Kefyn M. Catley, an associate professor of biology and head of the secondary science
education program at Western Carolina University, recently secured a $665,247 grant
from the U.S. Department of Education to research ways of improving high school and
college biology curricula.
Catley and Laura R. Novick, a professor of cognitive psychology and former colleague
at Vanderbilt University, are project co-collaborators. The three-year study will
begin in spring, with portions of it taking place at WCU, Vanderbilt, Tuscola High
School in Haywood County and the University of California at Santa Barbara.
“It’s a collaborative effort across institutions,” said Catley, above right, shown
with a Tuscola High School student. The initial phase includes diagnostics to determine
how students think in evolutionary terms. Ultimately, based on the study’s findings,
Catley and Novick will create a biology curriculum that they hope will produce stronger
science students.
Catley’s specialty is education in evolutionary biology, and he has narrowed his focus
to helping high school and university students better understand the processes and
principals of that topic. Catley contends that many students – and their teachers
– have a poor understanding of macroevolution, the study of change that occurs at
or above the level of species. Without a firm grip on macroevolution, Catley said,
students lack an understanding of the comprehensive history of life on the planet.
Catley and Novick’s research focuses on the role of diagrams in helping students comprehend
evolution. Called cladograms, these diagrams are key to understanding macroevolution.
They illustrate, with branching lines, “the origin and fate of species and natural
groups of species – the persistence through time of some and the extinction of others,”
Catley said. Although powerful predictive tools that biology professionals in the
field have used for years, cladograms have yet to be used to any degree in life science
education.
Catley and Novick recently led a study documenting the type, frequency and distribution
of evolutionary diagrams in 31 contemporary textbooks aimed at a wide array of readers
from middle school to the undergraduate level. Results of the study appeared in the
November issue of BioScience, the journal of the American Institute of Biological
Sciences. The study found that while evolutionary diagrams appeared frequently in
textbooks, many of them were “confusing and open to multiple interpretations.”
Randi Neff, a biology teacher at Tuscola, called evolutionary biology the “rock of
biology” and said that teachers often don’t know how to tie the concept to their course
of study because their own understanding of it is limited. Beginning this spring,
approximately 80 Tuscola sophomore science students will participate in the diagnostic
portion of Catley and Novick’s grant-funded study. Eventually, Neff will help develop
the new curriculum and test it in her classroom. The curriculum will likely exceed
state requirements, she said.
While some segments of society might resist broadening evolutionary education because
of its sometimes controversial nature, biologists argue it’s critical to both filling
the ranks of U.S. scientists and keeping the United States competitive worldwide.
“If you want to work in a well-paid job these days, you really need to be literate
in science,” said Catley. “A good understanding of science underpins democracy.”
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Last modified Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2008.