Table 6 Percentage of study respondents by age group mentioning identified themes within the evolutionary and intuitive reasoning patterns in their open-ended explanations
Child n = 21 (%) | Youth n = 13 (%) | Adult n = 30 (%) | |
|---|---|---|---|
Evolutionary reasoning themes | |||
Evolution term | 48 | 92 | 90 |
VIST term | 0 | 23 | 40 |
Variation | 62 | 85 | 67 |
Inheritance | 5 | 31 | 33 |
Common descent | 19 | 62 | 67 |
Selection | 19 | 54 | 60 |
Time | 38 | 46 | 63 |
Sexual selection | 10 | 15 | 40 |
Ecological pressure | 48 | 62 | 80 |
Intuitive reasoning themes | |||
Desire based | 24 | 0 | 30 |
Static adaptation | 86 | 85 | 87 |
Adaptive features list | 67 | 54 | 73 |
Goal-directed adaptation | 43 | 69 | 43 |
Proximate cause | 67 | 62 | 60 |
Reproduction | 57 | 31 | 33 |
Hybridization | 33 | 15 | 3 |