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Biology Teachers Conceptions of the

Diversity of Life and the Historical
Development of Evolutionary Concepts
a

Paloma Rodrigues da Silva , Mariana A. Bologna Soares de

b

Andrade & Ana Maria de Andrade Caldeira

a

Sciences Faculty, UNESP, Bauru, Brazil

UEL, Londrina, Brazil

Published online: 31 Mar 2014.

To cite this article: Paloma Rodrigues da Silva, Mariana A. Bologna Soares de Andrade & Ana
Maria de Andrade Caldeira (2014): Biology Teachers Conceptions of the Diversity of Life and
the Historical Development of Evolutionary Concepts, Journal of Biological Education, DOI:
10.1080/00219266.2014.882377
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Journal of Biological Education, 2014

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00219266.2014.882377

Biology Teachers Conceptions of the

Diversity of Life and the Historical
Development of Evolutionary Concepts

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Paloma Rodrigues da Silvaa*, Mariana A. Bologna Soares de

Andradeb and Ana Maria de Andrade Caldeiraa
a

Sciences Faculty, UNESP, Bauru, Brazil; bUEL, Londrina, Brazil

Biology is a science that involves study of the diversity of living organisms. This diversity has always
generated questions and has motivated cultures to seek plausible explanations for the differences and
similarities between types of organisms. In biology teaching, these issues are addressed by adopting an
evolutionary approach. The aim of this study was to compare the extent to which the beliefs of 20 public high school biology teachers in the Bauru region of So Paulo in Brazil exemplied the most signicant historical concepts regarding evolution. Data from open-ended interviews with teachers were
analysed and coded. The analysis of the interviews revealed how participating biology teachers understood and explained biological evolution. The assessment of teachers conceptions about evolution indicated that many responses expressed current scientically accepted concepts, such as transformism,
natural selection, gradualism and common descent. However, some teachers also provided responses that
combined scientic concepts with non-scientic notions, such as nalism, verticality and adaptation to
the environment. Therefore, it is necessary to thoroughly investigate biology teachers understanding of
evolutionary processes.

Keywords: Teaching of biology; Conceptions of teachers; Biological evolution

Introduction
Biology is a science that involves study of the diversity of living organisms. People from
various cultures have always sought plausible explanations for the processes responsible
for differences and similarities between types of organisms. This diversity is central to
the teaching of biology, which adopts an evolutionary approach to understanding these
issues. Because biological evolution encompasses all areas of biology, evolution is the
unifying and central theme that explains both the differences and the similarities between
types of organisms.
*Corresponding author. Sciences Faculty, UNESP, Bauru, S. Paulo 17033360, Brazil. Email:
paloma.bio@hotmail.com
2014 Society of Biology

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P.R. da Silva et al.

Gould (1996) argues that the process of evolution is the most important and the most
misunderstood of all biological concepts. It is important to examine how this subject is
presented in the classroom because the teachers role is to enable students to learn about
scientic concepts and to distinguish scientic from non-scientic concepts.
However, acceptance and understanding of this theory, its concepts and its models
remains controversial for biology teachers. In his work, Smith (2010) thoroughly discussed the differences that distinguish the concepts of knowledge, acceptance, belief
and understanding. Smith suggests that to understand biological phenomena, it is necessary for students to comprehend the epistemological assumptions sustaining the theory of
evolution and to accept evolution as a valid scientic explanation. We agree with Smiths
differentiation; although beliefs of a non-scientic nature coexist among students and
even among teachers, the process of teaching and learning evolution, which relies on scientic ideas and beliefs, requires that students understand the nature of each explanation,
distinguish between the scientic and the non-scientic and, furthermore, use scientic
knowledge to understand biological phenomena. Smith demonstrates that students may
agree with different explanations but that this does not necessarily preclude comprehension if the students clearly understand the origins and assumptions of each explanation.
Although studies indicate that religious belief is a contributing factor to non-acceptance
of evolutionary theory, aspects inherent to teacher training and a lack of knowledge and
misconceptions regarding evolution are also limiting factors (Nehm and Schonfeld 2007;
Nehm, Kim and Sheppard 2009; Paz-y-Mio-C and Espinosa 2012).
Some of these studies also relate to teachers knowledge of biological evolution and
the nature of science. In a survey of 1039 teachers, Rutledge and Warden (2000) showed
that low acceptance of evolutionary theory was related to the teachers low level of
understanding of the nature of science; namely, the teachers showed a low level of understanding regarding how scientic knowledge is generated, the means by which the validity of scientic knowledge claims is established, and the attributes engendered to
scientic knowledge claims as a result of scientic methodology (Rutledge and Warden
2000, 25).
The situation is no different in Brazil. Studies also indicate teachers misconceptions
and an absence of knowledge on topicsincluding evolution, the origin of life, chemistry
and biologywhich enable greater understanding of evolutionary theories (Meglhioratti,
Caldeira, and Bortolozzi 2006; Cerqueira 2009).
Those studies indicated there was no direct relationship with the decrease in religious
convictions about biological evolution even with teachers increased understanding of evolutionary theory. According to Quessada and Clment (2010), evolution and creationism
are not necessarily conicting perspectives. Gould (1999) also argues that religion and
science are non-overlapping magisteria, having separate domains of teaching authority.
We understand that teachers may have their own ideas regarding religion; however, in
biology classes, teachers should encourage students to understand scientically developed
arguments. In another study on the evolutionary conceptions of Brazilian biology teachers,
Caldeira, Arajo, and Carvalho (2011) identied a high percentage of creationist teachers
in Brazil who failed to abandon their religious beliefs when teaching biology.
In this study, the authors (2011, 318) asked, Why do the respondents accept both
creationist and evolutionist ideas, with no apparent conict between them? Does this

