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http://dx.doi.org/10.14697/jkase.2017.37.4.659

A Comparison between Korean and American College Students' Evolution Concepts based on the History of Evolutionary Ideas  

Ha, Minsu (Kangwon National University)
Publication Information
Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education / v.37, no.4, 2017 , pp. 659-668 More about this Journal
Abstract
This study was conducted to identify whether there is a significant difference in the developmental stages of the evolution concept depending on the major and the country. For this study, college students (both biology major and non-biology major) in Korea and the United States answered evolution concept assessment developed by Ha (2007). The data were analyzed based on the method of developed by Ha (2016). As a result of this study, Cronbach alpha for internal consistency reliability and MNSQ indices for item response fitness of the ordered multiple choice method providing 0 to 4 point scores to creationism, teleology, intentionality, use/disuse, and natural selection respectively, satisfied the benchmark. The level of Korean college students' evolution concepts was located in use/disuse and the level of USA college students' evolution concepts was located in teleology. No interaction effect was found between the difference of conceptual progressions of evolution concept by major and country and evolution contexts (human, animal, and plant). There was a significant relationship between developmental stages of evolution concept and their religiosity. Based on the results of this study, we discuss developmental characteristics of evolutionary concepts.
Keywords
evolution concept; ordered multiple choice; Rasch analysis; conceptual progression; multi-cultural study;
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