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Acceptance and knowledge of the theory of evolution among students and teachers in Ecuador
(link available on the day of the broadcast)
The “Encontros Espresso” are a series of talks held at IIM-CSIC with the aim of helping us get to know each other better, learn more about the activity carried out at our centre and explore the world of marine science, encouraging scientific and technical discussion and strengthening links between groups. Both research and technical staff can participate to share their work, experiences and results.
These events are designed especially for our staff, but everyone is invited to join through our streaming broadcast.
This new format will be held every two weeks, at 10:00 in the IIM-CSIC Assembly Hall and will include complimentary coffee (“Espresso”) to help communication flow smoothly.
We open our first Encontros Espresso of 2024 with a visit from Emilio Rolán, Professor of Genetics at the University of Vigo.
Acceptance and knowledge of the theory of evolution among students and teachers in Ecuador
The theory of evolution is one of the most influential theories in the body of knowledge that describes our civilisation, and yet it is one of the most disputed theories in many countries by different social groups.
The causes that explain the difficulty of accepting this theory are multifactorial and have been discussed for years. They include:
1. Limited knowledge of how science works,
2. Limited knowledge of how evolutionary theory works,
3. Strong anti-evolutionary attitudes in some religions.
A group of Spanish and Ecuadorian teachers developed a voluntary online survey, which was distributed to hundreds of students and teachers in Ecuador to describe the degree of acceptance and knowledge of this theory.
The results show moderate acceptance and low knowledge of evolutionary theory. Students show a slight increase in acceptance compared with teachers, and teachers also show lower acceptance in the region of Ecuador where more anti-evolutionary beliefs are present.
Emilio Rolán Álvarez
He has been Professor of Genetics at the University of Vigo since 2010. His research has focused on adaptation, sexual selection and speciation in microevolutionary processes using marine snails of the genus Littorina as model organisms, through experimental, genetic and simulation studies. He has also published several reviews in related fields, such as sympatric speciation in L. saxatilis, evolutionary studies in Littorina, colour evolution in gastropods and the use of proteomics as an evolutionary tool.
He has worked on the development of new statistical tools for measuring sexual selection and sexual isolation, and for reviewing the probabilities of statistical tests under multiple testing.
More recently, he has turned his interest towards the impact of evolutionary theory on education, reflected in his work published in PLOS ONE (https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0238345). In addition, a website has been developed to disseminate evolutionary theory in Spanish (http://evolucion.webs7.uvigo). gl/index.html).