Biology Teachers Conceptions

constitute an obstacle for evolution teaching? One possible answer to the rst question
can be taken from the model of changes in conceptual prole (Mortimer 1995), which
explains that people do not need to abandon or replace their previous/alternative conceptions to understand a scientic conceptthat is, it is possible for two or more meanings of
the same word or concept to coexist in a single person, to be evoked in the suitable context.
As stated by El-Hani and Bizzo (2002, 19):

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the teaching of science should, above all, show students how a set of problems is solved by the
scientic perspective, broadening the spectrum of possibilities available to them. Now, the question of whether or not students believe in the scientic conceptions, rather than only understand
them, can be properly understood as a problem of an intimate nature of the student being examined by him in the context of his worldview, in the light of ideas that have strength and power.

As Smith (2010) has suggested, the teachers role in the classroom is to provide learning
situations that allow students to understand the theory of evolution and to accept it as a
valid scientic explanation. The students and teachers individual beliefs, whether scientic or not, do not present an obstacle if they understand the origins and assumptions of
each belief. In other words, giving equal weight to scientic and non-scientic assumptions may hamper the teaching and learning process.
Therefore, the focus of this study centres on teachers perspectives of evolution and
their knowledge related to the origin, development and modication of living organisms.
Regarding the conceptual aspects of biological evolution, we considered another key
aspect related to teachers understanding of evolutionary theory and knowledge of the
history of science. Rudolph and Stewart (1998) showed how knowledge of the history of
sciencein this case, how Darwins theory has been received and understood by the
scientic community since its publicationmight decrease differences and misunderstandings between teachers in their knowledge of biological evolution. The understanding that
the currently studied evolutionary theory has a history with many subjects, explanations,
concepts and models generated the following questions: What biological explanations of
evolution occur in biology teachers discourse? How may we relate these explanations to
the historical design of evolutionary theory?

Research Issues
Because it is important for teachers to fully comprehend the process of evolution, we
investigated how a sample of 20 high school biology teachers explained the diversity of
organisms. The aim of this study was to compare the concepts of the teachers who participated in this research with the most signicant historical concepts and explanations for
the diversity of organisms and the processes through which organisms change. From
ancient times until the eighteenth century, theorists did not adopt an evolutionary
approach to explain variations among species. Evolutionary theories emerged only in the
nineteenth century, and thinking on this topic has continued to develop until the present.
Therefore, a historical survey of these explanations illustrates the many theories that have
addressed the diversity of living beings, from broad and religious approaches to the
modern scientic approaches that emerged in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

P.R. da Silva et al.

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Methodology
This research was conducted with a group of 20 high school biology teachers from public
schools in the region of Bauru, So Paulo, Brazil, and was characterised as a purposeful
sampling study (Patton 2002). The research was a component of a larger study, the objectives of which were to understand teachers concepts of biological life and the relationships between the teachers concepts of life and their understanding of the evolutionary
processes of living beings.
We observed that 18 of the 20 teachers held concepts of evolution that affected their
discourse on the concept of life. With this in mind, we aimed to identify how teachers
understood the concept of evolution using historical categories as benchmarks. Some
questions used in the interview questionnaire were selected for the evolutionary analysis,
including: Do you think that a denition of life is important? Why?; In your opinion,
what is life?; Several scientists mention articial life because some computer viruses
show characteristics typical of living beings (self-organisation, competition, growth,
development and adaptive evolution, among others). What is your opinion on that matter?; How do you think life appeared on Earth?; Many people believe that life was created by or is a gift from God. What is your opinion on that matter? How do you
approach this topic in the classroom?
All teachers possessed a degree in the biological sciences, which is a prerequisite to
teach biology in Brazil. The subjects mean age was 40.7 years old; the youngest was
24 years old and the oldest was 55 years old. The average time for which the subjects
had taught was 14.3 years; the shortest teaching time was ve years and the longest
teaching time was 32 years. The majority of the interviewed teachers identied themselves as Catholic (60.0%). The remaining teachers identied themselves as spiritualists
(15.0%) or Evangelicals (5.0%), or stated they were without a dened religion (20.0%).
However, even those who do not identify with any specic religion are immersed in
Brazilian religious culture, which is composed primarily of Catholics, Protestants and
neo-Pentecostals.
The interviews were conducted individually, audio-recorded and subsequently
transcribed.
To identify teachers concepts of evolutionary processes, a historical review of these
processes was conducted to determine the units or categories of analysis (Patton 2002).
The teachers conceptions were then grouped according to the conceptual similarities that
characterised the categories described in the historical review. Although the categories
were established a priori according to the historical review, one category emerged after
data analysis; namely, Dawkins selsh gene concept.
We emphasise that it is not our goal to generalise the data observed in this study; however, the importance of this type of research is signicant because studying a particular
case may identify general aspects that can be related to other convergent situations. Furthermore, we understand that linking case studies with other research strategies enables
greater enrichment in the development of new knowledge.

