Ready to learn: Features of children’s intuitive theories about evolution predict subsequent learning

• In Event: The role of experience and beliefs in children’s biological reasoning

Abstract

Adaptation by natural selection is a foundational concept in biology, but many students struggle to understand this deeply counterintuitive mechanism. Research has identified many common misconceptions (Gregory, 2008; Rosengren et al., 2012) but suggests that particular misunderstandings—such as teleological misconceptions that animals transform to get the traits that they need—may pose a special challenge to adult learning (Barnes, et al., 2017; but see Evans, et al., 2012). However, less is known about impediments to learning in young children. This study therefore focused on individual differences to examine whether the presence of various pre-instructional intuitive misconceptions—especially teleological preconceptions—represent a particular barrier, or bridge, to children’s subsequent natural selection learning. It also examined whether children who display prior understanding of specific population-variability concepts (e.g., differential fitness/survival advantage) are better prepared for learning.

Second and third grade children (N=220) participated in a multi-day classroom intervention. The intervention consisted of a read-aloud of a custom storybook previously shown to help children understand the mechanism of adaptation (Kelemen, et al., 2014) and a classroom act-out activity that underscored the adaptive mechanism of differential survival and reproduction explained in the book. Children’s teachers conducted the intervention and administered detailed paper-and-pencil pre- and posttests. Assessments tapped children’s knowledge of differential fitness (e.g., survival and reproduction) of animals with different traits, and prompted them to integrate these facts to explain adaptation in a population over time. Children’s responses were coded into five levels of increasing natural selection understanding (see Figure 1). They were also coded for the presence of teleological and other misconceptions (e.g., population change due to uniform biological growth) as well as for accurate and inaccurate understanding of individual biological concepts.

Overall, children showed substantial learning from the teacher-led intervention despite the distractions of a classroom learning environment and challenging paper-and-pencil assessment, Wald χ2 (1) = 180.14, p < .001. Logistic regression revealed that the presence or absence of a misconception at pretest did not positively or negatively predict learning, p = .145. Furthermore, among children with pretest misconceptions (N=188), those who expressed teleological misconceptions were no more or less likely to learn than those who expressed nonteleological misconceptions, p =.387. However, among children who did not understand adaptation at pretest, prior knowledge of certain concepts did predict learning. In particular, while children gained no benefit from recognizing that some traits conferred survival advantages, p =.226, they did benefit if they understood that some traits conferred survival disadvantages and increased the likelihood of illness and death, p =.031.

These results suggest that possessing misconceptions—particularly teleological misconceptions—does not help or hinder children’s learning of adaptation. This child-adult difference raises the possibility that misconceptions may become problematic only after they become entrenched with time. The findings also indicate that scaffolding children’s recognition of individual susceptibilities to illness and death may prepare them for learning natural selection. Additional conclusions about the nature of children’s misconceptions and their effects on counterintuitive scientific learning will be discussed.

Authors

• Sarah A Brown, Boston University
  Presenting Author

• Samuel Ronfard, University of Toronto
  Non-Presenting Author

• Erin Doncaster, Boston University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Deb Kelemen, Boston University
  Non-Presenting Author