Evolution content in school textbooks: data from eight European countries

Andreas Panayides; Xana Sá-Pinto; Evangelia Mavrikaki; Duur K. Aanen; Sara Aboim; Bento Cavadas; Radka Marta Dvorakova; Marcel Eens; Eliska Filova; Tanja Gregorčič; Nausica Kapsala; Mathijs Nieuwenhuis; Lino Ometto; Penelope Papadopoulou; Rianne Pinxten; Giulia Realdon; Nuno Ribeiro; José Luis Coelho da Silva; Bruno Sousa; Gregor Torkar; Konstantinos Korfiatis

doi:10.1186/s12052-024-00203-2

Evolution content in school textbooks: data from eight European countries

Andreas Panayides
, Xana Sá-Pinto
, Evangelia Mavrikaki
, Duur K. Aanen
, Sara Aboim
, Bento Cavadas
, Radka Marta Dvorakova
, Marcel Eens
, Eliska Filova
, Tanja Gregorčič
, Nausica Kapsala
, Mathijs Nieuwenhuis
, Lino Ometto
, Penelope Papadopoulou
, Rianne Pinxten
, Giulia Realdon
, Nuno Ribeiro
, José Luis Coelho da Silva
, Bruno Sousa
, Gregor Torkar

Konstantinos Korfiatis

CeiED - Interdisciplinary Research Centre for Education and Development

University of Cyprus
University of Aveiro
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Wageningen University & Research
Polytechnic of Porto
Santarém Polytechnic University
Charles University
University of Antwerp
University of Ljubljana
University of Pavia
University of Western Macedonia
University of Camerino
University of Porto
University of Minho
Alpoente–Albufeira Poente School Group

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Background: Evolution is a unifying theme in biology and its understanding is essential to address sustainability problems. However, many people across the world do not understand evolution. Textbooks are among the most widely used educational resources and the way they depict evolution may greatly impact students’ scientific literacy in evolution. In this paper we investigate which evolution concepts are addressed in European science textbooks, from the 1st to the 9th grade. A content analysis using the ‘Framework for the Assessment of school Curricula on the presence of Evolutionary concepts”, was performed on textbooks from eight European countries: Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal and Slovenia. At least two experienced coders per country independently analysed the texts, images and activities, discussed the results and reached a final consensus. Results: Our results show that textbooks lack or rarely address concepts considered important for evolution understanding, notably the processes driving evolution and their daily life implications, limiting opportunities for education for sustainability. Conclusions: We recommend that science textbooks emphasize evolution and its processes since the first school years. This recommendation is particularly relevant for the analysed textbooks from Cyprus and Belgium, that cover less than 45% of the concepts important to evolution literacy.

Original language	English
Article number	11
Journal	Evolution: Education and Outreach
Volume	17
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1186/s12052-024-00203-2
Publication status	Published - Dec 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2024.

Funding

This article is based on work from the project COST Action EuroScitizen: Building on Scientific Literacy in Evolution Towards Scientifically Responsible Europeans (CA17127), supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). Xana Sá-Pinto is funded by FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., under the Scientific Employment Stimulus—Individual Call—2022.06070.CEECIND/CP1720/CT0041 ( https://doi.org/10.54499/2022.06070.CEECIND/CP1720/CT0041 ). Nuno Ribeiro is supported by the FCT/Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology under grant CEECIND/00506/2018 ( https://doi.org/10.54499/CEECIND/00506/2018/CP1557/CT0002 ). Gregor Torkar was supported by the project Za kakovost slovenskih učbenikov [For the Quality of Slovene Textboks], which is co-funded by the Republic of Slovenia and the European Union from the European Social Fund, and by the project Developing the Twenty-first Century skills needed for sustainable development and quality education in the era of rapid technology-enhanced changes in the economic, social and natural environment, no. J5-4573, funded by Slovenian Research And Innovation Agency. This article is based on work from the project COST Action EuroScitizen: Building on Scientific Literacy in Evolution Towards Scientifically Responsible Europeans (CA17127), supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). This work is funded by national funds through FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., under the Scientific Employment Stimulus—Individual Call—2022.06070.CEECIND/CP1720/CT0041 ( https://doi.org/10.54499/2022.06070.CEECIND/CP1720/CT0041 ) and the CIDTFF Research Centre (projects UIDB/00194/2020 and UIDP/00194/2020). Nuno Ribeiro is supported by the FCT/Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology under grant CEECIND/00506/2018 ( https://doi.org/10.54499/CEECIND/00506/2018/CP1557/CT0002 ). Gregor Torkar and Tanja Gregorčič are supported by the project “Za kakovost slovenskih učbenikov” (For the Quality of Slovenian Textbooks, https://kauc.splet.arnes.si ), which is co-funded by the Republic of Slovenia and the European Union from the European Social Fund.

