TY - JOUR
T1 - A Comparison of Online and In-Person Evolution Instruction That Includes Religious Cultural Competence
AU - Bowen, Chloe D.
AU - Summersill, Alexa R.
AU - Jensen, Jamie L.
AU - Brownell, Sara E.
AU - Barnesa, M. Elizabeth
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank the students who participated in this study and Rachel Scott for her editing of the manuscript. This research was funded by the National Science Foundation (IUSE 1818659). Funding was partially provided by ASU's HHMI Inclusive Excellence grant. We have no conflicts of interest to declare.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2022 Bowen et al.
PY - 2022/12
Y1 - 2022/12
N2 - Evolution is one of the most important concepts in biology, but it is rejected by a substantial percentage of religious students due to a perceived conflict with their religious beliefs. The use of religious cultural competence in evolution education (ReCCEE) has been shown to effectively increase evolution acceptance among religious students during in-person instruction, but there is no research that we know of that indicates the effectiveness of these practices during online instruction. In this study, we explored the efficacy of online culturally competent practices for religious students on students’ evolution understanding, evolution acceptance, and comfort learning evolution at a religious university. Before and after evolution instruction, we surveyed 178 students in online introductory biology courses and compared these student outcomes to 201 students in the same instructor’s in-person introductory biology courses. We found that evolution acceptance and understanding increased in online classes with culturally competent practices, and these gains were similar to those observed in the in-person courses. Despite these similarities, we found that students were more comfortable learning evolution in person than online, but this difference was small. Our findings suggest that the use of culturally competent practices online can be as effective as their use for in-person instruction for improving students’ attitudes toward evolution, but in-person instruction may be more effective for cultivating students’ comfort while learning evolution.
AB - Evolution is one of the most important concepts in biology, but it is rejected by a substantial percentage of religious students due to a perceived conflict with their religious beliefs. The use of religious cultural competence in evolution education (ReCCEE) has been shown to effectively increase evolution acceptance among religious students during in-person instruction, but there is no research that we know of that indicates the effectiveness of these practices during online instruction. In this study, we explored the efficacy of online culturally competent practices for religious students on students’ evolution understanding, evolution acceptance, and comfort learning evolution at a religious university. Before and after evolution instruction, we surveyed 178 students in online introductory biology courses and compared these student outcomes to 201 students in the same instructor’s in-person introductory biology courses. We found that evolution acceptance and understanding increased in online classes with culturally competent practices, and these gains were similar to those observed in the in-person courses. Despite these similarities, we found that students were more comfortable learning evolution in person than online, but this difference was small. Our findings suggest that the use of culturally competent practices online can be as effective as their use for in-person instruction for improving students’ attitudes toward evolution, but in-person instruction may be more effective for cultivating students’ comfort while learning evolution.
KW - evolution
KW - religion
KW - remote learning
KW - undergraduate
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U2 - 10.1128/jmbe.00067-22
DO - 10.1128/jmbe.00067-22
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85144170102
SN - 1935-7877
VL - 23
JO - Journal of Microbiology and Biology Education
JF - Journal of Microbiology and Biology Education
IS - 3
ER -