- Oct 17, 2011
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Of course, teaching creationism (as the term is usually understood in this context) in public high school science classes is not just unscientific, but unconstitutional as a matter of law. As a matter of practice, however, we know it slips through the cracks here and there in places where no one complains.
Recently, the results of study surveying biology teachers at hundreds of public schools was published, replicating a similar study done in 2007. The Christian Post's take (and a link to the study itself):
A new study suggests there's been “substantial reductions in overtly creationist instruction” in United States public high schools in the last 12 years while there’s been a spike in the time teachers “devote to human evolution and general evolutionary processes.”
The new report titled “Teaching evolution in U.S. public schools: a continuing challenge” was released last week by Evolution: Education and Outreach, a peer-reviewed journal that promotes comprehensive teaching of evolutionary theory.
The study indicates that the average number of class hours devoted to the teaching of human evolution in U.S. public schools rose by 60% from 2007 to 2019 while the percentage of teachers who didn’t cover Creationism or Intelligent Design at all increased by 7%.
The study also finds that 82% of teachers didn’t teach Creationism or Intelligent Design at all in 2019, an increase from 75% of teachers who said the same thing in 2007.
The survey suggests that there was a drop — 8.6% in 2007 to 5.6% in 2019 — in teachers who reported "exclusively emphasizing creationism as a 'valid scientific alternative.'"
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A summary of the shift shows gains in science being taught as science and reductions in all of the avoidant or actively antiscience teaching styles.
Recently, the results of study surveying biology teachers at hundreds of public schools was published, replicating a similar study done in 2007. The Christian Post's take (and a link to the study itself):
A new study suggests there's been “substantial reductions in overtly creationist instruction” in United States public high schools in the last 12 years while there’s been a spike in the time teachers “devote to human evolution and general evolutionary processes.”
The new report titled “Teaching evolution in U.S. public schools: a continuing challenge” was released last week by Evolution: Education and Outreach, a peer-reviewed journal that promotes comprehensive teaching of evolutionary theory.
The study indicates that the average number of class hours devoted to the teaching of human evolution in U.S. public schools rose by 60% from 2007 to 2019 while the percentage of teachers who didn’t cover Creationism or Intelligent Design at all increased by 7%.
The study also finds that 82% of teachers didn’t teach Creationism or Intelligent Design at all in 2019, an increase from 75% of teachers who said the same thing in 2007.
The survey suggests that there was a drop — 8.6% in 2007 to 5.6% in 2019 — in teachers who reported "exclusively emphasizing creationism as a 'valid scientific alternative.'"
---
A summary of the shift shows gains in science being taught as science and reductions in all of the avoidant or actively antiscience teaching styles.