TEACHING EVOLUTION USING HISTORICAL ARGUMENTS IN A CONCEPTUAL CHANGE STRATEGY

A historically rich teaching intervention was developed for biological evolution with the intent of promoting a conceptual change from stude nts' initial understanding to a more Darwinian understanding. The inte rvention was delivered in a small group setting to underprepared, entr y-level biology students. Evaluation of the treatment, using pre-post testing, was used to document the general effectiveness of the interve ntion and specific changes in students' conceptions of evolution. Resu lts indicate the use of historical materials in conjunction with a con ceptual change strategy to be promising. Specific strengths and weakne sses in specific areas of biological evolution are documented. (C) 199 5 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.