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Biyoloji Öğretmen Adaylarının Evrim…
Misconceptions of Prospective Biology…
NEF-EFMED Cilt 11, Sayı 2, Aralık 2017/
NFE-EJMSE Vol. 11, No. 2, December 2017
Misconceptions of Prospective Biology Teachers about
Theory of Evolution
Bülent KESKİN
1
, Esra ÖZAY KÖSE
2
1
Işıklar Multi-Program Anatolian High School, Akçaabat, Trabzon;
2
Atatürk
University, Kazım Karabekir Education Faculty, Erzurum
Received : 20
.03.2017
Accepted :
25.10.2017
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 study is to identify the misconceptions of prospective biology teachers about the theory of
evolution. The study was conducted with 117 prospective biology teachers attending the Department of Biology
in Education faculty of Atatürk University in Turkey. A two tier misconception identification test consisting of
true-false questions on what the theory of evolution was used. Based on qualitative and quantitative data
obtained from test, it was found that teachers carry a great deal of misconceptions about this subject. It is
noteworthy that majority of the prospective biology teachers have misconceptions about the basic theory and
concepts of evolution as well as concepts describing the evolutionary process. Suggestions were made to address
and eliminate possible causes of these misconceptions.
Key words: misconceptions, prospective biology teachers, theory of evolution, biology education.
Introduction
Concept teaching is the most significant phenomenon that requires due consideration
in learning processes. By gaining an understanding of the concepts for a particular field,
relations between such concepts create a basis for new topics to be learned or taught.
Therefore, wrong or incomplete teaching of a concept would trigger the subsequent relations,
so this would lead to knock-on conceptual defects or misconceptions (Atasayar, 2008).
Misconceptions occurring in the minds of students prevent building of healthy ties
with new concepts and significantly impair the realization of the meaningful learning process.
For the effective teaching of knowledge, it is crucial to eliminate existing misconceptions and
__________________________________
* Corresponding Author: Bülent KESKİN, Dr., Işıklar Multi-Program Anatolian High School, Akçaabat,
Trabzon, TURKEY.
E-mail: kesbul@yahoo.com
Note: This article was produced from the first author’s doctoral thesis under the supervision of second author
KESKİN, B. & ÖZAY KÖSE, E.
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Necatibey Eğitim Fakültesi Elektronik Fen ve Matematik Eğitimi Dergisi
Necatibey Faculty of Education, Electronic Journal of Science and Mathematics Education
know about misconceptions in advance in favor of avoiding new misconceptions (Atılboz,
2004).
Misconceptions outcropped in daily life emerge when students logically reason based
on their
emotional information with limited information
. It is shown that students may be
equipped, upon teaching, with various background knowledge and concepts differing from
those accepted by scientific communities, and such preliminary conceptions may prevent
them from truly learning scientific principles and concepts. If background information is
incorrect, then further knowledge built upon them may also be incorrect (Ausubel, 1968).
Ideas of students may sometimes differ from scientifically accepted values or be incomplete.
It would not be wrong to conclude that, learning realized by building a link with past and new
information may be incomplete (Özmen & Demircioğlu, 2003).
Students need to understand the content of pure and applied sciences. This is the only
way of interpreting their own natural world and developing essential explanations for any
phenomena they encounter. Helping to eliminate the misconceptions of students is directly
correlated to streamlining their process of understanding the natural world they are a part of.
When students first attend the formal science classes, they carry with them intuitions,
prejudices and life experiences that are usually considered inconsistent. Such a combination
induces various challenges in teaching the concepts during science classes (Yağbasan &
Gülçiçek, 2003).
Studies in the field of biology reveal that teachers, prospective teachers and high
school students have incomplete knowledge of and carry misconceptions about
photosynthesis, ecology, plant biology, digestion, excretion, enzymes, cell division,
classification, food web, osmosis-diffusion, genetic, diversity of creatures, aerobic and
anaerobic respiration, vascular plants, growth and development of flowering plants,
greenhouse effect, vertebrate and invertebrate species, food chain, cell and evolution (Gülev,
2008; Kete, 2006; Tekkaya, Çapa & Yılmaz, 2000). And among such subjects misconceived,
evolution is ranked first, and it was found that teachers, prospective teachers as well as
students carry myriad of misconceptions about the concept of biological evolution (Baker and
Piburn, 1997; Bergman, 1979; Blackwell, Powell & Dukes, 2003; Dagher & BouJaoude,
2005; Author, 2010; Woods & Sharmann, 2001).
Research of misconceptions on evolution has examined various aspects. These studies
indicate that most students understand the concept of evolution as scientific theory although
somewhat various degrees of understandings and misconception were presented depending on