Anti-scientific attitudes can impose substantial costs on societies. Can schools be an important agent in mitigating the propagation of such attitudes? This paper investigates the effect of the content of science education on anti-scientific attitudes, knowledge, and choices. The analysis exploits staggered reforms that reduce or expand the…

Background: Argumentation, the justification of claims with reasons and/or evidence, has emerged as a significant goal in science education in recent years. Yet, there is limited understanding of secondary students' arguments and particularly their use of warrants in interdisciplinary contexts such as science and religious education. Furthermore,…

This paper explores a conflict a pre-service physics teacher experienced while completing a teaching practicum at a religious high school that supported creationism. As a result of the conflict, the pre-service teacher was scapegoated by the staff and students at the school. An analysis of the projective dynamics involved in this conflict are…

Research examining the relationship between science and religion has often painted a narrative of conflict for students with various religious beliefs. The purpose of this paper is to present a counter-narrative based on a study carried out in Singapore, which provides a unique multi-ethnic and multi-religious environment and geopolitical context…

This study investigates a range of positions that learners take on the relationship between science and religion and the potential for these positions to explain student approaches when learning about evolution. A phenomenographic study based on interviews with nine students studying in Christian high schools in Thailand led to the identification…

Biology is a science that involves study of the diversity of living organisms. This diversity has always generated questions and has motivated cultures to seek plausible explanations for the differences and similarities between types of organisms. In biology teaching, these issues are addressed by adopting an evolutionary approach. The aim of this…

The purpose of this hermeneutical phenomenology study was to explore and describe the perspective transformations of 11 science instructors teaching at Christian high schools. These science teachers previously believed the evolutionary paradigm of origins. However, they have all experienced a transformation and now hold a young-earth creation…

The main aim of this paper is to describe high school students' attitudes concerning evolution and creation, with a focus on (1) attitudes toward evolutionary theory, (2) attitudes toward the Biblical accounts of creation, (3) creationist beliefs, and (4) scientistic beliefs. Latent class analyses revealed seven attitude profiles in a sample of…

This paper analyzes recent research conclusions regarding biology teacher attitudes toward evolution, and the variable implementation of evolution in the high schools nationwide. Berkman and Plutzer (2010. "Evolution, creationism, and the battle to control America's classrooms." New York: Cambridge University Press) conclude that due to a large…

To assess current trends of evolution instruction in high schools of the mid-South, we invited Arkansas high school biology teachers from across the state to respond to a survey designed to address this issue. We also asked students enrolled in a freshman-level, nonmajors biology course at a midsize public Arkansas university to recall their…

In "Kitzmiller v. Dover" (2005), a court defined science to decide the legitimacy of teaching intelligent design to high school biology students. This study analyzes "Kitzmiller" in light of the complex and interrelated tensions between judicial, scientific, and democratic decision making that lie at the heart of modern…

Treating creationism as a controversial topic within the science and religion issue in the science classroom has been widely discussed in the recent literature. Some researchers have proposed that this topic is best addressed by focusing on sociocognitive conflict. To prepare new learning opportunities for this approach, it is necessary to know…

Students whose high school biology course included evolution but not creationism knew more about evolution when they entered college than did students whose courses included evolution plus creationism or whose courses included neither evolution nor creationism. Similarly, students who believed that their high school biology classes were the…

According to reports from 1,441 undergraduate students at a large, public American university, most high-school biology teachers teach evolution. Approximately 25% of students who attended public schools report that their biology teachers also taught creationism, despite the fact that doing so is unconstitutional. When biology teachers teach…

In a sample of 107 biology teachers from Minnesota's public schools, most teachers claimed that they emphasize evolution and allocated little or no time to creationism in the classes. However, in a sample of 685 students from Minnesota's public schools, students claimed that their teachers allocated much less time to evolution and much more time…