Exploring Students' Mental Constructs on Evolution towards Proposed Pedagogical Interventions

The purpose of this study is to be able to know the ideas, thoughts, and understanding of the selected respondents to certain topics about evolution. The subject tries to challenge the stored knowledge of our students, as they manage to recall former lessons and interconnect them with recent findings or updates, which can enable them to value their existence as living organisms, interacting with other living forms together with the abiotic factors. A quantitative method was used in order to define and support the objective of the study, where one section of Psychology students enrolled in Biology with evolution for the first semester were chosen as the key respondents for this study. The basis of their selection was to evaluate what they have formally learned in their former studies of evolution and how it coincides with the things that they firmly believe in, so that the appropriate pedagogical intervention can be cited accordingly. The Likert Scale Method was used, with the 5 - point range, in order to determine the level of agreement of the students. The results were collated and analysed. The findings as supported by the results clearly specified the type of pedagogical interventions that should be suggested for the students in order to understand and appreciate evolution more effectively. This includes the application of the quality typelecture - discussion method, the inclusion of picture analysis and trivias, book reviews, enhancement of reports, and the making of infomercials. On the other hand, the ideas and thoughts of students constituted their mental constructs or understanding about evolution. This included their idea about mutation, the theory of creationism, Darwin?s theory of evolution, the onset of natural selection, the study about fossils, DNA and genetic traits, and the similarities in physical features of some organisms. At the end, it was firmly noted that the study of evolutionary biology should be given enough consideration in our everyday lives as this constitutes a remarkable part in our existence.