National Association of Biology Teachers
- From: "whitesickle@xxxxxxx" <whitesickle@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 9 Jan 2006 13:09:03 -0500 (EST)
NABT's Statement on Teaching Evolution
Statement
As stated in The American Biology Teacher by the eminent scientist
Theodosius Dobzhansky (1973), "Nothing in biology makes sense except
in the light of evolution." This often-quoted declaration accurately
reflects the central, unifying role of evolution in biology. The theory
of evolution provides a framework that explains both the history of
life and the ongoing adaptation of organisms to environmental
challenges and changes.
While modern biologists constantly study and deliberate the patterns,
mechanisms, and pace of evolution, they agree that all living things
share common ancestors. The fossil record and the diversity of extant
organisms, combined with modern techniques of molecular biology,
taxonomy, and geology, provide exhaustive examples of and powerful
evidence for current evolutionary theory. Genetic variation, natural
selection, speciation, and extinction are well-established components
of modern evolutionary theory. Explanations are constantly modified
and refined as warranted by new scientific evidence that accumulates
over time, which demonstrates the integrity and validity of the field.
Scientists have firmly established evolution as an important natural
process. Experimentation, logical analysis, and evidence-based revision
are procedures that clearly differentiate and separate science from
other ways of knowing. Explanations or ways of knowing that invoke
non-naturalistic or supernatural events or beings, whether called
"creation science," "scientific creationism," "intelligent
design theory," "young earth theory," or similar designations,
are outside the realm of science and not part of a valid science
curriculum.
The selection of topics covered in a biology curriculum should
accurately reflect the principles of biological science. Teaching
biology in an effective and scientifically honest manner requires that
evolution be taught in a standards-based instructional framework with
effective classroom discussions and laboratory experiences.
Adopted by the NABT Board of Directors, 1995. Revised 1997, 2000, and
May 2004. Endorsed by: The Society for the Study of Evolution, 1998;
The American Association of Physical Anthropologists, 1998.
NABT's Statement on Teaching Evolution
Supporting Material:
NABT endorses the following tenets of science, evolution, and biology
education. Teachers should take these tenets into account when teaching
evolution.
The Nature and Methods of Science
· Scientists do science by asking questions, proposing and
testing hypotheses, and designing empirical models and conceptual
frameworks for research about natural events. Scientists use both
observations and inferences to gather evidence and draw conclusions
respectively; inferences are logical conclusions based on observations.
Conclusions generate additional hypothesis testing, which yields
further observations and inferences. Theories are ultimately proposed
to explain observations and inferences, predict consequences, and solve
scientific problems.
· In science, a theory is an extensive explanation developed
from well-documented, reproducible sets of experimentally-derived data
from repeated observations of natural processes. Science does not base
theories on untestable dogmatic proposals or beliefs.
· Scientific theories can be-and often are-modified and
improved as new empirical evidence is uncovered. Science is a
constantly self-correcting endeavor to understand nature and natural
phenomena.
· The scientific study of evolution has both contemporary and
historical aspects. Scientists study contemporary processes directly
through observation and experiment. Scientists infer past processes
though the study of the historical record (for example, fossils and
rock strata) and contemporary results (for example, inferring past
evolution from the features of modern organisms.)
· Evolutionary theory holds a unique prominence in biology and
science for its unifying properties and predictive features, the clear
empirical testability of its models, and the richness of new scientific
research it fosters.
Essential Concepts of Biological Evolution
· The diversity of life on earth is the outcome of biological
evolution-an unpredictable and natural process of descent with
modification that is affected by natural selection, mutation, genetic
drift, migration and other natural biological and geological forces.
· Natural selection is the primary mechanism for evolutionary
changes and can be demonstrated both in the laboratory and in the wild.
A differential survival and reproduction of some genetic variants
within a population under an existing environmental state, natural
selection has no discernable direction or goal, including survival of a
species.
· Biological evolution refers to changes in populations, not
individuals. Changes must be successfully passed on to the next
generation. This means evolution results in heritable changes in a
population across many generations. In fact, evolution can be defined
as any change in the frequency of alleles within a gene pool from one
generation to the next.
Evolution in the Classroom
Evolution should be a recurrent theme throughout biology
courses.
Teaching the principles and mechanisms of evolution across the
biology curriculum--from molecular and cellular to organismal and
ecological levels--promotes a rational and coherent scientific account
of biology.
Science and religion differ in significant ways that make
it inappropriate to teach religious beliefs in the science classroom.
To contrast science with religion is not the role of science or science
education.
Teachers should respect diverse beliefs. Science teachers
can, and often do, hold devout religious beliefs, accept evolution as a
valid scientific theory, and teach the theory's mechanisms and
principles. Students can maintain their religious beliefs and learn the
scientific foundations of evolution.