Biology Teachers Conceptions

Historical Review
The historical review was guided by the work of Mayr (1982) and described concepts of
diversity, organisms development and transformations in three historical periods: the rst
period (origin without evolution), which explained the diversity of life without adopting
evolutionary theories; the second period (pre-Darwinian evolution), which included
Lamarckian concepts; and the third period (post-Darwinian evolution), which covers the
period from Darwins work to contemporary theories about evolutionary processes (Mayr
1982).
To provide an overview, the review focused only on the most prominent explanations
and theories within each historical period.

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The First Period: Origin without evolution

The explanations of biological diversity that arose between classical antiquity and the nineteenth century did not adopt an evolutionary approach. Mayr (1982) notes that because science, as we currently understand the term, was not fully established during this era,
philosophical and scientic explanations of biological diversity were drawn from different
elds of knowledge and were strongly inuenced by religion and individuals ways of life.
During this period, there were six concepts and explanations related to the diversity of
organisms: xism, nalism, essentialism, typology, creationism and spontaneous generation.
Fixism. From classical antiquity until the nineteenth century, xism was a widely
accepted concept to explain the diversity of living beings. According to adherents of xism, life forms do not undergo any modication after their creation. Until the emergence
of the theory of evolution at beginning of the nineteenth century, xism was the dominant paradigm in the natural sciences (Freire-Maia 1997). Thus, the predominant worldview was that humans lived on an unalterable planet populated by unchanging species.
Finalism. Another concept during this period was nalism, which is based upon the idea
that changes in life forms occur for a purpose. These concepts were based on Platonic
and Aristotelian ideas, the latter of which studied the ultimate ends of society, humanity
and nature. According to Vlastos (1978), Plato proposed the existence of a God who created the universe by forging matter to conform to ideal models. For Aristotle, every event
occurring in nature served a purpose (Ross 2009). Aristotelian theory focused on the teleological question to what end? and sought to identify the purpose of organisms.
Essentialism. Essentialism was also a recurring concept in earlier centuries. Essentialist
authors defended the existence of an essence that differed from one species to another
or argued that each species had an internal mould that dened its shape. Essentialist
ideas are present in Christian theology, which claims that God created living beings based
on a scale of complexity that begins with inanimate matter and proceeds through plants,
inferior animals and humans to angels and superior beings (Futuyma 1997). Thus, the
natural sciences of the time were limited to cataloguing the functions of animals and
plants to identify Gods plan. These ideas prevailed until the end of the eighteenth

P.R. da Silva et al.

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century and the beginning of the nineteenth century, when new ideas regarding the origin
of the species emerged.
Typology. Typology is the concept that subtypes are based on a limited number of basic
types. This concept initially appeared in the works of Aristotle and Plato and was
expressed in the eighteenth century by Buffon and De Maillet. Ross (2009) notes that
Aristotle proposed there was an ideal type for each species based on its specic purpose.
Variations observed in the same species were explained by material imperfections rather
than by natures nal cause. In the eighteenth century, the concept of typology appeared
in Buffons writings. For example, Buffon proposed that contact with different environments led felines such as tigers, lions, leopards, pumas and domestic cats to originate
from an ancestral cat species (Meyer and El-Hani 2005). De Maillet also appealed to this
concept when he proposed that seeds originating with marine living beings later developed into all of the other species.
Creationism. Creationism, which presumes that all living beings were created by a superior being, was another widely occurring concept. This idea appeared in Aristotle and
Platos work, which compared God to an artist who was responsible for creation (Vlastos
1978). Creationism was an accepted concept in the scientic community at the beginning
of the nineteenth century, before new evolutionary theories were proposed. Because it
was widely accepted, the creationist concept inuenced scientic and philosophical explanations about biological diversity during this period.
Spontaneous generation. The concept of spontaneous generation, which is based on the
premise that living beings can arise from inanimate matter, was also prevalent during this
historical period. This concept, which originally appeared during ancient times, persisted
until the nineteenth century. According to Meyer and El-Hani (2005), Buffon argued that
spontaneous generation originated new types of living beings and that environmental
inuences increased the diversity of living individuals.

