Development and validation of a framework for the assessment of school curricula on the presence of evolutionary concepts (FACE)

Evolution

article

Sá-Pinto, Xana¹  Rocha, Joana²  Stasinakis, Panagiotis K.³  Cavadas, Bento⁴  Crottini, Angelica⁶  Gnidovec, Tanja⁷  Nogueira, Teresa⁸  Papadopoulou, Penelope^1,10  Piccoli, Costanza⁶  Barstad, Johan^1,11  Dufour, Heloise D.^1,12  Realdon, Giulia^1,13  Pejchinovska, Milena^1,14  Pobric, Alma^1,15  Cvetković, Dragana^1,16  Mavrikaki, Evangelia^1,17  Torkar, Gregor⁷  Sousa, Bruno^1,18  Georgiou, Martha^1,19  Jeffries, Alex^2,20  Korfiatis, Konstantinos^2,21  Paolucci, Silvia^2,22  Pessoa, Patrícia¹ 

[1] Research Centre on Didactics and Technology in the Education of Trainers, Department of Education and Psychology, University of Aveiro;University of Trás-Os-Montes E Alto Douro;Ampelokipoi Laboratory Centre for Natural Sciences (EKFE);Polytechnic Institute of Santarém-School of Education;Lusófona University;Universidade Do Porto;University of Ljubljana Faculty of Education;National Institute for Agrarian and Veterinary Research;Centre for Ecology, University of Lisbon;Department of Early Childhood Education, University of Western Macedonia;University College of Green Development;Le Cercle FSER;UNICAMearth Group, Geology Section, University of Camerino;Faculty of Education, “St. Kliment Ohridski” University;Faculty of Science, University of Sarajevo;Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade;Faculty of Primary Education, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens;Alpoente, Agrupamento de Escolas de Albufeira Poente;Department of Biology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens;Milner Centre for Evolution, Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Bath;Department of Education, University of Cyprus;Laboratorio di Scienze Sperimentali

关键词: Curricula analysis;    Evolution education;    Content analysis;    Learning goals;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12052-021-00142-2

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

Evolution is a key concept of biology, fundamental to understand the world and address important societal problems, but research studies show that it is still not widely understood and accepted. Several factors are known to influence evolution acceptance and understanding, but little information is available regarding the impacts of the curriculum on these aspects. Very few curricula have been examined to assess the coverage of biological evolution. The available studies do not allow comparative analyses, due to the different methodologies employed by the authors. However, such an analysis would be useful for research purposes and for the development of appropriate educational policies to address the problem of a lack of evolution acceptance in some countries. In this paper we describe the steps through which we developed a valid and reliable instrument for curricula analysis known as FACE: “Framework to Assess the Coverage of biological Evolution by school curricula.” This framework was developed based on the “Understanding Evolution Conceptual Framework” (UECF). After an initial pilot study, our framework was reformulated based on identified issues and experts’ opinions. To generate validity and reliability evidence in support of the framework, it was applied to four European countries’ curricula. For each country, a team of a minimum of two national and two foreign coders worked independently to assess the curriculum using this framework for content analysis. Reliability evidence was estimated using Krippendorf's alpha and resulted in appropriate values for coding the examined curricula. Some issues that coders faced during the analysis were discussed and, to ensure better reliability for future researchers, additional guidelines and one extra category were included in the framework. The final version of the framework includes six categories and 34 subcategories. FACE is a useful tool for the analysis and the comparison of curricula and school textbooks regarding the coverage of evolution, and such results can guide curricula development.

【 授权许可】

Unknown