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March 31, 2006
On Using the "E" Word Every Day from Kindergarten On
This morning's Los Angeles Times has a story about the trials of teachers as they try to teach science in the face of some pupils and parents who are prepared to challenge them at almost every step. The whole article is rather depressing and calls on all of us to be supportive of these teachers as they try, sometimes heroically, to do the job they are paid to do.
However, there was one paragraph that I think calls for special reflection.
Such challenges have become so disruptive that some teachers dread the annual unit on evolution — or skip it altogether.
I have two thoughts on this paragraph. First, is it the case that evolution only comes up annually in many curricula? If so, is this the best way to teach biology? Most biologists see the modern theory of evolution as central to any understanding of biology. As Theodosius Dobzhansky once said,
Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.
It seems to me that the there are two goals of education. One is to develop skills, including critical reasoning skills, which will serve the students throughout their lives. The other is to train the students how to make sense of the world around them. I'm not at all sure that the first can be done without the second.
If I am correct that training students in how to make sense of the world is a central goal, then confining the teaching of evolution to annual units is a formula for failure. In my mind, every unit in the biology curriculum should point to the evidence for our contemporary understanding. In addition, it should indicate that evidence is best understood in the context of other evidence. From kindergarteners learning that cats and dogs are different from each other and still different from birds to the study of dinosaur fossils in later years to seniors dissecting a crayfish or learning about DNA, evolution should be taught. To be sure, some units may specifically talk of Darwin (and Wallace) and the history of evolutionary biology but even that should be done in the context of presenting the evidence and showing that evidence supports the prevailing theory.
In other words, I think students should hear the words, or at least the concepts, "evolution" and "natural selection" and "mutation" in nearly every biology lesson starting in kindergarten. In addition, the age of the universe and our planet should be introduced early and reinforced often. As students mature, the evidence for those tremendous time scales should be introduced. There would be two benefits of this. The students and their parents would come to know that evolution was an integral part of the science curriculum and that it was not something that could be taken up or discarded separately from the study of biology. A second benefit of the approach I am suggesting is that it would diffuse the onslaught of classroom disruptions that are so well documented in the Times article. And oh yes, as students develop in their understanding of biological science, they need to be taught the things that still can be learned and the legitimate controversies within the discipline. Those true mysteries of science increase wonder and provide opportunity.
As I reflected on the paragraph quoted above and on the article as a whole, the second thing that occurred to me is that everyone who wants good science taught in our schools needs to speak out in support of our teachers. If we have students in these classes, we need to show them how to be supportive of their teachers. If we don't have students in school, we should look into how we can be supportive of those whom we charge with educating the next generation. The pro-science voices need to be as loud and persistent as the anti-science voices.
Posted by Duane Smith at March 31, 2006 8:26 PM | Read more on Evolution |
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Comments
A while back, I was talking to my wife, who teaches English Lit. at an American high school, and I said that if I were teaching a biology class, I would try to teach evolution every day. She looked at me askance and said I'd probably have a lot of trouble with that. I then explained to her the central nature of evolution and compared it to her trying to teach literature without the kids knowing how to read. She still said I'd have trouble, mostly because of where we live.
Note: She doesn't disagree with the concept, and only points out that I would probably get into trouble with our local board if I tried it. Guess it's a good thing I'm not a school teacher. I'd piss a lot of people off.
Posted by: Coralius at April 1, 2006 5:50 AM
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