In the countries around us, key content on the theory of evolution begins to be taught in Primary Education on a mandatory basis and continues to be gradually incorporated throughout Secondary Education and Baccalaureate. In this way, when students reach the university stage they have a solid foundation on one of the great conceptual revolutions in the history of humanity. On the contrary, in Spain the level of knowledge that university students have about evolution is very low, as demonstrated by a recent study carried out in ten Spanish campuses and coordinated by the professor at the University of Vigo and researcher at the CIM (Marine Research Center), Emilio Rolán.
Precisely based on the “disappointing” results of this analysis and the data provided by a second project, coordinated by two professors from the University of A Coruña, in which they review the evolutionary content in Spanish education from Primary to High School, a group of professors from Spanish universities has just published a Manifesto in aid of education on evolutionary theory. The text is signed, among others, by the professor from Vigo, Emilio Rolán, and in it they urge the need to rethink the way in which biology content is taught at both pre-university and university levels. “We ask public managers to urgently review and reform our education system” and offer to those responsible for the different administrations to collaborate in this work “to help and advise” in this process and they emphasize that “not giving adequate importance to educational processes means in practice sliding slowly but surely towards ignorance in key aspects that should define any modern and advanced society”.
According to the authors of the manifesto, this reform of the university system would be of vital importance, since the study carried out among university students served to demonstrate that the more material on evolution the different universities included in the design of the career in question, “the better prepared their students were. This implies that decisions about how a teaching itinerary is organized have an impact on our students, as it could not be otherwise.”
The core ideas of evolutionary theory, only in optional subjects
Following the study made public a month ago carried out in ten Spanish universities and coordinated by Emilio Rolán, another project once again confirms the problem that exists in Spain with the training of students in terms of evolutionary theory. This time it was two researchers from A Coruña, Ánxela M. Bugallo and Lucía Vázquez, who have just published a review of evolutionary content in pre-university education in Spain. The result, as stated in the manifesto, “is again disappointing”, since it certifies that pre-university students “do not have any compulsory subject that reviews the fundamental principles of evolutionary theory” and that these contents “are only incorporated into optional subjects in ESO and Baccalaureate”, which implies that students who do not choose them “will finish their pre-university education lacking the slightest knowledge about evolution”. The researchers also compare Spain’s educational design with that of reference countries in the region “and we see that in them the key knowledge about evolutionary theory” is already beginning to be taught in Primary School.
Os asinantes do manifesto tamén alertan da posibilidade de que o que sucede coa teoría evolutiva, suceda tamén “no conxunto da educación científica”. Como posible causa, sinalan “o modo en que está concibida a estratexia docente actual, na que prima a impartición de inxentes cantidades de materia en detrimento da ensinanza dunha visión global coherente”. Como exemplo destacan que os contidos impartidos e avaliados en calquera das materias optativas de Bioloxía en ESO ou Bacharelato, “inclúen multitude de detalles acerca da bioquímica das distintas moléculas, mentres que deixan nun segundo plano as ideas máis relevantes que forman parte da teoría evolutiva, como a ascendencia común, a especiación ou a selección natural.
Source: DUVI