The Second Period: Pre-Darwinian evolution

According to Mayr (1991), the period between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
was marked by the rst inquiries into evolution. This period was also important because
theories and discoveries from comparative anatomy, geology, paleontology and systematics (Grene and Depew 2004) contributed to new ways of thinking about organisms
diversity. Although there were important scientic developments during this time and the
works of various thinkers addressed the concept of evolution, none of them had made
the decisive step of converting the unbroken chain of a created sequence of ever greater
perfection into a line of descent (Mayr 1982, 343). Thus Lamarcks theory was important for the development of evolutionary theories, because Lamarck replaced this static
world picture by a dynamic one in which not only species but the whole chain of being
and the entire balance of nature was constantly in ux (Mayr 1982, 352). Lamarck
contributed to knowledge of the living world with the rst inquiries into the principles

Biology Teachers Conceptions

underlying changes in organisms. During this period, the four fundamental principles
illustrated in the Lamarckian theory of the evolution of the species were: living beings
tend to increase in organic complexity, which is illustrated by the major categories of animals and plants; the environment inuences changes in animals organs; the use and disuse of structures; and the inheritance of acquired traits.

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Adaptation to the environment. One of Lamarcks four basic laws and a fundamental
principle of his theory was the environments inuence on modications in organisms.
According to Gould (1992), the concept of adaptation to the environment was based upon
the idea that organisms become aware of and adapt to environmental changes by developing a shape, function or behaviour that is appropriate for the new environment.
Verticality. Verticality was a recurring concept in Lamarckian theory. Lamarck argued that
modications of living beings increased complexity in the growth and the development of
organisms and that organisms improved as they evolved due to the inherent power of life.
Use and disuse. Use and disuse was also one of Lamarcks fundamental principles,
because the modication of organisms was not seen as a passive process. Rather, environmental changes that altered organisms needs produced changes in behaviours that led
to the greater use or disuse of certain structures or organs. This use or disuse determined
the extent to which structures did or did not develop.
Inheritance of acquired traits. Another Lamarckian theoretical principle was the inheritance of acquired traits, the concept that physiological changes acquired during an organisms life could be transmitted to its offspring. It should be noted that Darwin also
mentioned the principles of use and disuse and the inheritance of acquired traits in On
the Origin of Species:
Variability is governed by many unknown laws, more especially by that of correlation of growth.
Something may be attributed to the direct action of the conditions of life. Something must be attributed to use and disuse. The nal result is thus rendered innitely complex (Darwin 1859, 43).
I think there can be little doubt that use in our domestic animals strengthens and enlarges certain
parts, and disuse diminishes them; and that such modications are inherited (Darwin 1859, 134).

Third Period: Post-Darwinian evolution

The modern period includes evolutionary theories and concepts from Darwin to the present. Darwins work provides a starting point for this period because of its importance for
subsequent evolutionary theories, as well as its overall contribution to biological knowledge.
Darwin was not the rst to advance a theory of evolution, but he was the rst not only to propose
a feasible mechanism, namely, natural selection ... but also to bring together such overwhelming
evidence that within ten years after 1859 hardly a competent biologist was left who did not accept
the fact of evolution. (Mayr 1982, 427)

P.R. da Silva et al.

This time period has been marked by the establishment of biology as a scientic eld, as
well as the appearance and rapid development of the eld of genetics. These two factors
contributed to the formation of evolutionary theories, although these theories have exhibited disagreement in certain respects with regard to the concepts of transformism, natural
selection, gradualism, common descent, genetic variation, punctuated equilibrium, neutrality and the selsh gene.

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Transformism. After the nineteenth century, the concept of transformism appeared in the
scientic community. Transformism, which is opposed to the xism of earlier periods, is
a variant of evolutionary theory which proposes that species transform over time.
Natural selection. Inuenced by biological evidence from the study of fossils, comparative anatomy and embryology, Darwin proposed the theory of natural selection in On the
Origin of Species, which was published in 1859. Darwins view of modications in living
beings was that species evolved by a process of selection based on abundant biological
variants.
In a section titled Circumstances favorable to natural selection, Darwin stated:
A large number of individuals, by giving a better chance for the appearance within any given period of protable variations, will compensate for a lesser amount of variability in each individual,
and is, I believe, an extremely important element of success. Though nature grants vast periods of
time for the work of natural selection, she does not grant an indenite period; for as all organic
beings are striving, it may be said, to seize on each place in the economy of nature, if any one
species does not become modied and improved in a corresponding degree with its competitors,
it will soon be exterminated. (Darwin 1859, 102)

The publication of On the Origin of Species generated considerable discussion, and the
concept of natural selection was used to explain extinction but not the appearance of new
species. Moreover, the theory did not provide an explanation for the mechanism underlying genetic modications, which was only provided by the later synthetic theory of evolution.
Gradualism. The concept of gradualism, which appeared in theories proposed at the end
of the nineteenth century, is currently widely accepted. This variant proposes that evolutionary modications are progressive and result from the accumulation of small modications over several generations. It is possible to nd the concept of gradualism in
Darwins workthe idea that living beings modications occur gradually rather than
suddenly.
Common descent. By the end of the nineteenth century, there was increasing acceptance
of the theory of common descent, which proposes that all living beings share a common
ancestor. Darwin mentioned this principle in On the Origin of Species:
All the individuals of the same species, and all the species of the same genus, or even higher
group, must have descended from common parents; and therefore, in however distant and isolated
parts of the world they are now found, they must in the course of successive generations have
passed from some one part to the others. (Darwin 1859, 461)

Biology Teachers Conceptions

This concept remains prevalent in scientic concepts of the evolution of organisms

because evidence from molecular biology has corroborated Darwins claim.

