Pre-service Biology Teachers’ Mixed Model of Darwinism and Lamarckism

This study investigated pre-service teachers’ mixed idea on natural selection. Research analysis was carried out on specially designed questionnaires given to thirty-nine university fresh and sophomore pre-service teachers. Ten of these participants were also asked to partake in interviews aimed at collecting supplementary qualitative data. Study findings found that students held mixed evolutionary explanations like “natural selection with use/disuse.” Moreover, qualitative data gathered via interviews found students possessed strong Lamarckian views connected to natural selection rather than views connected to scientifically acceptable concepts. In line with the Lamarckian view, students consistently drew upon personal experience regarding individual variation by employing the “effect of use/disuse.” The compounding of evolution logic regarding evolution suggested that for study subjects the use and disuse hypothesis appeared to be quite similar to a phenomenological primitive (p-prim). Lastly, this research followed a constructivist teaching strategy to separate students’ Lamarckian views from natural selection.