"Barriers that Iowa High School Biology Teachers Face when Teaching Evo" by Joshua Michael Hanna
 

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Availability

Open Access Thesis

Keywords

Evolution (Biology)--Study and teaching (Secondary)--Iowa; Biology teachers--Iowa--Attitudes; Evolution (Biology)--Study and teaching (Secondary); Iowa; Academic theses;

Abstract

After decades of court cases, decided in favor of evolution being taught, legal decisions where the incorporation of teaching creationist ideas have been found unconstitutional, and recent strategies and attempts that would have teachers give "equal time" to creation-science ideas; there remains a disparity among Iowa's high school biology teachers when teaching evolutionary concepts in the classroom. Taking a look at what is being taught about evolution in Iowa classrooms, this study takes an in-depth look at what Iowa's biology teachers are teaching when educating their students about evolution, where emphasis is being placed and who is putting the most emphasis on what is being taught. Iowa biology teachers are divided on how evolution should be taught and have differing opinions on where evolution ranks when compared to other biological ideas, how many days out of the year are devoted to the teaching of evolution and how much time should be given to teaching the controversy. Teachers who are successfully incorporating evolution into their biology classroom share common practices that influence the amount of time spent teaching evolution and the frequency that both evolutionary themes and anti-evolutionary themes arise in their classroom.

Year of Submission

2011

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Department of Teaching

First Advisor

Lyn Countryman

Second Advisor

Cherin Lee

Third Advisor

Jody Stone

Comments

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Date Original

2011

Object Description

1 PDF file (174 leaves)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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