Table 1 Suggested strategies to recognize and address student difficulties in understanding that evolution is not an inevitable march of progress, with codes for activities outlined in the text
From: Avoiding the Pitfall of Progress and Associated Perils of Evolutionary Education
Symptom | Problem | Possible solution | Suggested activity |
|---|---|---|---|
Students think newer always equals better | “Parade of progress” view of evolutionary history and evolutionary process | Explain that all living taxa are equally evolved; some look like “living fossils” and others appear complex, but all are equally distant from first ancestor | C, D, E, F, G, J |
Students see evolution as working toward a planned goal or purpose | Students retain a teleological view | Try to get students to think and communicate in terms of teleonomic (non-goal-driven) processes and explanations | A, B, C, H |
Students see organisms “getting a little better with each succeeding generation” | Students retain a Lamarckian worldview | Make clear that organisms seek to survive and reproduce, but do not strive to or need to become perfect | A, C, I, J, K |
Students refer to “higher” and “lower” life forms | Students retain an Aristotelian view of the Great Chain of Being | Explore the theory and practice of systematics from a cladistic viewpoint, not a classical one (making clear how these schools of thought differ) | D, E, H |
Students believe evolution results in perfection | Fallacy of optimal design | Demonstrate imperfections in humans and other organisms (e.g., vestigial structures), explaining how existing features are modified | C, D, I, J |
Students confuse function with purpose | Teleological thinking and conventions of communication | Explain, for example, that there are other ways to pump blood than a heart and other ways to fly than a wing. | A, K |
Students see humans as culminating pinnacle or end point of evolution | Cultural and intuitive (hardwired) views of teleology and human superiority | Explain importance of chance events in evolution (e.g., mass extinctions). What would happen if we “rolled back the tape”? Might dolphins be superior to us in some ways? | D, E,F, H, J |
Students think all change is adaptive | Adaptationist program (Spandrels of San Marco) | Show that many features of organisms are neutral or non-adaptive; some are historical artifacts, others involve genetic linkage | D, E, G, J, K |
Students believe all features evolve at the same progressive rate | Fallacy of missing links | Replace notion of missing links with concept of mosaic evolution (each species as blend of old and new). | E, F, G, I |
Students think evolution works to fulfill the needs and desires of organisms | Fallacy of mutation on demand | Make clear the random vs. non-random (directed) elements of processes of variation, selection, and inheritance | A, C, K |
Students confuse proximate and ultimate causes | Confusion of teleonomy and teleology | Have students carefully work out precise chain of causal mechanisms, as of hormonal and neural controls of behavior | B, C, I, K |
Class discussions generate more heat than light; students are uncomfortable “airing out” views in classroom setting | Discussions of progress (or lack thereof) unsettling and “hit close to home” | Writing assignments (essays, reading journals) offer non-threatening, non-confrontational means to contemplate and discuss difficult ideas | All activities, especially L |