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Genetic variation. With the development of genetics in the twentieth century, evolutionary theories began to be directly associated with genetic knowledge. The synthetic theory
of evolution emerged between 1936 and 1950 (Mayr 1988).
According to Futuyma (1997), the synthesis of evolution and genetics is based on four
fundamental principles: genetic variations in populations are produced by random mutations and recombinations; evolution occurs in populations due to modications in genetic
frequencies based on random genetic drift, genetic ow and natural selection; most adaptive genetic variations exhibit small phenotypical effects in individuals; and diversication occurs through speciation.
Therefore, in neo-Darwinian biological evolutionary theory, evolution of species over
time is based on organisms ability to produce copies of themselves that maintain basic
genetic characteristics over generations, as well as modications of genetic material due
to processes of mutation and recombination.
Punctuated equilibrium. Based on observation of the fossil record, Eldredge and Gould
(1972) proposed the concept of punctuated equilibrium (also termed the punctuated
equilibria or punctuational model). This theory claims that the evolution of species
consists of a pattern of long periods of static equilibrium without signicant variation
followed by periods with high levels of genetic mutations that produce modications
(Gould 1997).
Neutrality. Neutrality is a scientic evolutionary concept proposed by the Japanese geneticist Kimura in 1968. Adherents of the concept of neutrality argue that the variations that
appear throughout generations occur too rapidly to be explained by natural selection.
Thus, most observed modications are selectively neutral, and most substitutions and
polymorphisms occur due to the xation of selectively neutral varieties through genetic
drift (Futuyma 1997). Despite disagreements between selectionists and neutralists in the
1970s and the 1990s, most contemporary scientists do not adopt only one point of view.
Currently, most scientists accept that both neutral modications and modications with
adaptive value exist.
Selsh gene. This historical revision is guided by the work of Mayr (1982, 1991) who,
like other authors, has adopted the traditional adaptationist view. According to Gardner
and Welch (2011), adaptation is a property of individual organisms. Adaptation works
through natural selection to maximise an organisms tness. Dawkins has proposed an
alternative to this view of adaptation that relies on the idea of evolution. Dawkinss selfish gene concept claims that adaptation is properly located at the level of the gene
(2011). According to the selsh gene idea, the gene is the fundamental unit of evolution,
whereas individuals are only war machines or gene survival machines (Dawkins 1976).
Therefore, over hundreds of thousands of years, natural selection acted by selecting genes
with greater replication capacities.

10

P.R. da Silva et al.

Although the construction of scientic knowledge regarding the processes involved in

biological evolution is broader and more complex than the historical review presented
here, this study identied the major theories and current knowledge of evolution to determine concepts related to the data collected from participating teachers.
Data and Results

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Because this study sought to identify concepts about the origins of biological diversity in
a sample of teachers and to compare them to concepts found throughout history, the historical review presented above was used to establish categories for the analysis. Each historical period was adopted as a category, with the related concepts forming subcategories.
Therefore, the teachers conceptions were classied in terms of the following categories
and subcategories:
Category A: origin without evolution
Subcategories: Fixism (A1); nalism (A2); essentialism (A3); typology (A4); creationism (A5); spontaneous generation (A6).
Category B: pre-Darwinian evolution
Subcategories: Adaptation to the environment (B1); verticality (B2); use and disuse
(B3); inheritance of acquired traits (B4).
Category C: post-Darwinian evolution
Subcategories: Transformism (C1); natural selection (C2); gradualism (C3); common
descent (C4); genetic variation (C5); punctuated equilibrium (C6); neutrality (C7); selsh
gene (C8).
It should be noted that categorising the teachers responses required coders to acknowledge the contradictions and dualities inherent in human thought (Bardin 1977). As a
result, a teachers response could be simultaneously assigned to two or more categories.
Teachers responses that exemplied the different categories and the frequency of the
different types of responses are presented in Tables 1, 2 and 3. In presenting the dialogue
between the interviewer and a teacher, the former is designated by the letter I and the latter by the letter T.
In Table 1, the responses of 11 of the teachers (T1; T2; T3; T8; T9; T11; T12; T13;
T18; T19; T20) were classied in Category A (origin without evolution). The responses
of some of these teachers were classied in more than one subcategory within Category
A because teachers responses often exhibited contradictions and dualities that simultaneously reected two or more categories and subcategories.
Teachers responses were related to theoretical concepts of the period in four of the six
categories presented in Table 1.
The xist conception (subcategory A1) appeared in the responses of one participating
teacher. In the example in Table 1, this individual stated that a superior being had created
all existing living beings and, although some of these creatures had disappeared, the
surviving creatures had never changed. Creationist ideas were also observed (see below).
The nalist conception (subcategory A2) appeared in two teachers responses. One teacher (T20) in this subcategory stated that modications of living beings served a divine

Biology Teachers Conceptions

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Table 1.

