What seems to work

With teaching it’s hard to say what works. Confirmation bias is rampant, educational outcomes are hard to measure. Often we just say that this seems to have worked well, based on positive feedback from students. I would like to discuss a few things that I think have worked for me in teaching evolution. I can’t claim any thing more than it seems to work.

There are three things that seem critical. The first is the nature of science. Of course, I am not alone in saying this. Groups such as AAAS and NCSE have all emphasized that evolution should be taught in the context of the nature of science. Before we talk about how we know evolution happened, we should talk more generally about how we know anything happened. When we teach the nature of science, we have to avoid simplified versions of it like they had in high school. Again, my approach isn’t that different from AAAS.

The second thing is a discussion of evolution and religion. It’s the 800 pound gorilla in the room and we can’t pretend it isn’t there. The most important thing is to overcome the false dichotomy many of them have—evolution or creation. I point out the wide range of views people have on the relationship of evolution to religion and give them excerpts from people holding each view, from Henry Morris to Richard Dawkins. I do not try too push one view over another, I just make them aware that it isn’t as black and white as they might have been lead to believe. I do make it clear that the science flatly contradicts a few of the views.

The third point is the history of the idea of evolution. I discuss ideas that came before evolution, evidence that was suggesting evolution before Darwin, and I also discuss the reaction to the Origin. I discuss scientific objections, how they were eventually answered, alternative views that were considered and rejected, and how this lead to the modern synthesis. I think the history of ideas is valuable in teaching all sciences, but especially so in evolution. They clearly see that there wasn’t a “Darwinistic establishment”. Evolution was not considered uncritically. Darwin got things wrong. The great age of the earth was accepted prior to evolution. They can see that objections to evolution that they hear today were first brought up over a century ago, and answered then. They can see that evolutionary biology emerged gradually from the evidence and is not an arbitrary theory from on high, which is how many people think of evolution.

I cover those three topics in the first three weeks of class. It lays the groundwork for much of what is to come. I revisit the nature of science throughout the course, and eventually discuss specific criticisms of evolution, once they have a stronger background in the science. It seems to work.