Table 4 The participants’ suggested practices that should be used when relating to religion in a science class
From: Scientists’ and teachers’ attitudes toward relating to religion when teaching evolution
Practices | Example | Participants |
|---|---|---|
1. Presenting the issue but not trying to convince the students | “I present a few attitudes toward the conflict, but I don’t have unambiguous answers. The students are mature enough to consider and think about what I taught them, choose what they agree with – and decide for themselves”. (T7) | T4, T5, T6, T7, T9, T10 S10 |
2. Adapting to the students’ culture | “We should approach the students from where they are. The fact that you have a certain knowledge, which you perceive as truth, doesn’t mean someone else can access it without opposition. In order to make it accessible, we have to structure this knowledge with cultural sensitivity” (T2) | T2, T5, T9, T10 S6, |
3. Defining the borders between science and religion | “The teacher should emphasize the differences between science and religion and not to mix between the two” (S2) | S2, S5, S6, S8, S9 T3 |
4. Collaborating with an expert– teacher in school or a guest | “The bible teacher and I conducted a few parallel lessons about evolution, in which the bible teacher gave the religious approach, and I gave the scientific approach.” (T4) “Most of the biology teachers have no clue about this philosophic issue, so I think that the most qualified person in school – whether it is the Jewish philosophy teachers or the biology teachers –is the one who should deal with it.” (S9) | T2, T4, T5, T7, T8 S1, S5, S8, S9 |
5. Referring to the creation story* | “I tell the students that according to my perception, the bible is not a book of science. Is the purpose of the bible to describe scientifically how the world was created? No! The purpose is to teach us ethics, moral, etc.… Therefore, there is no contradiction since science and religion are separate dimensions.” (T3) | T2, T3, T5, T8 S5, S10 |
6. Presenting various religious approaches to the conflict, especially compatibility | “When I was first exposed to the different approaches that discuss this issue, it made me feel very good. Suddenly I understood that many figures discuss this issue for hundreds of years, I’m not the first and probably not the last. There are answers”. (S6) “If we give the students a printed page with different rabbinical reference that discussed the issue –they have what to lean on. Not “the teachers said that…why should I believe that?”, but rather “rabbi Kook said”. It gives them much more confidence.” (T5) | T1, T2, T4, T5, T6, T7, T9, T10 S1, S4, S6 |
7. Mentioning religious figures that accept evolution | “Religious person’s soul leans on tradition… The fact that I present to the students that there is a Jew with a big beard that doesn’t think evolution is heresy – it eases the students’ opposition” (T6) | T5, T6, T7, T9 S1, S7, S8 |
8. Discussing the students’ personal views | “After studying evolution, I ask the students what difficulties they have with what we learned, and we list all their questions, wonders and conflicts. Afterwards, I present to them the various ways of answering them” (T7) | T2, T7, T8 |
9. Relating to the nature of science | “Before I teach evolution, I first try to describe the background of the findings that lead to the discovery of evolution…I go deeply into how and what was explored, what we know and what we don’t, I explain what a scientific theory is – many important principles that prepare the students to the understanding of the theory of evolution”(T2) | T2, T7 |