Investigating Filipino pre-service science teachers’ misconceptions, understanding, and acceptance of evolution
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36681/tused.2025.037Keywords:
Evolution, misconception, acceptance, pre-service science teachers, biology educationAbstract
Despite growing research on Evolution education, limited studies explore how misconceptions about Evolution relate to understanding and acceptance, particularly in the Philippine context. This descriptive-correlational study was participated by 114 senior pre-service science teachers enrolled in five teacher education institutions in the province of Nueva Ecija, Philippines. Results revealed that the respondents have a fairly high level of misconceptions regarding Evolution concepts, as reflected by 70.02 (SD = 7.43) BEL-MIS for the 23 BEL Survey statements with an average of 46.65% misconception rate. Moreover, understanding of Evolutionary theory was very low (ECKT: M = 34.25, SD = 13.76), while acceptance was moderate (MATE: M = 68.41, SD = 9.07). Furthermore, the analysis demonstrated an unexpected positive correlation between three out of five parameters of Evolution-related misconceptions and level of acceptance. This finding implies that even though the respondents have a fairly high level of misconceptions regarding Evolution, they still accept the theory. This result encouraged a holistic approach to studying the relationship of Evolution-related misconceptions to other Evolution education constructs in the future. The findings of the study demonstrated that the level of understanding and acceptance of Evolution are highly and positively correlated with one another. Thus, the result of this study supports the growing literature about the positive correlation between these two variables. The study contributes valuable insights to the Philippine context and highlights the importance of targeted interventions to improve Evolution education among pre-service science teachers.
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