Most of the general faculty (82%) thought that evolution was definitely true but only 54% of the students agreed. Among the educators only 71% thought that evolution was definitely true. This is a general trend. Educators tend to be more religious and less certain of evolution than typical faculty members but less religious and more accepting of evolution than the average student.
This is not surprising. It suggests that simply exposing prospective teachers to a college/university education does not guarantee that they will learn the consensus opinion of typical faculty members. Educators tend to be less knowledgeable about evolution (and science?). This means that "teaching the teachers" may not be as easy as one images. (Keep in mind that this is New England, which tends to be much more liberal than other parts of the USA.)
I was most interested in the question about defining evolution since it comes up frequently in the blogosphere. There's one definition that I prefer above all others [What Is Evolution?].
Evolution is a process that results in heritable changes in a population spread over many generations.Here's the question that Paz-y-Miño-C and Espinosa asked in their survey ...
Question 8: An acceptable definition of evolution. Indicate if each of the following definitions of evolution is either true or false:This is a horrible question because none of the choices are correct. If I were given such a question I couldn't bring myself to pick any of the options. Shame on Paz-y-Miño-C and Espinosa for asking such a question.a=gradual process by which the universe changes, it includes the origin of life, its diversification and the synergistic phenomena resulting from the interaction between life and the environment;
b=directional process by which unicellular organisms, like bacteria, turn into multi-cellular organisms, like sponges, which later turn into fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals and ultimately humans, the pinnacle of evolution;
c=gradual process by which monkeys, such as chimpanzees, turn into humans;
d=random process by which life originates, changes, and ends accidentally in complex organisms such as humans;
e=gradual process by which organisms acquire traits during their lifetimes, such as longer necks, larger brains, resistance to parasites, and then pass on these traits to their descendants.
Here are the results.
A majority of students selected option "e" as true. This is Lamarckian evolution, although I'm not sure if the people being surveyed realized that was what they were selecting. A remarkable 25% of the general faculty said this was true, suggesting to me that there was a lot of misunderstanding about this choice.
What this proves is that evolution educators have a lot of work to do. The fact that such a bad survey question could be published in a journal called Evolution: Outreach & Education is troubling.
Paz-y-Miño-C, G., and Espinosa, A. (2012) Educators of Prospective Teachers Hesitate to Embrace Evolution Due to Deficient Understanding of Science/Evolution and High Religiosity. Evolution: Education and Outreach 5:139-162. [doi: 10.1007/s12052-011-0383-9 (paywall)] [Author's Proof - free version]