11

Teachers responses that exemplify Category A (Origin without Evolution) and the number of
teachers for each subcategory

Category

Subcategory

Number of
teachers

A: Origin
without
Evolution

A1 (Fixism)

1 (T3)

A2 (Finalism)

2 (T11, T20)

A3 (Essentialism)
A4 (Typology)

0
3 (T2, T3, T18)

A5 (Creationism)

9 (T1, T2, T3, T8,

T9, T12, T13,
T18, T19)

A6 (Spontaneous
Generation)

Examples of responses
T3: (...) I believe that God created all
species. .. some persisted, right, and
others disappeared. .. .
I: Many people believe that life was created
or that it is a gift from God. What is your
opinion on this matter?
T20: Yeah. .. evolutionism is undeniable.
Now, evolution tends to kill creationism.
Yeah. .. how do things occur without a
higher power? Life on Earth needs a
conductor. There is a conductor, someone
dictating where things go.
I: And how do you think life on Earth
appeared?
T11: I think life appeared precisely from
this, bacteria, cells that developed
themselves, until everything. .. until
everything at last became what we see
today.
Not mentioned.
I: Do you think that God created men and
all the other living beings?
T2: Yes, from a common ancestor, in that
same species, for instance, He could have
created a dog, and then have modied it
from then on. A man could have been
modied from that, like only one man
was created, and then races came up, like
in dogs.
I: How do you think life appeared on Earth?
T2: Even though I am a biologist, by
creation.
T3: I believe that God created all species. ..
. some persisted, right, and others
disappeared. .. .
T18: I think life is a gift from God. Its that
nature. .. . God allowed us to evolve. God
created and we evolved.
Not mentioned.

Note: It should be noted that the statements presented are only examples of responses, and other evidence
supported the assignment of interview responses into this category and into a particular subcategory.

purpose and that evolution had a nal goal determined by a superior being.
This statement also exhibits the creationist concept. The other teacher (T11) in this
subcategory expressed the idea that the goal of the constant modications experienced by

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P.R. da Silva et al.

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Table 2.

Examples from teachers statements that exemplify Category B (pre-Darwinian evolution) and
the number of teachers for each subcategory

Category

Subcategory

Number of
responses

B: Pre-Darwinian
Evolution

B1 (Adaptation to
the Environment)

3 (T3, T9,
T16)

B2 (Verticality)

2 (T4, T7)

B3 (Use and
Disuse)
B4 (Inheritance of
Acquired Traits)

I: In your opinion, what is the

difference between a living and a
nonliving being?
T16: What do I think? I think their
capacity to modify and evolve,
adapting to the environment.
I: How do you think life appeared on
Earth?
T7: It (the Earth) comes from way
back .. . rst of all its organisms
were developing into other living
beings until larger beings were
formed and then they became what
we are today by evolving during all
these years.
Not mentioned.

Not mentioned.

Examples of responses

Note: It should be noted that the statements presented are only examples of responses, and other
evidence supported the assignment of interview responses into this category and into a particular
subcategory.

life forms in the past was to achieve the shapes and forms that can currently be observed.
This statement exhibits the concept of nality, because the teacher used a Portuguese
term (nally) that describes an achieved goal rather than conveying continuity or
momentum.
Neither the essentialist (subcategory A3) nor the spontaneous generation (subcategory
A6) concepts appeared in any teachers responses.
The typological concept (subcategory A4) was observed in the responses of three
teachers. The example presented in Table 1 expresses the concept of creationism in addition to typology. This combination of concepts was found in the three responses that
reected this subcategory.
Creationism (subcategory A5) was one of the most frequent subcategories found; nine
teachers expressed this concept. The responses of three teachers (T2, T3 and T18) exemplied this subcategory and expressed the idea that living beings arose due to the intervention of a superior being.
Table 2 presents concepts in Category B (pre-Darwinian evolution), which included
theories that reected the beginning of biological thought about organisms development.
These concepts were expressed by only ve of the teachers (T3; T4; T7; T9; T16). None
of the participating teachers mentioned the concepts of use and disuse (subcategory B3)
or the inheritance of acquired traits (subcategory B4).

C1 (Transformism)

C: Post-Darwinian
Evolution

4 (T10, T15,
T16, T17)

0
0
0
1 (T14)

C4 (Common Descent)

C5
C6
C7
C8

T15: Evolution lines are not the only ones, they point to every direction, the
most currently correct situation. .. . it is contextual.
T10: Although eukaryotic and prokaryotic organisms exist it is not possible
to think that a. .. a.. . how can I put it? an evolution in complexity of the
eukaryotic cell happened, but the eukaryotic and the prokaryotic cells are as
much evolved, because both exist today on planet Earth, so prokaryota and
eukaryota are results of evolution, however prokaryotics survived also
because they are well adapted to this day. .. .
I: How do you think life appeared on Earth?
T15: I believe that life came from a single, primordial organization, a
chemical organization that was put together little by little and then it formed
the rst cells, then came the nuclei, and then came the prokaryotic and
eukaryotic cells, then this question is placed in biology.
I: And how do you think life on Earth appeared?
T16: I believe in the hypothesis of the Big Bang, after that the coacervate, that a
primitive life form could have been able to evolve and transform itself into
several different organisms, that is what I believe, until proven otherwise.
Not mentioned.
Not mentioned.
Not mentioned.
I: How do you think life appeared on earth?
T14: Ah... with constant changes. The main process consisted in larger molecules
trying to replicate and then coming together, coming together, formed the rst
organism, which joined others ... I think the purpose of those, those organisms,
those molecules was to replicate, so that today there are researchers who call
living beings as machines of war, war machines controlled by genes,
including the selsh gene, which we would then be mere instruments of the
will of genes, those molecules with that desire to replicate themselves. Thus,
life appears with constant changes in those molecules.

