Relationship between acceptance and understanding of the evolution theory by various groups of teachers

Abstract

In this paper a comparison is made among various groups of Serbian teachers (kindergarten teachers, primary school teachers, biologists, physicists, chemists) in terms of the following factors: acceptance and the understanding of evolution theory. In order to accomplish the tasks of this paper, the specific questionnaire model with parallel groups of teachers was applied (involving 341 teachers). The aim was to identify and measure differences in those factors among these large groups of teachers. The results show that biology teachers performed better on accepting and understanding the evolution theory in comparison with other groups of teachers. Also, we determined that there is a positive correlation between the acceptance and understanding the evolution theory for all groups of teachers. The findings indicate a necessity to enhance the evolution teaching contents in the Serbian system of education for groups of teachers who participated in this investigation. Modern teaching processes, at all levels of education, should involve adequate didactically prepared evolution teaching contents and courses.