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Obstacles for the learning of the model of evolution by natural selection in students of secondary school in Argentina

In this work we present the results of research which intended to identify the principal obstacles for the learning of the model of evolution by natural selection in students belonging to two courses in secondary school. The existence of obstacles is deduced from the identification and characterization of the explicative patterns and the conceptions that the students express when they explain cases of adaptive evolution. This is supported by the analysis coming from the history and epistemology of biology and from cognitive psychology. It identifies common-sense teleology, linear causal reasoning and individual based reasoning as three main obstacles and some of the instructional consequences of those results are discussed.

Biology teaching; Evolution; Natural selection; Learning; Metacognition


Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação para a Ciência, Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), Faculdade de Ciências, campus de Bauru. Av. Engenheiro Luiz Edmundo Carrijo Coube, 14-01, Campus Universitário - Vargem Limpa CEP 17033-360 Bauru - SP/ Brasil , Tel./Fax: (55 14) 3103 6177 - Bauru - SP - Brazil
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