Survey of Japanese High School Biology Teachers’ Acceptance, Understanding, and Teaching of Evolution

Abstract

In this study, we surveyed Japanese in-service high school biology teachers to clarify their acceptance and understanding of evolution, the status of their teaching on evolution, and to make a preliminary analysis of the relationship between them. The results suggest the following five main findings: 1) The degree of acceptance of evolution among high school biology teachers was higher than that of general citizens, but not much different from biology teachers in other countries. The scores on the item related to the empirical nature of evolutionary biology were relatively low. 2) The high school biology teachers’ understanding of evolution was higher than that of general citizens, but there were some problems in understanding natural selection and the term adaptive radiation. 3) Regarding the implementation of lessons on evolution, scores for the use of video teaching materials tended to be relatively high, while scores for observation, experiments, and inquiry activities were low. The percentage of respondents who answered that they did not conduct any observation, experiment, or inquiry activities in these lessons was about 70%. 4) The enrichment of evolution classes was not related to acceptance and understanding of evolution or teaching experience. 5) 95% of teachers felt that there was a lack of teaching materials.