Examples of responses

Note: It should be noted that the statements presented are only examples of responses, and other evidence supported the assignment of interview responses
into this category and into a particular subcategory.

(Genetic Variation)
(Punctuated Equilibrium)
(Neutrality)
(Selsh Gene)

6 (T4, T7, T10,

T11, T14, T15)

3 (T10, T15,
T16)
3 (T10, T14,
T15)

Number of
responses

C3 (Gradualism)

C2 (Natural Selection)

Subcategory

Examples from teachers statements that exemplify Category C (post-Darwinian evolution) and the number of teachers for each subcategory

Category

Table 3.

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Biology Teachers Conceptions

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P.R. da Silva et al.

The concept of adaptation to the environment (subcategory B1) was observed in three
teachers responses. The teachers response presented in Table 2 expressed the idea that
life forms underwent modication to adapt to the environment in which they lived. Those
adaptations would be the result of interactions between living beings and environmental
factors, including water, light and temperature, among others.
The idea of verticality (subcategory B2) was also found in the responses of two teachers. The response of one teacher (T7), which exemplied this subcategory, expressed the
idea that evolution led to an increase in size (ie an increase in complexity).
Table 3 presents concepts in Category C (post-Darwinian evolution), which represents concepts currently accepted by the scientic community. Of the teachers, eight
(T4; T7; T10; T11; T14; T15; T16; T17) expressed concepts that were classied in this
category. However, none of the participating teachers mentioned the concepts of genetic
variation (subcategory C5), punctuated equilibrium (subcategory C6) or neutrality
(subcategory C7).
The concept of transformism (subcategory C1) was expressed in three responses. The
teachers response presented in Table 3, as well as other teachers responses that were
included in this subcategory, expressed the idea that environmental modications led to
natural selection of individuals, which altered the species. The responses of two teachers
(T10 and T15) in this subcategory were also classied as subcategory C2natural selection.
The concept of natural selection (subcategory C2) was expressed in three teachers
statements. Although the teachers response presented in Table 3 was not completely
organised, it expressed a basic, clear and precise knowledge of the currently accepted theory of evolution. This is signicant because this theory is a component of the paradigm
of modern biology.
The concept of gradualism (subcategory C3) was expressed by six of the participants.
The teachers response presented in Table 3 indicates that the appearance of new species
is gradual rather than sudden.
The idea of common descent (subcategory C4) was found in four teachers responses.
As the example in Table 3 indicates, the responses that constituted this subcategory
expressed the idea that living beings originated from a single common ancestor.
Finally, the concept of the selsh gene (subcategory C8) was identied in the response of
only one teacher. Table 3 shows that the teacher had knowledge of this subject. Some studies indicate that, in Brazil, elementary school teachers base their classes almost exclusively
on textbooks (Gayn and Garca, 1997; Nez et al. 2003; Xavier, Freire, and Moraes
2006). In addition, studies have shown that the evolution-related content of such textbooks
has changed little since the 1970s (Megid Neto and Fracalanza 2003; Bellini 2006). These
textbooks refer only to the assumptions of Lamarck, Darwin and Neo-Darwinism. In addition to containing frequent conceptual errors, most of the textbooks used in Brazil do not
discuss any of the theories that appeared after Neo-Darwinism. Therefore, it seems signicant that one teacher expressed ideas related to the selsh gene theory.
Figures 1 and 2 summarise the data. Figure 1 presents the number of teachers in each
category, which makes it possible to assess conicting responses in Categories A and C
because, historically, the concepts in Category A are not consistent with the concepts in
Category C that explain how changes in organisms increase biological diversity. Figure 2

Biology Teachers Conceptions

15

12
10
8
6
4
2
0

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Figure 1.

Category A

Category B

Category C

The number of teachers in Category A (origin without evolution), Category B (pre-Darwinian

evolution) and Category C (Post-Darwinian Evolution)

10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0

A1

A2

A3

A4

A5

A6

B1

B2

B3

B4

C1

C2

C3

C4

C5

C6

C7

C8

Figure 2. The number of teachers in the different subcategories

Note: A1 (Fixism), A2 (Finalism), A3 (Essentialism), A4 (Typology), A5 (Creationism), A6 (Spontaneous
Generation), B1 (Adaptation to the Environment), B2 (Verticality), B3 (Use and Disuse), B4 (Inheritance
of Acquired Traits), C1 (Transformism), C2 (Natural Selection), C3 (Gradualism), C4 (Common Descent),
C5 (Genetic Variations), C6 (Punctuated Equilibrium), C7 (Neutrality), and C8 (Selsh Gene). It should
be noted that classifying teacher responses required us to consider contradictions and dualities in the
evidence. A teacher might simultaneously be classied in two or more subcategories

presents the number of teachers in each subcategory. Figure 2 reveals that subcategories
A5 and C3 occurred most frequently in teachers responses.
Discussion and conclusions
According to analysis of the interviews, we emphasise some conclusions regarding how
this sample of biology teachers understood and explained biological evolution based on
the question: what is life?
When evaluating teachers evolutionary concepts, we realised that most of the interviewed teachers (16 responses) expressed concepts from Categories A and B that are not
currently accepted in scientic biology. The most prominent and frequently expressed
concept was creationism, expressed by nine teachers. It should be noted that the study

