S4-1.2  Friday, Jan. 4  Update on the Effect of Engaging Prior Learning on Student Attitudes Toward Creationism and Evolution VERHEY, S. D.; Cascadia Carbon Institute verheys@hotmail.com

Americans frequently report non-rationalist views about creationism and evolution, and decades of efforts to improve evolution education have led to little or no difference in the beliefs of survey respondents. A majority of adult Americans report creationist beliefs, and a majority of Americans attend or have attended college. My work addresses evolution education at the college level.

Because creationist beliefs are so widespread, I decided to modify my majors-oriented introductory biology course to offer students some creationist/intelligent design information in addition to more traditional material on evolutionary biology. This strategy of engaging prior learning undeniably reflects sound pedagogy, but is controversial in the area of creationism-evolution education.

I modified my sections of the course to connect with the experiences, knowledge, and beliefs that most students bring to college with the intent of engaging prior creationist/evolutionist learning and emphasizing the nature of science. The effects of this approach on student creationist/evolutionist attitudes were compared with the effects of other sections of the same course that were taught by various instructors across three academic years.

Compared with students in other sections of the same class, students who had experienced a neutral presentation of some intelligent design information were significantly more likely to change their attitudes from christian literalist or young Earth creationist toward more rationalist views.