Development and validation of a framework for the assessment of school curricula on the presence of evolutionary concepts (FACE)

Pejchinovska, Milena and Sá-Pinto, Xana and Realdon, Giulia and Torkar, Gregor and Sousa, Bruno and Georgiou, Martha and Jeffries, Alex and Korfiatis, Konstantinos and Paolucci, Silvia and Pessoa, Patrícia and Rocha, Joana and Stasinakis, Panagiotis K. and Cavadas, Bento and Angelica Crottini, Angelica and Gnidovec, Tanja and Nogueira, Teresa and Papadopoulou, Penelope and Piccoli, Costanza and Barstad, Johan and Dufour, Heloise D. and Pobric, Alma and Cvetković, Dragana and Mavrikaki, Evangelia (2021) Development and validation of a framework for the assessment of school curricula on the presence of evolutionary concepts (FACE). Evolution: Education and Outreach, 14 (3). ISSN 1936-6434

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Abstract

Evolution is a key concept of biology, fundamental to understand the world and address important societal problems, but research studies show that it is still not widely understood and accepted. Several factors are known to influence evolution acceptance and understanding, but little information is available regarding the impacts of the curriculum on these aspects. Very few curricula have been examined to assess the coverage of biological evolution. The available studies do not allow comparative analyses, due to the different methodologies employed by the authors. However, such an analysis would be useful for research purposes and for the development of appropriate educational policies to address the problem of a lack of evolution acceptance in some countries. In this paper we describe the steps through which we developed a valid and reliable instrument for curricula analysis known as FACE: “Framework to Assess the Coverage of biological Evolution by school curricula.” This framework was developed based on the “Understanding Evolution Conceptual Framework” (UECF). After an initial pilot study, our framework was reformulated based on identified issues and experts’ opinions. To generate validity and reliability evidence in support of the framework, it was applied to four European countries’ curricula. For each country, a team of a minimum of two national and two foreign coders worked independently to assess the curriculum using this framework for content analysis. Reliability evidence was estimated using Krippendorf's alpha and resulted in appropriate values for coding the examined curricula. Some issues that coders faced during the analysis were discussed and, to ensure better reliability for future researchers, additional guidelines and one extra category were included in the framework. The final version of the framework includes six categories and 34 subcategories. FACE is a useful tool for the analysis and the comparison of curricula and school textbooks regarding the coverage of evolution, and such results can guide curricula development.

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	Scientific Fields (Frascati) > Natural sciences > Biological sciences Scientific Fields (Frascati) > Social Sciences > Educational sciences
Divisions:	Faculty of Education
Depositing User:	Prof. d-r Milena Pejchinovska
Date Deposited:	27 Feb 2021 22:55
Last Modified:	27 Feb 2021 22:55
URI:	https://eprints.uklo.edu.mk/id/eprint/6278

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