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P.R. da Silva et al.

did not focus on teachers personal beliefs, because they have the legal right to their own
religious beliefs; this study investigated this subcategory because responses about evolution are relevant to educational programmes.
A teacher of natural sciences must know, comprehend, accept and use scientic knowledge in the classroom, allowing the students to learn the knowledge that sustains scientic inquiry. This does not mean that personal values and beliefs should be considered to
have equal value to scientic concepts in a science classroom. In the classroom, the teachers role is to motivate the students to know and comprehend scientic concepts and to
accept these concepts as scientically valid. It is the schools role to teach students to
understand the diverse nature of different types of knowledge and the ability to distinguish between scientic and non-scientic knowledge.
Therefore, one point that should be emphasised in this study and which can contribute
to the teaching of evolution is that teachers creationist concepts affect the explanations
of biological knowledge. This analysis provided no clarity regarding how biological topics should be addressed in light of evolutionary theory. This factor will directly affect
how students learn biology, risking introducing conceptual errors and misconceptions.
The assessment of teachers conceptions of evolution demonstrated that eight participants responses expressed current scientically accepted concepts, such as transformism,
natural selection, gradualism and common descent. However, the responses of some
teachers (T4, T7, T11 and T16) also included statements that combined scientic concepts with non-scientic ideas, such as nalism, verticality and adaptation to the environment.
Although this sample of teachers held currently accepted ideas, these ideas coexisted
with other non-scientic concepts; namely, several misunderstandings were noted regarding scientic concepts. This duality of ideas might cause conceptual distortions in dialogues between teachers and students or during discussions of other biological concepts.
It was encouraging to nd that many teachers (eight) expressed evolutionary concepts
based on recent scientic theories. These statements revealed the extent of teachers
knowledge of current concepts of evolution. However, many of the responses combined
scientic concepts with ideas from ancient times and past centuries that are not currently
accepted in scientic biology.
Some of the subcategories, such as genetic variation, punctuated equilibrium and neutrality, were not expressed in any responses. There are two likely explanations for this.
First, because the aim of the interview was to explore teachers concepts of biological
life, the questions did not allow the interviewees to approach the topic in depth. Furthermore, punctualism and neutralism are two recent theories in Brazilian undergraduate
degrees, which this sample of teachers might have ignored. We highlighted that one teacher provided a response that might be classied in the selsh gene (C8) category, an
idea which has recently become widespread in Brazil and is currently heavily debated in
academia.
Although teachers understanding of Category C concepts was classied as related to
current concepts of biological evolution, the study ndings indicated that presenting the
theory of evolution remains difcult because the teachers responses did not provide an
effective explanation of evolution, but only reected ideas that were related to knowledge
of this topic.

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Biology Teachers Conceptions

17

The analyses of the understanding of teachers in Category C, although considered close

to the current discussion of biological evolution, showed that the evolutionary theme was
an obstacle to teaching. The teachers ineffectively explained evolutionary themes, and
their lessons consisted of considerations approaching currently accepted scientic knowledge and approximations with unsupported explanations, including creationist ideas.
The most important point arising from this studys data was the absence of clarity
regarding biological explanations based on an evolutionary perspective in teachers
speech. This problem may be regarded as an epistemological starting point when organising curricula content for teacher training. Although this study did not directly assess
teachers knowledge of the history of science related to evolution, we believe that historical studies might signicantly contribute to the understanding of the nature of science
and scientic knowledge of evolutionary theory.
We believe it is important that teachers fully understand the mechanisms of biological
evolution. The teaching of biology and students learning of evolutionary concepts will
be impaired if teachers comprehension of biology is affected by epistemological difculties regarding the nature of biological knowledge about evolution.
It is important to stress that evolution is a central and unifying concept in all areas of
biology, and the appropriate application of this topic can make science less fragmented.
In other words, biological evolution constitutes a paradigm in contemporary biology that
can contribute to a learning process that addresses the complex characteristics of natural
systems.
Therefore, it is necessary to thoroughly investigate biology teachers knowledge of
evolution. Evolutionary approaches cannot be discussed in the classroom based on
notions that are contrary to scientic knowledge. Whether teachers misconceptions are
intentional or unintentional, they are undesirable, because biology teachers serve as interlocutors between students and the creation of biological knowledge. The process of
observing teachers biological thinking and arguments reveals inconsistent concepts
which may contribute to distorted student concepts.
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the Fundao de Amparo Pesquisa do Estado de
So Paulo (FAPESP).

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