Evolution Korea
The economic crisis that swept Asia caused a significant rethinking of the old model of government-business alliances and the public management of private risks. In Korea this meant a change in the development paradigm.
In a controversial decision, South Korea's government has asked textbook publishers to ignore calls to remove examples of evolution from high school science books. This includes the evidence for the evolution of horses and the bird ancestral Archaeopteryx.
1. Evolution and Religion
A South Korean creationist group has convinced textbook publishers to eliminate evidence of evolution from high-school science texts. The Society for Textbook Revise, an independent offshoot from the Korea Association for Creation Research that aims to cleanse biology textbooks of "atheist materialism," was behind the move. The STR claims that such materialism creates an image of negativity for students, leading them to lose faith.
Scientists from all over the world expressed concern when the STR campaign gained attention. In a letter addressed to the editor of Nature the evolutionary biologist Jae Choe from Ewha Womans University in Seoul complained that South Korea had given in to religious prejudice. He was supported by colleagues around the country, who set up an organization called Evolution Korea to organize a petition against the textbook changes.
Some researchers are also concerned about the possibility that the STR campaign will spread to other regions of the world, where the prevalence of creationism is rising. The letter to Nature warned that the anti-evolutionist movement will increase pressure for textbook revisions in other countries, especially those with large Christian and Muslim population.
South Korea has a particularly strong cultural background for the debate on evolution. 26 percent of the country's citizens belong to a religious denomination and the majority practice Christianity or Buddhism. Many Koreans also adhere to Ch'ondogyo - an ideology based on Confucian principles, which emphasizes social harmony, individual self-cultivation, and self-respect. Ch'ondogyo believes that humans are one with Hanulnim, the God of the Sun, and that the heavenly blessings can be derived through good works.
All of this has provided fertile ground for the spread of creationism. Numerous studies have revealed that students with a religious background to be more uncomfortable learning about evolution than those who don't. However, the underlying causes of this phenomenon remain not clear. One explanation is that students who have religious backgrounds tend to be as knowledgeable about scientific theories and concepts and are therefore more vulnerable to the influence of creationists. Another factor could be that students with religious backgrounds might view evolution as a concept that is not a religion, which makes them feel uncomfortable.
2. Evolution and Science
In recent years the scientific community has been concerned about anti-evolution efforts in schools. A survey in 2009 revealed that 40 percent of Americans believed that biological evolution was not true and that it would be in conflict with their religious beliefs. https://500px.com/p/winsteadnjvslater believe that despite the popularity of creationism the best way to stop this movement is to educate the public on the evidence for evolution.
Scientists are required to teach their students about science and the theory of evolution. They also need to inform the public about the process of science and how knowledge from science is collected and confirmed. They must also clarify that scientific theories are frequently challenged and reformulated. However, misinformation about the nature and purpose of scientific research can lead to a negative view of evolution.
For instance, some people confuse the term "theory" with the normal meaning of the word - a hunch or guess. In science, however a hypothesis is rigorously tested, and empirical data is used to prove it. A theory that is repeatedly tested and observed is then a scientific principle.
The debate over the theory of evolution is a wonderful occasion to discuss both the importance of scientific method and its limits. It is important for people to understand that science cannot answer questions regarding the purpose or meaning of life but it is merely a means that allows living things to develop and adapt.
A well-rounded education must include exposure to the major fields of science including evolutionary biology. This is particularly important because the jobs that people have and the decisions they make require a knowledge of how science works.
The vast majority of scientists around the world agree that humans have evolved through time. In a recent study, which predicted the opinions of adults about the consensus on this subject those with higher levels of education and knowledge of science were found to be more likely believe that there is a broad consensus among scientists on the evolution of humans. The people with more religious beliefs and have less science-based knowledge are more likely to disapprove. http://shenasname.ir/ask/user/sinkswan55 is critical that educators emphasize the importance of understanding the general consensus on this issue to ensure that people have a solid basis for making informed decisions about their health care, energy use and other issues of policy.
3. Evolution and Culture
Cultural evolution is a close relative of mainstream evolutionary theory. It explores how humans and other organisms learn from each other. Researchers in this field utilize explanation models and tools that are adapted from those employed by evolutionary theorists, and they reach back into human prehistory to find out the genesis of our capacity for cultural understanding.
This method also acknowledges that there are differences between cultural and biological traits. While biological traits are largely acquired in one go (in sexual species, after fertilization) however, cultural traits can be acquired over a protracted period of time. This means that the emergence of one cultural trait may affect the development of another.
In Korea, for example the emergence of Western fashion elements in the latter part of the 19th century and early 20th centuries was the result of a variety of events. One of the most significant was the arrival of Japanese occupation forces, who introduced Western clothing styles and hairstyles to Korean society.
When Japan left Korea in the 1930s, a portion of these trends began change. At the close of World War II, Korea was once again united and was again under the rule of the Choson dynasty.
Today, Korea is an economic and political power. Despite the recent global financial crisis, the economy of Korea has grown steadily in the last decade and is set to maintain its steady growth in the near future.
The current government is faced with many challenges. The inability of the government to develop an effective strategy to tackle the current economic crisis is one of the biggest obstacles. The crisis has exposed the shortcomings in the policies of the country, especially its over-reliance on foreign investment and exports, which may not last.
The crisis has shaken the confidence of investors. In the aftermath, the government needs to reconsider its approach and find ways to increase domestic demand. To ensure a stable financial climate, the government will have reform its incentive and monitoring systems, as well as discipline and monitoring. This chapter outlines several scenarios of how the Korean economy could develop after the crisis.
4. Evolution and Education
The challenge for evolution educators lies in how to teach evolutionary concepts that are appropriate for various ages and stages of development. For example, teachers must be sensitive to the religious diversity of their classrooms and create a space where students with both religious and secular views are comfortable with learning about evolution. Additionally, teachers must recognize the most common misconceptions about evolution and how to deal with them in their classrooms. Additionally, teachers should have access to a range of resources available for teaching evolution and be able to locate them quickly.
In this context, Thinking Evolutionarily Convocation played an important role in bringing evolutionary researchers and educators from various sectors to discuss the best methods of teaching about Evolution. Participants included representatives from scientific societies as well as educational research, officials from government funding agencies and curriculum designers. The convergence of various participants helped to identify a set of shared recommendations that will form the basis for future actions.
A key recommendation is that the subject of evolution should be incorporated in every science curriculum at every level. To accomplish this it is recommended that the National Science Education Standards (NRC) call for evolution to be taught in an integrated manner across all life sciences, with a progression of concepts that are developmental appropriate. A new publication from NRC provides guidelines to schools about how to incorporate evolution into the life science curriculum.
Multiple studies have shown that a more comprehensive explanation of evolution can lead to better understanding by students and belief in evolution. However it is difficult to determine the causal impact of teaching in the classroom is a challenge due to the fact that school curriculums are not randomly assigned and change in time as a result of the predetermined timing of gubernatorial elections and appointments to the state board of education. To overcome this limitation I employ a longitudinal data set that allows me to account for year and state fixed effects and the individual-level variation in teacher beliefs regarding the evolution of their curriculum.
Another important finding is that teachers who are more comfortable teaching evolution report having less intrapersonal barriers to doing so. This is consistent with the notion that a faculty with more confidence is less likely to avoid discussing evolution subjects in the classroom. They also could be more likely to employ strategies like a reconciliatory approach known to increase undergraduate student acceptance of evolution (Harms and Reiss, 2019; Tolman et al. 2020).