How To Explain Evolution Korea To Your Grandparents
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Evolution Korea
The economic crisis that hit Asia required a major review of the old model of government-business alliances and the management by the public of private risks. In Korea this meant a shift in the development paradigm.
In a controversial decision, the South Korean government has asked publishers of textbooks to ignore calls to remove examples of evolution from high school science textbooks. These include the evidence of the evolution of horses and the avian an ancestor Archaeopteryx.
1. Evolution and Religion
A group of creationists in South Korea has successfully convinced textbook publishers to omit evidence of evolution from high school science texts. The decision was the result of a campaign by the Society for Textbook Revise (STR), an independent offshoot of the Korea Association for Creation Research that aims to clear biology books of "atheist materialism." The STR claims that this kind of materialism paints an unhopeful picture for students and can lead to their eventual loss of faith.
Scientists across the globe expressed concerns when the STR campaign made headlines. In a letter addressed to the editor of Nature, evolutionary biologist Jae Choe of Ewha Womans University in Seoul complained that South Korea had given in to religious prejudice. His colleagues backed him from all over the country, who formed a group called Evolution Korea to organize an anti-textbook petition.
Some scientists are worried that the STR campaign will spread to other parts of the world where the belief in creationism is on the rise. The letter to Nature warned that the anti-evolution movement will push for textbook revisions in other countries, especially those with strong Christian and Muslim population.
South Korea's cultural background is particularly strong in the debate on evolution. 26 percent of the country's residents belong to an organized religion and the majority of them adhere to Christianity or Buddhism. In addition, a lot of Koreans adhere to the philosophy of Ch'ondogyo. It is based on Confucian principles that emphasizes social harmony and individual self-cultivation. Ch'ondogyo believes that humans are one with Hanulnim, the God of the Sun, and that heavenly blessings can be derived by doing good deeds.
All of this has made creationism a fertile field. Numerous studies have revealed that students with a religious background to be more hesitant to learn about evolution than those who do not. The underlying causes are not evident. Students who are religious may not be as experienced with the theories of science, making them more susceptible to creationists influence. Another factor could be that students who have religious backgrounds may see evolution as an idea that is atheistic, making them less comfortable.
2. Evolution and Science
In recent years the scientific community has been concerned about anti-evolution initiatives in schools. A study conducted in 2009 found that over 40% of Americans believe that biological evolution is a lie, and that a belief in it would conflict with their religious beliefs. Despite the success of creationism in certain states, many scientists believe that the best method to counter this movement is not to be actively involved in it, but rather to inform people about the evidence for evolution.
Scientists are responsible to instruct their students in science that includes the theory of evolution. They should also inform the general public about the process of science and how knowledge is gathered and validated. They should also explain that scientific theories are frequently challenged and reformulated. However, misunderstandings regarding the nature of scientific research often cause people to believe that evolution is not real.
For instance, many people may confuse the word "theory" with the everyday meaning of the word - a guess or guess. In the realm of science theories are thoroughly tested and verified using empirical evidence. A theory that is tested and observed repeatedly becomes a scientific principle.
The debate over the theory of evolution is a wonderful chance to discuss the importance of scientific method and its limitations. It is important to be aware that science cannot provide answers to questions about life's purpose or meaning, but rather allows living things to grow and adapt.
Furthermore, a comprehensive education should cover the vast majority of scientific fields including evolutionary biology. This is crucial because a lot of jobs and choices require people understand how science operates.
The vast majority of scientists around the world agree that humans have evolved over time. A recent study predicting adults' opinions of the consensus on this issue found that those who had higher levels of education and knowledge of science were more likely to believe that there is a general consensus among scientists about human evolution. People with a higher level of religious belief but less science knowledge tend to disagree more. It is crucial that educators stress the importance of gaining an understanding of this consensus to enable people to make informed decisions about health care, energy usage and other issues of policy.
3. Evolution and Culture
Cultural evolution is a close cousin of mainstream evolutionary theory. It explores how humans and other organisms learn from each other. Researchers in this area use elaborate tools and investigative models that are adapted from evolutionary theorists and go back to human prehistory to find the earliest sources of culture.
This approach also acknowledges that there are differences between biological and cultural characteristics. While biological traits are generally inherited all at once (in sexual species, at fertilization), cultural traits can be acquired over a lengthy period of time. This means that the acquisition of one cultural characteristic can affect the development of another.
In Korea, the adoption of Western elements of style in the latter part of the nineteenth and early twentieth century was the result of an elaborate sequence of events. One of the most significant was the arrival in Korea of Japanese occupation forces, who introduced Western hairstyles and clothes.
When Japan left Korea in the 1930s some of these trends began to change. At the end of World War II, Korea was once again united, read more this time under Choson dynasty rule.
Today, Korea is an economic and political power. Despite the current global financial crisis, the economy of Korea has grown steadily in the past decade and is poised to sustain its steady growth in the future.
The current administration is faced by a myriad of problems. One of the most serious is its inability to develop a coherent policy to address the economic crisis. The crisis has exposed weaknesses in the country's policies and its reliance on exports and foreign investment that may not last.
The financial crisis has shaken the confidence of investors. In the aftermath, the government needs to rethink its strategy and find other ways to increase domestic demand. It also needs to reform the incentive monitoring, control, and discipline systems that are currently in place to create a stable financial environment. This chapter presents several scenarios of how the Korean economy could develop post-crisis.
4. Evolution and Education
The challenge for evolution educators is how to teach evolutionary concepts that are appropriate for different stages of development and ages. For example, teachers must be sensitive to the religious diversity of their classrooms and create an environment where students with religious and secular views are comfortable with learning about evolution. Teachers must also be aware of common misconceptions about evolution and how to confront them in their classrooms. Teachers must also have quick access to the many resources to teach evolution.
In this context the Thinking Evolutionarily Convocation was an important step in bringing evolutionary scientists and educators from a range of disciplines to discuss best practices for teaching evolution. Participants included representatives from scientific societies as well as educational research, officials from government funding agencies and curriculum designers. The convergence of diverse participants helped to identify some common guidelines which will serve as the basis for future actions.
One of the most important recommendations is that the subject of evolution should be integrated in all science curricula at any level. To accomplish this, the National Science Education Standards (NRC) call for evolution to be taught in a unified way across the life sciences, with a progression of ideas that are developmentally appropriate. A new publication from the NRC provides guidance for schools on how to integrate evolution in the life science curriculum.
Numerous studies have demonstrated that a more thorough presentation of evolution is linked to greater student understanding and belief in the concept of evolution. It is difficult to quantify causal effects in the classroom because school curricula don't change randomly and are affected by the timing of state boards of education and the gubernatorial election. To overcome this limitation I use an ongoing dataset that gives me to control for the effects of years and states fixed as well as individual-level variations in the beliefs of teachers about evolutionary theory.
Another important finding is that teachers who are more comfortable with teaching evolution report having fewer personal barriers to doing so. This is in line with the notion that a faculty with more confidence is less likely to avoid discussing evolution topics in the classroom. Additionally, they could be more likely to employ strategies, such as an approach to reconciliation that is known to improve the acceptance of undergraduate students of evolution (Harms and Reiss, 2019; Tolman et al. 2020).