Evolution Korea
The economic crisis that swept across Asia led to a major rethinking of the traditional system of government, business alliances, and public management of risk. In Korea, that required a change in the development model.
In a controversial move, South Korea's government has asked textbook publishers to ignore calls to remove examples of evolution in science books for high school students. This includes the evidence of the evolution of horses as well as the Avian ancestor Archaeopteryx.
1. Evolution and Religion
A creationist group in South Korea has successfully convinced textbook publishers to remove evidence of evolution from high school science texts. The Society for Textbook Revise, an independent offshoot from the Korea Association for Creation Research which aims to rid biology textbooks of "atheist materialism," was behind the decision. The STR claims that such materialistic views create a negative image for students and can lead to their eventual denial of faith.
Scientists from all over the world expressed concerns when the STR campaign gained attention. Jae Choe, an evolutionary biologist at Ewha Womans University, Seoul wrote in an email to Nature's editor that South Korea had succumbed to religious prejudice. He was backed by colleagues around the country, who set up a group called Evolution Korea to organize a petition against the textbook changes.
Some scientists are concerned about the possibility that the STR campaign could spread to other regions of the world, where creationism is on the rise. The letter to Nature warned of the anti-evolution movement putting more pressure on textbook revisions, especially in countries with large Christian and Muslim population.
South Korea has a particularly significant cultural context for the evolution debate. 26 percent of the country's citizens belong to a religious denomination and the majority adhere to Christianity or Buddhism. Additionally, a large portion of Koreans adhere to the Ch'ondogyo philosophy, which is based on Confucian principles that emphasizes harmony among people and individual self-cultivation. Ch'ondogyo is a way of teaching that the human being is one with Hanulnim the God of Sun and that the heavenly blessings can be achieved by doing good deeds.
All of this has created an ideal environment for the spread of creationism. A number of studies have demonstrated that students who have a religious background are more hesitant about learning evolution than those who do not have a religious background. The reasons behind this aren't evident. One explanation is that students with a religious background tend not to be as knowledgeable about scientific theories and concepts and are therefore more susceptible to the influence of creationists. Another reason could be that students who have religious backgrounds might view evolution as a concept that is atheistic, making them less comfortable.
2. Evolution and Science
In recent years the scientific community has been concerned about the anti-evolution agenda in schools. A survey conducted in 2009 revealed that nearly 40 percent of Americans believe that biological evolution is not true and that believing in it would conflict with their religious beliefs. Many scientists believe that, despite the fact that creationism has been successful, the best way to counter this belief is to educate the public on the evidence supporting evolution.
Scientists are responsible for teaching their students science including the theory of evolution. They must also inform the general public about the scientific process, and how scientific knowledge is collected and confirmed. They must also clarify that scientific theories are often challenged and reformulated. However, misperceptions about the nature of research conducted by scientists often create anti-evolution beliefs.
Some people confuse the word "theory" as a guess, or a guess. In science, however, an hypothesis is rigorously tested and empirical data is used to prove it. A theory that is repeatedly tested and observed becomes a scientific principal.
The debate about evolutionary theory is a good occasion to discuss the importance of the scientific method and its limitations. It is crucial that people understand that science is not able to answer questions about life's purpose or meaning, but instead offers a way for living things to grow and change.
A comprehensive education should include exposure to all major fields of science including evolutionary biology. This is crucial because the jobs that people have and the choices they make require understanding of how science functions.
The vast majority of scientists across the world accept that humans have evolved over time. In This Internet site that predicted the views of adults on the consensus on this subject, those with higher levels education and science knowledge were found to be more likely believe that there is wide consensus among scientists on the evolution of humans. People with more religious beliefs and have less knowledge of science tend to be more skeptical. It is crucial that teachers emphasize the importance of understanding the general consensus on this issue to ensure that people have a solid basis for making informed choices about their health care, energy use, and other policy issues.
3. Evolution and Culture
A close relative to mainstream evolutionary theory, the concept of cultural evolution studies the numerous ways that organisms, including humans, learn from and with each other. Researchers in this field employ elaborate tools and investigative models adapted from evolutionary theorists. They also go back to the prehistoric human to find the origins of culture.
This approach also recognizes the distinction between cultural and biological traits. While biological traits are typically acquired at once (in sexual species, after fertilization) however, cultural traits can be acquired over a lengthy period of time. The acquisition of a cultural characteristic can affect the development and growth of a different.
In Korea, for example the emergence of Western fashion elements in the latter part of the 19th century and early 20th century was the result of a complicated sequence of events. One of the most important was the appearance in Korea of Japanese occupation forces who introduced Western hairstyles and clothing.
Then, when Japan departed Korea in the 1930s, a few of these trends began to reverse. At the close of World War II, Korea was once more united and again under the Choson dynasty rule.
Today, Korea is a vibrant economic and political power. Despite the recent financial crisis, Korea's economy has been growing at a steady pace over the past decade. It is expected to continue this growth in the near future.
However, the current administration has many challenges to face. One of the most serious is its inability to develop an effective strategy to deal with the economic crisis. The crisis has revealed the weaknesses of the country's economic policies, including its excessive dependence on foreign investment and exports which might not be sustainable over the long term.
The financial crisis has shaken the confidence of investors. As a result, the government has to reconsider its strategy and come up with other ways to boost the domestic demand. It also needs to revamp the incentive monitoring, monitoring, and discipline systems currently in place to ensure a stable financial environment. This chapter offers a variety of scenarios of how the Korean economy might develop in a post-crisis world.
4. Evolution and Education
The challenge for teachers of evolution lies in how to teach evolutionary concepts that are appropriate for various ages and stages of development. For instance, teachers need to be sensitive to the religious diversity of their classrooms and create an environment that students who have secular and religious views feel comfortable in learning about evolution. Teachers must also be able to identify common misconceptions about evolution and know how to correct them in the classroom. Teachers must also have easy access to the many resources available to teach evolution.
In this regard, the Thinking Evolutionarily Convocation played an important role in bringing evolutionary researchers and educators from a variety of sectors to discuss the best methods for teaching Evolution. Participants included representatives from scientific societies, educational researchers, officials of government funding agencies, and curriculum developers. The convergence of these diverse stakeholders helped to identify a shared set of recommendations that will be the basis for future actions.
A key recommendation is that the teaching of evolution should be integrated in all science curricula at any level. To accomplish this the National Science Education Standards (NRC) require that evolution be taught in a seamless manner across all sciences using a sequence of ideas that are developmentally appropriate. A new publication from NRC provides guidelines for schools on how to incorporate evolution into the life science curriculum.
Several studies have found that a more thorough and comprehensive understanding of evolution can lead to higher levels of student understanding and belief in evolution. It is difficult to quantify causal effects in the classroom since school curricula do not change on a regular basis and are influenced by the timing of state boards of education and gubernatorial election. To overcome this limitation I use a longitudinal dataset that allows me to control for state and years fixed effects as well as individual-level variations in teacher beliefs about evolutionary theory.
Teachers who are more comfortable in teaching evolution report fewer internal barriers. 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 might be more likely employ strategies like an approach to reconciliation that is known to improve the acceptance of undergraduate students of evolution (Harms and Reiss 2019; Tolman et al., 2020).