Bad Science Education

[DanDare]

To start, read P.Z.Myers article
Bad science education in the US (http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/01/bad_science_education_in_the_u.php)

Category: Academics (http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/academics/) • Creationism (http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/creationism/)
I am completely unsurprised by the recent report on the state of evolution in the American science classroom (http://www.sciencemag.org/content/331/6016/404.full). It confirms entirely my impressions from years of freshman college students and from previous studies of the subject, and puts specific numbers and issues to the problem.
The short summary: public schools suck at teaching basic biology. You already knew this, too, though, didn't you? The question has always been, "How bad?"


My daughter is in Y10 and learnt SFA up to Y9 in terms of real science. She is now going to the Queensland Academy of Maths Science and Technology and in her first week has started learning the theory of knowledge and the foundations of scientific method.

So, what is the situation across Australia?

[Darwinsbulldog]

I seem to be getting more YEC's and creationists in general in my University tutorials. :eek::(

[Fromm_Nicht]

I seem to be getting more YEC's and creationists in general in my University tutorials. :eek::(
A worrying trend indeed DB. Do you find that these students are easily brought back to the light when you present them with the evidence or are their YEC views deeply entrenched?

[Slothhead]

See below for the summary of findings for scientific literacy in Australia from the PISA 2009 report

If you want the report here is the webpage
http://www.acer.edu.au/ozpisa/reports

But although some of these figures may be good, a report last year showed that 30% believed that humans and dinosaurs coexisted.
http://www.fasts.org/images/News2010/science%20literacy%20report%20final%20270710.pdf

I know it is the case with at least one school that the students know the answers to put on the paper, but they dont believe it wen it comes to answering a survey.




Key Findings

◗◗ Australia was outperformed by six countries: Shanghai – China, Finland, Hong Kong
– China, Singapore, Japan and Korea in scientific literacy. Australia’s performance was
not significantly different from seven countries: New Zealand, Canada, Estonia, the
Netherlands, Chinese Taipei, Germany and Liechtenstein. All other countries performed at
a level significantly lower than Australia.

◗◗ Australia’s mean score of 527 points was significantly higher than the OECD average of
501 points for scientific literacy.

◗◗ Fourteen per cent of Australia’s students achieved the highest scientific literacy proficiency
levels (Level 5 or above) compared to eight per cent of students across OECD countries.

◗◗ Only 12 per cent of Australian students did not reach Level 2 in scientific literacy
compared to 18 percent of students across the OECD.

◗◗ Significant gender differences in scientific literacy scores in favour of females were
found 11 countries, and in favour of males in 10 other countries. No significant gender
differences in average scientific literacy scores were found in Australia.

◗◗ In Australia, 13 per cent of females and 16 percent of males achieved Level 5 or above
compared to eight per cent of females and nine per cent of males across OECD countries.
Fourteen per cent of Australian males and 11 per cent of Australian females failed to reach
Level 2, which was lower than the proportions across the OECD of 17 per cent for females
and 18 per cent for males.

◗◗ The Australian Capital Territory, Western Australia, New South Wales and Queensland
performed similarly in scientific literacy, with the Australian Capital Territory and Western
Australia performing significantly higher than four states (Victoria, South Australia,
Tasmania and the Northern Territory). New South Wales and Queensland performed
statistically similar to Victoria and South Australia and performed significantly higher than
Tasmania and the Northern Territory.

◗◗ Tasmania and the Northern Territory achieved similar results to the OECD average. All
other states performed significantly higher than the OECD average in scientific literacy.

◗◗ No significant differences in scientific literacy scores were found between school
sectors once a student’s individual socioeconomic background and the socioeconomic
background of peers at school were taken into account.

◗◗ The mean performance of Indigenous students in scientific literacy was significantly lower
than that of non-Indigenous students by more than two years of schooling.

◗◗ Two per cent of Indigenous students reached Level 5 or above in scientific literacy,
compared to 15 per cent of non-Indigenous students. Thirty-five per cent of Indigenous
students, compared to 12 per cent of non-Indigenous students, did not reach Level 2.

[Lazar]

A side note on PISA. While the science test does contain to evolution questions (one on horse hoof evolution and the other I cannot remember) , it is my understanding that those questions do not get counted in the final scores. Indeed I have had some difficulty in the past in obtaining the scores for these questions from the PISA database.

[Darwinsbulldog]

A worrying trend indeed DB. Do you find that these students are easily brought back to the light when you present them with the evidence or are their YEC views deeply entrenched?
It varies....some are just ignorant, but not willfully so, and I just bring out my powerpoints of Tiktaalik, Evo of the whale, and so on. Resistance is futile........;):):):)
I usually get a great deal of support from the majority in the class.
Of course, I also fill them full of my own woo about religion being a mental illness. :-). I even converted a Muslim girl [with a bit of help from-wait for it- a divinity student]!!!
She stopped wearing headgear, which was really nice, because she had such nice hair. I suspect she is atheist now, or at least agnostic. I have not seen her for a while, but she is a rabid evilootinist for sure!

[Lazar]

Of course, I also fill them full of my own woo about religion being a mental illness. :-).

:D think I just found my signature.

Interesting what you say DB. I will take up a position at UWS this year which is probably the university with the most Muslim students in Aus. I am interested to see how teaching there will go. I might have to get those powerpoint slides from you.

[DanDare]

Anyone have info on the presentation of evolution in high school curricula in Oz?

[Slothhead]

Dan,

Each state is slightly different in terms of hte curriculum, however, there is also some transition now with the national curriculum coming in.

So you will need to do a bit of leg work for each state but here is the NSW link
http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/syllabus_sc/

This is the cut/paste from the 7-10 document

5.8.3 the theory of
evolution and
natural selection
a) discuss evidence that present-day organisms have evolved from organisms
in the distant past
b) relate natural selection to the theory of evolution.

Theory of evolution by
natural selection
• research the interactions between Aboriginal peoples and the Australian megafauna
• discuss possible reasons for the evolution of Australia’s unique flora and fauna
• research case studies of extinct species and species at risk of extinction
• describe the impact of mass extinction on species diversity.


Not sure exactly though what you mean by presentation. It is up to individual teachers to teach their own way, provided they follow the curriculum.

So effectively, like what is happening at Deniliqiun (that cant be the right spelling) Christian college is that they teach it so the kids get the answers to the tests, but then just tell them that it is a different interpretation and off they go onto creationism.

There is no law at current that forbids the teaching of creationism in schools completely. SA have legislated that it cannot be instructed in the science class. But this isnt a hard thing to get around

"Ok kids, put your bibles away we are going to do some science"
Teacher then mutters to himself, 'actually i might just do some more religious education'
"Kids get out your bible and your biology texts"


I dont generally have an issue with the teaching of creationism provided that it is taught as a comparative mythology study. They should include the christian text, but also the aboriginal stories, and native americans and so on. Actually i find some of hte native american and aboriginal stories, oh and african creation myths much more interesting than any dessert myth. The problem is they dont do this, thus, i think they should be banned from teaching it until they run comparative courses.