Understanding Adaptation and Natural Selection: Common Misconceptions

Abstract

 

Constituting a central and unifying base for all biological fields, theory of evolution is an interdisciplinary subject and plays an important role in understanding some basic concepts of biology. The main purpose of this research is to identify biology pre-service teachers’ misconceptions about adaptation and natural selection. For this purpose, research was conducted mixed methods research design that collects, analyzes, and mixes both quantitative and qualitative methods in a single study on 117 biology pre-service teachers studying at 2th, 3th, 4th and 5th classes of Ataturk University Kazım Karabekir Education Faculty. Too many misconceptions about mechanism and purpose of adaptation and natural selection held by pre-service teachers were determined through the qualitative and the quantitative data that were gained by using a two-tier diagnostic questionnaire that has 8 questions. Appropriate suggestions were made with the obtained results.

 

Keywords

• Natural selection, adaptation, evolution, misconceptions, biology pre-service teachers

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