Funders	Funder number
The Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
European Cooperation in Science and Technology
CIDTFF Research Centre	UIDP/00194/2020, UIDB/00194/2020
European Social Fund Plus	J5-4573
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia	CEECIND/00506/2018, 2022.06070.CEECIND/CP1720/CT0041
Scientific Employment Stimulus	CEECIND/CP1720/CT0041

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 4 Quality Education
SDG 12 Responsible Consumption and Production

Keywords

Education for sustainability
Evolution education
Scientific literacy
Textbook analysis

Access to Document

10.1186/s12052-024-00203-2

Cite this

Panayides, A., Sá-Pinto, X., Mavrikaki, E., Aanen, D. K., Aboim, S., Cavadas, B., Dvorakova, R. M., Eens, M., Filova, E., Gregorčič, T., Kapsala, N., Nieuwenhuis, M., Ometto, L., Papadopoulou, P., Pinxten, R., Realdon, G., Ribeiro, N., Coelho da Silva, J. L., Sousa, B., ... Korfiatis, K. (2024). Evolution content in school textbooks: data from eight European countries. Evolution: Education and Outreach, 17(1), Article 11. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12052-024-00203-2

@article{c27ce48b3bd7417a9501bded1aae353b,

title = "Evolution content in school textbooks: data from eight European countries",

abstract = "Background: Evolution is a unifying theme in biology and its understanding is essential to address sustainability problems. However, many people across the world do not understand evolution. Textbooks are among the most widely used educational resources and the way they depict evolution may greatly impact students{\textquoteright} scientific literacy in evolution. In this paper we investigate which evolution concepts are addressed in European science textbooks, from the 1st to the 9th grade. A content analysis using the {\textquoteleft}Framework for the Assessment of school Curricula on the presence of Evolutionary concepts”, was performed on textbooks from eight European countries: Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal and Slovenia. At least two experienced coders per country independently analysed the texts, images and activities, discussed the results and reached a final consensus. Results: Our results show that textbooks lack or rarely address concepts considered important for evolution understanding, notably the processes driving evolution and their daily life implications, limiting opportunities for education for sustainability. Conclusions: We recommend that science textbooks emphasize evolution and its processes since the first school years. This recommendation is particularly relevant for the analysed textbooks from Cyprus and Belgium, that cover less than 45\% of the concepts important to evolution literacy.",

keywords = "Education for sustainability, Evolution education, Scientific literacy, Textbook analysis",

author = "Andreas Panayides and Xana S{\'a}-Pinto and Evangelia Mavrikaki and Aanen, \{Duur K.\} and Sara Aboim and Bento Cavadas and Dvorakova, \{Radka Marta\} and Marcel Eens and Eliska Filova and Tanja Gregor{\v c}i{\v c} and Nausica Kapsala and Mathijs Nieuwenhuis and Lino Ometto and Penelope Papadopoulou and Rianne Pinxten and Giulia Realdon and Nuno Ribeiro and \{Coelho da Silva\}, \{Jos{\'e} Luis\} and Bruno Sousa and Gregor Torkar and Konstantinos Korfiatis",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} The Author(s) 2024.",