Legal Issues and Evolution Education
Teachers should teach good science with the acknowledged support of the
courts. For example, in Epperson v. Arkansas (1968), the U.S. Supreme
Court struck down a 1928 Arkansas law prohibiting the teaching of
evolution in state schools.
In McLean v. Arkansas (1982), the federal district court invalidated a
state statute requiring equal classroom time for evolution and
creationism. Edwards v. Aguillard (1987) led to another Supreme Court
ruling against so-called "balanced treatment" of creation science and
evolution in public schools. Subsequent district and state court
decisions in Illinois , Minnesota and California have supported the
right of a district to prohibit an individual teacher from promoting
creation science in the classroom. A Louisiana district court has
struck down a disclaimer on evolution that teachers had been required
to read to students before evolution was taught.
After the demise of "equal time" for creationism laws, teachers
began to be pressured to teach evolution and "evidence against
evolution". The "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB) education bill
signed into law in 2002 is presented by antievolutionists as requiring
that evolution be "balanced" with "weaknesses in evolution" or
"scientific evidence against evolution". In the supporting
documentation that accompanies the bill, the NCLB contains a suggestion
that "... the curriculum should help students to understand the full
range of scientific views that exists, why such topics may generate
controversy, and how scientific discoveries profoundly affect
society." Called the "Santorum Language" named after the Senator
who proposed an earlier version of the statement, this recommendation
refers generally to controversial issues, with evolution only presented
as an example of a controversial issue. There is nothing in NCLB that
requires the teaching of any specific subject, or that evolution or any
specific subject be taught in any particular way. There is no warrant
for teaching "weaknesses in evolution" because of the NCLB.
All teachers and administrators should be mindful of these legal
issues, remembering that the law, science and NABT support them as they
appropriately include the teaching of evolution in the science
curriculum.
Suggested Readings
Aguillard, D. (1999). Evolution education in Louisiana public schools:
a decade following Edwards V. Aguillard. The American Biology Teacher,
61, pp. 182-188.
Dobzhansky, T. (1973). Nothing in biology makes sense except in the
light of evolution. The American Biology Teacher, 35, pp. 125-129.
Freeman, S. and Herron, J.C. (2000). Evolutionary Analysis, 2nd ed.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Prentice Hall.
Futuyma, D. , Meagher, Tom, et. al. (2000) Evolution, Science, and
Society, Evolutionay Biology and the National Research Agenda.
http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~ecolevol/fulldoc.pdf
Futuyma, D. (1998). Evolutionary Biology, 3rd ed. Sunderland , MA :
Sinauer Associates, Inc.
Futuyma, D. (1995). Science on Trial. Sunderland , MA : Sinauer
Associates, Inc.
Gillis, A. (1994). Keeping creationism out of the classroom.
Bioscience, 44, pp. 650-656.
Gould, S. (1994, October). The evolution of life on earth. Scientific
American, 271, pp. 85-91.
Kiklas, K. (1997). The Evolutionary Biology of Plants. Chicago : The
University of Chicago Press.
Matsumura, M. (Ed.). (1995). Voices for Evolution. Berkeley , CA : The
National Center for Science Education.
Mayr, E. (2001). What Evolution Is. New York , NY : Basic Books.
Moore, J. (1993). Science as a Way of Knowing--The Foundations of
Modern Biology. Cambridge , MA : Harvard University Press.
Moore, R. (1999). Creationism in the United States : VII. The Lingering
Threat. The American Biology Teacher, 61, pp. 330-340. See also
references therein to earlier articles in the series.
National Academy of Sciences. (1998). Teaching About Evolution and the
Nature of Science. Washington , DC : National Academy Press.
National Academy of Sciences. (1999). Science and Creationism-A View
from the National Academy of Sciences. Washington , DC : National
Academy Press.
National Center for Science Education. P.O. Box 9477 , Berkeley , CA
94709 . Numerous publications including NCSE Reports.
National Research Council. (1996). National Science Education
Standards. Washington , DC : National Academy Press.
Pennock, R.T. (1999). Tower of Babel : The Evidence Against the New
Creationism. Cambridge , MA : MIT Press.
Weiner, J. (1994). Beak of the Finch--A Story of Evolution in our
Time. New York : Alfred A. Knopf.
Zimmer, C. (2001). Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea. New York : Harper
Collins Publishers.
Adopted by the NABT Board of Directors, 1995. Revised 1997, 2000, and
May 2004. Endorsed by: The Society for the Study of Evolution, 1998;
The American Association of Physical Anthropologists, 1998.
.
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