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Curriculum writers were more concerned with questions of faith that teaching evolution raises, whereas in-service teachers were concerned with their students’ difficulties in understanding natural selection and mutational randomness. However, some difficulties were heard only in the interviews. A questionnaire distributed among in-service Israeli teachers added strength to interviews with the curriculum writers, with both referring to some of the same difficulties. The findings revealed a wide range of perceived difficulties in the teaching and learning of evolution, mainly in the fields of religion, teacher and student knowledge, student maturity, and alternative perceptions. The aim of this study was to grasp the difficulties in the teaching and learning of evolution perceived by curriculum writers compared to those perceived by in-service junior high school science and technology teachers and high school biology teachers in Israel.
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Other difficulties, such as both teachers’ and students’ alternative perceptions, student maturity in the face of learning this complicated topic, and teachers’ gaps in evolution knowledge, add to the difficulties in teaching and learning evolution. The conflict between acceptance and disapproval of evolution has led to obstacles in its teaching and learning. This suggests that in spite of the nationalized AP curriculum, there are still gaps in fundamental knowledge, understandings, and approach that need to be addressed. Our results indicate that AP Biology teachers in the Southeast have understandings and levels of acceptance regarding evolution that are in line with or lower than those of fellow teachers. We surveyed 71 AP Biology teachers in a state in the southeastern United States to see how their levels of evolution content knowledge, evolution acceptance, and understandings of the nature of science compared to results that have been found in similar studies in general biology teachers and preservice science teachers. As such, it is expected that those teachers who are responsible for the AP Biology courses hold an advanced level of subjectarea expertise that extends to topics that are often seen as controversial in K-12 classrooms, including evolution. Students in the United States who wish to begin early enrollment in college-level coursework often turn to Advanced Placement (AP) secondary coursework such as AP Biology as an accelerated option.
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