Some of you may have observed that after teaching evolution and testing
students' knowledge of it, some of the A and B students comment that
although they understand Darwin's concepts, they nevertheless do not believe
it. Surely some of the students had religious training and come from
religious families, but many of the students are secular with non religious
peers and culture.

One explanation is, since the students demonstrated they learned the
concepts, cognitive dissonance occurred (Leon Fessinger). The students
reject evolution as a way of reducing the dissonance as opposed to embracing
evolutionary thought to reduce the dissonance.

Another explanation is, students reject attempts to get them to personally
accommodate to Darwin thought now matter how well they understand the
concepts.

Another explanation is the students are bright and they have attempted to
intellectually falsify the thesis, and they wind up rejecting it because of
its weaknesses and not being air tight.

Just how far do you think teaching should go to encourage personal
accommodation and adaptation to evolutionary thought? If faculty encourage
to students to use what they learn, is not social construction being
introduced in science teaching?

Your thoughts on any of the above will be appreciated. If there is enough
interest and new analysis, we may want to publish an article about it.

Best wishes,
Stephen

Stephen Miles Sacks, MPA, Ph.D.,
Editor and Publisher
SCIPOLICY-The Journal of Science and Health Policy
Box 504, Haverford, PA 19041
Voice and Fax: 610-658-2332 (24 hours)
Website: http://www.Scipolicy.net
E-mail: [log in to unmask]

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