Table 3 The participants’ responses to the question: Why should teachers relate to religion when teaching evolution?
From: Scientists’ and teachers’ attitudes toward relating to religion when teaching evolution
Category | Example | Participants |
|---|---|---|
Connecting to student life\inner world | “I want the students to understand that science is not external to their lives but an important thing in their lives, and in order to do that I must connect it to their life” (T3) “In the learning materials it says that a certain organism is 5 million years old, while the students’ world view is 5000 years old. We must relate these unsuitability’s, that why I always relate this issue” (T8) | T2, T3, T5, T7, T8, T9, T10 S1, S4, S9, S10 |
Preparing the student for the future | “I want the students to leave the lesson with a confidence, so that if they will be asked about the issue in the external world, they will be able to cope with it because they learned it”. (T9) “I know people who left religion because they discovered evolution in a later stage in life and said that’s it, we don’t believe in god. They dismantle their family, left their home”. (S7) | T3, T4, T5, T7, T8, T9 S2, S7 |
Decreasing students’ opposition | “I think that we should relate to religion, since there is no chance I will teach say “evolution” in class, and there will be absolute consensus without any opposition from the students” (T1) | T1, T2, T4, T6, T7, S6 |