Development Of Evolutionary Thinking On The Utility And Practice Of Biology Teaching

Evolutionism is the foundation of the evolutionary biology, which is the largest integrated theory of biology. It has been 150 years since Darwin's The Origin of Species had been known to the public in 1859. During this period, Darwinism has been renewed, developed and perfected in the endlessly denial, arraignment and argument. Since 1960s, with the development of the molecular biology, the work has changed from theory to experimentation. The evidence from multiple disciplines such as molecular biology and paleontology has been more and more important. The appearance of new theory and research achievements has impelled the whole evolutionary biology to improve. It is urgent to extend the knowledge of the evolutionary biology and spread new evolutionary thinking in the universities of our country.The appearance, development and its signification to the world of Darwinism were summarized in the present study. Many issues resolved by modern biological technology and recent hotspots of evolutionary biology were also introduced. To investigate how evolutionary thinking affect people's ideas in teacher lecturers, high school teachers, and undergraduates in different universities, 440 copies of the questionnaires were distributed to the teachers and students from three universities in Shanghai (i.e., Fudan University, East China Normal University, and Shanghai Normal University) and 83 high school biology teachers. Many teacher lecturers were visited for understanding the context of evolutionary biology and how they introduce new evolutionary perspectives. The results showed that some classical theories for example nature selection, heredity and variation, etc. and evolutionary history are generally introduced by textbooks, although it is only touched upon. However, new knowledge and perspectives occurred from recent years were seldom introduced in the biological teaching. For instance, what is positive selection on the molecular lever and how to understand the phylogenetic tree by the principle of common ancestry are poorly understood in many teachers and students.According to present situation of biological teaching, the causes carrying out the problems mentioned above were analyzed and summarized. Some useful methods and measures to change the situations were suggested in the present study.