Evolution: Education and Outreach (Nov 2021)

European first-year university students accept evolution but lack substantial knowledge about it: a standardized European cross-country assessment

  • Paul Kuschmierz,
  • Anna Beniermann,
  • Alexander Bergmann,
  • Rianne Pinxten,
  • Tuomas Aivelo,
  • Justyna Berniak-Woźny,
  • Gustav Bohlin,
  • Anxela Bugallo-Rodriguez,
  • Pedro Cardia,
  • Bento Filipe Barreiras Pinto Cavadas,
  • Umran Betul Cebesoy,
  • Dragana D. Cvetković,
  • Emilie Demarsy,
  • Mirko S. Đorđević,
  • Szymon M. Drobniak,
  • Liudmyla Dubchak,
  • Radka M. Dvořáková,
  • Jana Fančovičová,
  • Corinne Fortin,
  • Momir Futo,
  • Nicoleta Adriana Geamănă,
  • Niklas Gericke,
  • Donato A. Grasso,
  • Ádám Z. Lendvai,
  • Evangelia Mavrikaki,
  • Andra Meneganzin,
  • Athanasios Mogias,
  • Andrea Möller,
  • Paulo G. Mota,
  • Yamama Naciri,
  • Zoltán Németh,
  • Katarzyna Ożańska-Ponikwia,
  • Silvia Paolucci,
  • Péter László Pap,
  • Maria Petersson,
  • Barbara Pietrzak,
  • Telmo Pievani,
  • Alma Pobric,
  • Juris Porozovs,
  • Giulia Realdon,
  • Xana Sá-Pinto,
  • Uroš B. Savković,
  • Mathieu Sicard,
  • Mircea T. Sofonea,
  • Andrej Sorgo,
  • Alexandru N. Stermin,
  • Ioan Tăușan,
  • Gregor Torkar,
  • Lütfullah Türkmen,
  • Slavica Tutnjević,
  • Anna E. Uitto,
  • Máté Varga,
  • Mirna Varga,
  • Lucia Vazquez-Ben,
  • Constantinos Venetis,
  • Enrique Viguera,
  • Lisa Christine Virtbauer,
  • Albena Vutsova,
  • Inmaculada Yruela,
  • Jelle Zandveld,
  • Dittmar Graf

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12052-021-00158-8
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 14, no. 1
pp. 1 – 22

Abstract

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Abstract Background Investigations of evolution knowledge and acceptance and their relation are central to evolution education research. Ambiguous results in this field of study demonstrate a variety of measuring issues, for instance differently theorized constructs, or a lack of standardized methods, especially for cross-country comparisons. In particular, meaningful comparisons across European countries, with their varying cultural backgrounds and education systems, are rare, often include only few countries, and lack standardization. To address these deficits, we conducted a standardized European survey, on 9200 first-year university students in 26 European countries utilizing a validated, comprehensive questionnaire, the “Evolution Education Questionnaire”, to assess evolution acceptance and knowledge, as well as influencing factors on evolution acceptance. Results We found that, despite European countries’ different cultural backgrounds and education systems, European first-year university students generally accept evolution. At the same time, they lack substantial knowledge about it, even if they are enrolled in a biology-related study program. Additionally, we developed a multilevel-model that determines religious faith as the main influencing factor in accepting evolution. According to our model, knowledge about evolution and interest in biological topics also increase acceptance of evolution, but to a much lesser extent than religious faith. The effect of age and sex, as well as the country’s affiliation, students’ denomination, and whether or not a student is enrolled in a biology-related university program, is negligible. Conclusions Our findings indicate that, despite all their differences, most of the European education systems for upper secondary education lead to acceptance of evolution at least in university students. It appears that, at least in this sample, the differences in knowledge between countries reflect neither the extent to which school curricula cover evolutionary biology nor the percentage of biology-related students in the country samples. Future studies should investigate the role of different European school curricula, identify particularly problematic or underrepresented evolutionary concepts in biology education, and analyze the role of religious faith when teaching evolution.

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