Moving Evolution Education Forward: A Systematic Analysis of Literature to Identify Gaps in Collective Knowledge for...

Area of Science:

• Biology Education Research
• Evolutionary Biology

Background:

• Evolution is a core concept in biology, yet challenging for undergraduates to learn.
• Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) is crucial for effective science instruction, but developing topic-specific PCK is demanding for educators.
• Existing literature offers collective PCK, but its sufficiency for undergraduate evolution courses is unknown.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically assess the availability of collective PCK for teaching evolution in the scientific literature.
• To identify gaps between existing PCK and the topics covered in undergraduate evolution curricula.
• To inform future research priorities in evolution education.

Main Methods:

• Conducted an exhaustive literature search to identify relevant studies on PCK for evolution.
• Analyzed 316 papers to categorize evolutionary topics, focus (student thinking, assessment, instruction, goals), and study type.
• Compared the identified collective PCK with the content of 32 undergraduate evolution courses nationwide.

Main Results:

• The study identified specific evolutionary topics and PCK aspects that are well-represented in the literature.
• Significant gaps were found between the available collective PCK and the actual topics taught in undergraduate evolution courses.
• Certain areas of PCK for evolution education are under-researched or missing from the current literature.

Conclusions:

• The existing body of collective PCK for teaching evolution is insufficient to fully support undergraduate instructors.
• Priorities for the evolution education research community should focus on addressing identified PCK gaps.
• PCK serves as a valuable framework for directing future research in biology education, particularly for evolution.