How strongly does statistical reasoning influence knowledge and acceptance of evolution?
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How strongly does statistical reasoning influence knowledge and acceptance of evolution? / Fiedler, Daniela; Sbeglia, Gena C.; Nehm, Ross H.; Harms, Ute.
In: Journal of Research in Science Teaching, Vol. 56, No. 9, 01.11.2019, p. 1183-1206.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - How strongly does statistical reasoning influence knowledge and acceptance of evolution?
AU - Fiedler, Daniela
AU - Sbeglia, Gena C.
AU - Nehm, Ross H.
AU - Harms, Ute
N1 - Funding Information: Vetenskapsrådet (Swedish Research Council), Grant/Award Number: 2012‐5344; National Science Foundation, Grant/Award Number: #1322872 Funding information Funding Information: The study reported here was part of the project “EvoVis: Challenging Threshold Concepts in Life Science – enhancing understanding of evolution by visualization”, funded by Vetenskapsrådet (Swedish Research Council). Sbeglia and Nehm were supported by the National Science Foundation grant #1322872. All views are those of the authors. We are very thankful to the students who participated in this study. Funding Information: The study reported here was part of the project ?EvoVis: Challenging Threshold Concepts in Life Science ? enhancing understanding of evolution by visualization?, funded by Vetenskapsr?det (Swedish Research Council). Sbeglia and Nehm were supported by the National Science Foundation grant #1322872. All views are those of the authors. We are very thankful to the students who participated in this study. Publisher Copyright: © 2019 The Authors. Journal of Research in Science Teaching published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
PY - 2019/11/1
Y1 - 2019/11/1
N2 - A large body of research has examined students' conceptions of evolution and their relationships to acceptance of evolution. Proficiency in statistical and probabilistic reasoning has long been considered to be an essential feature of evolutionary reasoning, yet almost no empirical work has explored these putative connections. The RaPro instruments have recently been developed to measure statistical reasoning in the contexts of mathematics (RaProMath) and evolution (RaProEvo). Our study provides additional validation of these instruments using Rasch analysis and quantifies the contribution of statistical reasoning to both understanding and accepting evolution. We recruited a large sample (N = 564) of undergraduate students enrolled in an introductory biology course at a large public research university in the United States. Students completed a suite of published instruments that assessed statistical reasoning, evolutionary understanding, and evolutionary acceptance. Our findings indicate that validity inferences derived from RaPro scores generalized to the new sample, and that proficiency in statistical reasoning explained 28% of the variance in evolutionary knowledge and 19% of the variation in evolutionary acceptance. The inclusion of demographic variables into the model significantly increased the explained variance in acceptance. Notably, the variance in evolution acceptance explained by statistical reasoning was comparable to that of thinking dispositions or evolutionary knowledge reported in the literature. This work provides the first large-scale evidence of the role of statistical reasoning in evolutionary knowledge and acceptance and motivates future work to explore how statistical literacy should be integrated into evolution education efforts.
AB - A large body of research has examined students' conceptions of evolution and their relationships to acceptance of evolution. Proficiency in statistical and probabilistic reasoning has long been considered to be an essential feature of evolutionary reasoning, yet almost no empirical work has explored these putative connections. The RaPro instruments have recently been developed to measure statistical reasoning in the contexts of mathematics (RaProMath) and evolution (RaProEvo). Our study provides additional validation of these instruments using Rasch analysis and quantifies the contribution of statistical reasoning to both understanding and accepting evolution. We recruited a large sample (N = 564) of undergraduate students enrolled in an introductory biology course at a large public research university in the United States. Students completed a suite of published instruments that assessed statistical reasoning, evolutionary understanding, and evolutionary acceptance. Our findings indicate that validity inferences derived from RaPro scores generalized to the new sample, and that proficiency in statistical reasoning explained 28% of the variance in evolutionary knowledge and 19% of the variation in evolutionary acceptance. The inclusion of demographic variables into the model significantly increased the explained variance in acceptance. Notably, the variance in evolution acceptance explained by statistical reasoning was comparable to that of thinking dispositions or evolutionary knowledge reported in the literature. This work provides the first large-scale evidence of the role of statistical reasoning in evolutionary knowledge and acceptance and motivates future work to explore how statistical literacy should be integrated into evolution education efforts.
KW - evolution
KW - randomness and probability
KW - threshold concepts
KW - undergraduates
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85073538867&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/tea.21547
DO - 10.1002/tea.21547
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85073538867
VL - 56
SP - 1183
EP - 1206
JO - Journal of Research in Science Teaching
JF - Journal of Research in Science Teaching
SN - 0022-4308
IS - 9
ER -
ID: 375593147