year = "2024",

month = dec,

doi = "10.1186/s12052-024-00203-2",

language = "English",

volume = "17",

journal = "Evolution: Education and Outreach",

issn = "1936-6426",

publisher = "BioMed Central Ltd.",

number = "1",

}

Panayides, A, Sá-Pinto, X, Mavrikaki, E, Aanen, DK, Aboim, S, Cavadas, B, Dvorakova, RM, Eens, M, Filova, E, Gregorčič, T, Kapsala, N, Nieuwenhuis, M, Ometto, L, Papadopoulou, P, Pinxten, R, Realdon, G, Ribeiro, N, Coelho da Silva, JL, Sousa, B, Torkar, G & Korfiatis, K 2024, 'Evolution content in school textbooks: data from eight European countries', Evolution: Education and Outreach, vol. 17, no. 1, 11. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12052-024-00203-2

TY - JOUR

T1 - Evolution content in school textbooks

T2 - data from eight European countries

AU - Panayides, Andreas

AU - Sá-Pinto, Xana

AU - Mavrikaki, Evangelia

AU - Aanen, Duur K.

AU - Aboim, Sara

AU - Cavadas, Bento

AU - Dvorakova, Radka Marta

AU - Eens, Marcel

AU - Filova, Eliska

AU - Gregorčič, Tanja

AU - Kapsala, Nausica

AU - Nieuwenhuis, Mathijs

AU - Ometto, Lino

AU - Papadopoulou, Penelope

AU - Pinxten, Rianne

AU - Realdon, Giulia

AU - Ribeiro, Nuno

AU - Coelho da Silva, José Luis

AU - Sousa, Bruno

AU - Torkar, Gregor

AU - Korfiatis, Konstantinos

PY - 2024/12

Y1 - 2024/12

N2 - Background: Evolution is a unifying theme in biology and its understanding is essential to address sustainability problems. However, many people across the world do not understand evolution. Textbooks are among the most widely used educational resources and the way they depict evolution may greatly impact students’ scientific literacy in evolution. In this paper we investigate which evolution concepts are addressed in European science textbooks, from the 1st to the 9th grade. A content analysis using the ‘Framework for the Assessment of school Curricula on the presence of Evolutionary concepts”, was performed on textbooks from eight European countries: Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal and Slovenia. At least two experienced coders per country independently analysed the texts, images and activities, discussed the results and reached a final consensus. Results: Our results show that textbooks lack or rarely address concepts considered important for evolution understanding, notably the processes driving evolution and their daily life implications, limiting opportunities for education for sustainability. Conclusions: We recommend that science textbooks emphasize evolution and its processes since the first school years. This recommendation is particularly relevant for the analysed textbooks from Cyprus and Belgium, that cover less than 45% of the concepts important to evolution literacy.

AB - Background: Evolution is a unifying theme in biology and its understanding is essential to address sustainability problems. However, many people across the world do not understand evolution. Textbooks are among the most widely used educational resources and the way they depict evolution may greatly impact students’ scientific literacy in evolution. In this paper we investigate which evolution concepts are addressed in European science textbooks, from the 1st to the 9th grade. A content analysis using the ‘Framework for the Assessment of school Curricula on the presence of Evolutionary concepts”, was performed on textbooks from eight European countries: Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal and Slovenia. At least two experienced coders per country independently analysed the texts, images and activities, discussed the results and reached a final consensus. Results: Our results show that textbooks lack or rarely address concepts considered important for evolution understanding, notably the processes driving evolution and their daily life implications, limiting opportunities for education for sustainability. Conclusions: We recommend that science textbooks emphasize evolution and its processes since the first school years. This recommendation is particularly relevant for the analysed textbooks from Cyprus and Belgium, that cover less than 45% of the concepts important to evolution literacy.

KW - Education for sustainability

KW - Evolution education

KW - Scientific literacy

KW - Textbook analysis

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85198131765

U2 - 10.1186/s12052-024-00203-2

DO - 10.1186/s12052-024-00203-2

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85198131765

SN - 1936-6426

VL - 17

JO - Evolution: Education and Outreach

JF - Evolution: Education and Outreach

IS - 1

M1 - 11

ER -

Evolution content in school textbooks: data from eight European countries

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

UN SDGs

Keywords

Access to Document

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Cite this