Assessment of Secondary School Students’ Perception of Evolution and Creationism: Implications for Learning and Performance

Abstract

This study assessed Secondary School Student’s perception of the concept of evolution and creationism in Biology. Considering the central position that the subject of biology occupies among other science subjects, it became necessary to cast a look into students’ perception of the concept of evolution and creationism, its implication on learning and performance. The study adopted the survey research design. The population of the study consisted of students in all the public schools in Edo North and Edo South Senatorial Districts of Edo State. The stratified random sampling technique was used to distribute the population into subgroups of Muslim and Christian schools. The purposive random sampling technique was used in selecting four hundred and twenty students (420) from both Muslim and Christian schools so as to obtain a considerable number of Muslim students. Two instruments were used for data collection. The first is a 14-item questionnaire called Views on Evolution while the second is a 10-item achievement test on evolution which the students responded to. Data collected were analyzed using Chi-Square test and a one-way Analysis of Variance. The findings from the study revealed that the student’s religious beliefs did influenced their perceptions of the concept of evolution. However, there was no significant difference in the performance on the test of evolution by students of different religious groups and Christian sect with different views of evolution/creationism. Based on the findings, it was therefore recommended that, the topic should be taught in a way that it will not conflict with the students’ religious belief as well as encourage instructors teaching evolution and other controversial science topics to address students concerns and prior attitudes in a constructive and empathetic manner.