Evolution in Early Education
Evolution is a core concept of biology. It allows to understand many aspects of the past, and it is also relevant for understanding current issues like multi-resistant germs. Despite its significance, persistent misconceptions exist among both children and adults (for an overview, see Kampourakis, 2014). Addressing these misconceptions through effective teaching is challenging, as the research literature is still fragmented, comprehensive overviews of misconceptions in combination with potential ways to tackle them are still missing. The fragmentation is especially prevalent in early education.
The first part of this research project addresses this gap by conducting systematic literature searches on misconceptions and instructional effectiveness in early education. The second part focuses on the concept of adaptation by natural selection. Initiating a targeted conceptual change early on might be beneficial, the existing interventions are limited. A promising approach involves picture book interventions (Emmons et al., 2016, 2018; Kelemen et al., 2014). I aim to make these storybooks about animal adaptation accessible for and replicate their effects with third grade primary school children in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. Furthermore, picture storybooks illustrating plant adaptation will be developed and evaluated. Two experimental classroom studies aim to identify the benefits of the single storybooks (Study 1) and their combinations (Study 2) for learning and transferring the concept of adaptation in primary school classrooms.
(Dissertationsprojekt von Rachel Schwager; Projektleitung: Prof. Dr. Lennart Schalk [PHSZ]; Betreuung: Prof. Dr. Elsbeth Stern [ETHZ])