Journal Article

evolution battles in high‐school science classes: who is teaching what?

Bowman, Kristi L

2008

Overview

How frequently and in what manner are evolution, creationism, and intelligent design taught in public high schools? Here, I analyze the answer to this question, as given by nearly 600 students from major public universities nationwide in a survey conducted during the spring of 2006. Although almost all recent public high‐school graduate respondents reported receiving evolution instruction, only about three‐quarters perceived that evolution was taught as a “credible scientific theory”. Creationism and intelligent design were reportedly presented almost one‐third and one‐fifth of the time, respectively, though respondents recalled that both concepts were presented as lacking scientific credibility much more often than not. The survey results are presented in composite form and also disaggregated with respect to the strength of evolution‐related state standards, red state–blue state divisions, and the regional location of states within the country.

• Publisher: Ecological Society of America
• Subject: evolution / high schools / national surveys / spring / students / universities