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1. A Revised Measure of Acceptance of the Theory of Evolution: Introducing the MATE 2.0

   https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.21-05-0127  

   Barnes, M. Elizabeth; Misheva, Taya; Supriya, K.; Rutledge, Michael; Brownell, Sara E. (March 2022, CBE—Life Sciences Education)

   Romine, William (Ed.)

   Hundreds of articles have explored the extent to which individuals accept evolution, and the Measure of Acceptance of the Theory of Evolution (MATE) is the most often used survey. However, research indicates the MATE has limitations, and it has not been updated since its creation more than 20 years ago. In this study, we revised the MATE using information from cognitive interviews with 62 students that revealed response process errors with the original instrument. We found that students answered items on the MATE based on constructs other than their acceptance of evolution, which led to answer choices that did not fully align with their actual acceptance. Students answered items based on their understanding of evolution and the nature of science and different definitions of evolution. We revised items on the MATE, conducted 29 cognitive interviews on the revised version, and administered it to 2881 students in 22 classes. We provide response process validity evidence for the new measure through cognitive interviews with students, structural validity through a Rasch dimensionality analysis, and concurrent validity evidence through correlations with other measures of evolution acceptance. Researchers can now measure student evolution acceptance using this new version of the survey, which we have called the MATE 2.0. 

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2. A New Measure of Students’ Perceived Conflict between Evolution and Religion (PCoRE) Is a Stronger Predictor of Evolution Acceptance than Understanding or Religiosity

   https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.21-02-0024  

   Barnes, M. Elizabeth; Supriya, K.; Zheng, Yi; Roberts, Julie A.; Brownell, Sara E. (September 2021, CBE—Life Sciences Education)

   Price, Rebecca (Ed.)

   Evolution is controversial among students and religiosity, religious affiliation, understanding of evolution, and demographics are predictors of evolution acceptance. However, quantitative research has not explored the unique impact of student perceived conflict between their religion and evolution as a major factor influencing evolution acceptance. We developed an instrument with validity evidence called “Perceived Conflict between Evolution and Religion” (PCoRE). Using this measure, we find that, among students in 26 biology courses in 11 states, adding student perceived conflict between their religion and evolution to linear mixed models more than doubled the capacity of the models to predict evolution acceptance compared with models that only included religiosity, religious affiliation, understanding of evolution, and demographics. Student perceived conflict between evolution and their religion was the strongest predictor of evolution acceptance among all variables and mediated the impact of religiosity on evolution acceptance. These results build upon prior literature that suggests that reducing perceived conflict between students’ religious beliefs and evolution can help raise evolution acceptance levels. Further, these results indicate that including measures of perceived conflict between religion and evolution in evolution acceptance studies in the future is important. 

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3. Conflict reducing practices in evolution education are associated with increases in evolution acceptance in a large naturalistic study

   https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0313490  

   Aini, Rahmi Qurota; Supriya, K; Dunlop, Hayley; Edwards, Baylee; Maas, Samantha; Roberts, Julie; Summersill, Alexa; Zheng, Yi; Brownell, Sara; Barnes, M Elizabeth (December 2024, PLOS ONE)

   Vallespin, Mc_Rollyn Daquiado (Ed.)

   Evolution is an important part of biology education, but many college biology students do not accept important components of evolution, like the evolution of humans. Practices that reduce perceived conflict between religion and evolution have been proposed to increase student evolution acceptance. This study investigates college student experiences of conflict reducing practices in evolution education and how these experiences are related to their gains in acceptance of human evolution during evolution instruction. We measured the natural variation in student experiences of conflict reducing practices among 6,719 college biology students in 55 courses and 14 states including (1) their experiences of an instructor demonstrating religion-evolutioncompatibilityby presenting examples of religious leaders and scientists who accept evolution and (2) their experiences of an instructor emphasizing students’autonomyin their own decision to accept evolution or not. We also measured student acceptance of human evolution before and after instruction so that we could test whether any changes in evolution acceptance were associated with student experiences of the conflict reducing practices. Linear mixed models showed that highly religious Christian students accepted evolution more when they perceived more compatibility practices. Further, students from all religious and non-religious affiliations accepted human evolution more after instruction when they perceived more autonomy practices. These results indicate that integrating examples of religion compatibility in evolution education will positively impact Christian students’ views on evolution and that emphasizing students’ autonomy over their decision to accept evolution may be important for students more broadly. If instructors incorporate practices that emphasize compatibility and one’s personal choice to accept or not accept evolution, then these results suggest that students will leave their college biology classes accepting evolution more. Perhaps by using more conflict reducing practices, instructors can help increase evolution acceptance levels that have remained low in the United States for decades. 

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4. “Accepting Evolution Means You Can’t Believe in God”: Atheistic Perceptions of Evolution among College Biology Students

   https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.19-05-0106  

   Barnes, M. Elizabeth; Dunlop, Hayley M.; Sinatra, Gale M.; Hendrix, Taija M.; Zheng, Yi; Brownell, Sara E. (June 2020, CBE—Life Sciences Education)

   Nehm, Ross (Ed.)

   Although many scientists agree that evolution does not make claims about God/god(s), students might assume that evolution is atheistic, and this may lead to lower evolution acceptance. In study 1, we surveyed 1081 college biology students at one university about their religiosity and evolution acceptance and asked what religious ideas someone would have to reject if that person were to accept evolution. Approximately half of students wrote that a person cannot believe in God/religion and accept evolution, indicating that these students may have atheistic perceptions of evolution. Religiosity was not related to whether a student wrote that evolution is atheistic, but writing that evolution is atheistic was associated with lower evolution acceptance among the more religious students. In study 2, we collected data from 1898 students in eight states in the United States using a closed-ended survey. We found that 56.5% of students perceived that evolution is atheistic even when they were given the option to choose an agnostic perception of evolution. Further, among the most religious students, those who thought evolution is atheistic were less accepting of evolution, less comfortable learning evolution, and perceived greater conflict between their personal religious beliefs and evolution than those who thought evolution is agnostic. 

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5. Muslim undergraduate biology students’ evolution acceptance in the United States

   https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0255588  

   Barnes, M. Elizabeth; Roberts, Julie A.; Maas, Samantha A.; Brownell, Sara E. (August 2021, PLOS ONE)

   Jensen, Jamie L. (Ed.)

   Evolution is a prominent component of biology education and remains controversial among college biology students in the United States who are mostly Christian, but science education researchers have not explored the attitudes of Muslim biology students in the United States. To explore perceptions of evolution among Muslim students in the United States, we surveyed 7,909 college students in 52 biology classes in 13 states about their acceptance of evolution, interest in evolution, and understanding of evolution. Muslim students in our sample, on average, did not agree with items that measured acceptance of macroevolution and human evolution. Further, on average, Muslim students agreed, but did not strongly agree with items measuring microevolution acceptance. Controlling for gender, major, race/ethnicity, and international status, we found that the evolution acceptance and interest levels of Muslim students were slightly higher than Protestant students and students who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. However, Muslim student evolution acceptance levels were significantly lower than Catholic, Jewish, Buddhist, and Hindu students as well as students who did not identify with a religion (agnostic and atheists). Muslim student understanding of evolution was similar to students from other affiliations, but was lower than agnostic and atheist students. We also examined which variables are associated with Muslim student acceptance of evolution and found that higher understanding of evolution and lower religiosity are positive predictors of evolution acceptance among Muslim students, which is similar to the broader population of biology students. These data are the first to document that Muslim students have lower acceptance of evolution compared to students from other affiliations in undergraduate biology classrooms in the United States. 

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