority misunderstand the
mechanisms. As for the general public, it is not clear that anyone has
tested it in that way.
Evans, E. M., Spiegel, A., Gram, W., Frazier, B. F., Tare, M., Thompson, S.,
& Diamond, J. (2010). A conceptual guide to natural history museum visitors'
understanding of evolution. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 47,
326-353. DOI 10.1002/tea.20337
I cannot attach or include the fill paper but the abstract is below. If
anyone wants the full paper as pdf let me know.
Abstract:
Museumvisitorsareanidealpopulationforassessingthepersistenceoftheconceptualbarriersthatmake
it difficult to grasp Darwinian evolutionary theory. In comparison with
other members of the public, they are more likely to be interested in
natural history, have higher education levels, and be exposed to the
relevant content. If museum visitors do not grasp evolutionary principles,
it seems unlikely that other members of the general public would do so. In
the current study, 32 systematically selected visitors to three Midwest
museums of natural history provided detailed open- ended explanations of
biological change in seven diverse organisms. They were not told that these
were evolutionary problems. Responses were coded as: informed naturalistic
reasoning, featuring some understanding of key evolutionary concepts, novice
naturalistic reasoning, featuring intuitive explanations that are also
present in childhood, and creationist reasoning, featuring supernatural
explanations. All visitors were mixed reasoners, using one or more of these
patterns in different permutations across the seven organisms: 72% used a
combination of informed naturalistic reasoning and novice naturalistic
reasoning, while a further 28% added creationist reasoning to this mix.
Correlational analyses indicated that for many visitors these reasoning
patterns were coherent rather than fragmented. The theoretical model
presented in this article contributes to an analysis of the developmental
and cultural factors associated with these patterns. This could help
educators working in diverse educational settings understand how to move
visitors and students toward more informed reasoning patterns. ί 2009 Wiley
Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47: 326353, 2010 Keywords: evoluation;
museums; conceptual change; intuitive beliefs; creationist beliefs;
cognitive development; culture
Contract grant sponsor: National Science Foundation; Contract grant number:
0229294. Wendy Grams present address is National Ecological Observatory
Network (NEON), Inc., 5340 Airport Blvd.,
Boulder, CO 80301. Correspondence to: E.M. Evans; E-mail:
[log in to unmask] 10.1002/tea.20337 Published online 18 November
2009 in Wiley
InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com).
In a study that Evans and her students and I are finishing analyzing we have
evidence that suggests children (7-10 yo) can be moved from their natural
creationist inclinations to a position of accepting and understanding
aspects of natural selection as a mechanism of evolution.
Martin
On Thu, Mar 3, 2011 at 10:31 PM, Jennie Dusheck <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
> institutions.
>
> *****************************************************************************
>
> These ideas, and I'm including Stephen's article about color detection by
> schools of fish, are just fascinating. Thank you!
> Jennie
>
>
> At 6:42 PM -0800 3/3/11, Charlie Carlson wrote:
>
>> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
>> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
>> institutions.
>>
>> *****************************************************************************
>>
>>
>> http://icouzin.princeton.edu/collective-motion-and-decision-making-in-animal-groups/
>>
>> Here's a link to a lab that does some original and amazing interesting
>> work. You can find links to some of their recent work and the images are
>> absolutely fun to contemplate.
>>
>>
>> My reference to human social behavior and swarm intelligence refers to my
>> notion that most people and in fact just about every system of social
>> organization delegates authority and decision making, be it logical,
>> rational, or not. We typically follow our friends, community, and local
>> custom. Those "schools" of thought may or may not have a rational basis,
>> but they all exhibit the same behavioral requirements to varying degrees.
>> This behavior rests deeply in the very biological basis of our social
>> structures, or so I've come to believe, to put some irony in it all
>>
>> C.
>> On Mar 2, 2011, at 9:47 PM, Jennie Dusheck wrote:
>>
>> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology
>>> Centers
>>> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
>>> institutions.
>>>
>>>
>>> *****************************************************************************
>>>
>>> I would love to see you elaborate on this.
>>> Jennie Dusheck
>>>
>>> At 7:47 PM -0800 3/2/11, Charlie Carlson wrote:
>>>
>>>> This argument is a stand in for consistency of belief and whether or
>>>> not it's essential. I call your attention to a talk at the recent AAAS. A
>>>> school of fish depends more upon blind acceptance rather than individual
>>>> decision making based upon a broad degree of sensory input and independent
>>>> behavior. Not that the match is perfect, but we may discovering our inner
>>>> fish in both cases.
>>>> C
>>>>
>>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>> Charles Carlson
>> Senior Scientist
>> exploratorium
>> 3601 Lyon St.
>> San Francisco, CA 94123
>> [log in to unmask]
>> Tel: 415-561-0319
>> Fax: 415-561-0370
>>
>> Skype: sciskypecharlie
>> MobileMe: [log in to unmask]
>> Twitter: charliec53
>>
>>
>>
--
Martin Weiss, PhD
Science Interpretation, Consultant
New York Hall of Science
mweiss at nyscience.org
347-460-1858
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