Evolution in European and Israeli school curricula–a comparative analysis

Date

2024-01-01

Author

Mavrikaki, Evangelia
Realdon, Giulia
Aivelo, Tuomas
Bajrami, Ani
Dilek Bakanay, Çiçek
Beniermann, Anna
Blagojević, Jelena
Butkeviciene, Egle
Cavadas, Bento
Cossu, Costantina
Cvetković, Dragana
Drobniak, Szymon M.
Özgür Durmuş, Zelal
Marta Dvořáková, Radka
Eens, Marcel
Eret, Esra
Eroğlu, Seçkin
Anna Gazda, Małgorzata
Georgiou, Martha
Gostling, Neil J.
Gregorčič, Tanja
Janštová, Vanda
Jenkins, Tania
Kervinen, Anttoni
Korfiatis, Konstantinos
Kuschmierz, Paul
Lendvai, Ádám Z.
de Lima, Joelyn
Miri, Fundime
Nogueira, Teresa
Panayides, Andreas
Paolucci, Sylvia
Papadopoulou, Penelope
Pessoa, Patrícia
Pinxten, Rianne
Rios Rocha, Joana
Fernández Sánchez, Andrea
Siani, Merav
Sokoli, Elvisa
Sousa, Bruno
Stasinakis, Panagiotis K.
Torkar, Gregor
Valackiene, Asta
Varga, Máté
Vázquez Ben, Lucía
Yarden, Anat
Sá-Pinto, Xana

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The contribution of school curricula to public understanding and acceptance of evolution is still mostly unknown, due to the scarcity of studies that compare the learning goals present in different curricula. To overcome this lack of data we analysed 19 school curricula (18 European and one from Israel) to study the differences regarding the inclusion of learning goals targeting evolution understanding. We performed a quantitative content analysis using the Framework for the Assessment of school Curricula on the presence of Evolutionary concepts (FACE). For each country/region we analysed what this educational system considered the minimum evolution education a citizen should get. Our results reveal that: (i) the curricula include less than half of the learning goals considered important for scientific literacy in evolution; (ii) the most frequent learning goals address basic knowledge of evolution; (iii) learning goals related with the processes that drive evolution are often not included or rarely mentioned; (iv) evolution is most often not linked to its applications in everyday life. These results highlight the need to rethink evolution education across Europe.

Subject Keywords

biology education, education policy, Evolution learning goals

URI

https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?partnerID=HzOxMe3b&scp=85184718839&origin=inward
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/108581

Collections

Center for Advancing Learning and Teaching (ÖGEM), Article