Evolution Korea
The financial crisis that hit Asia prompted a major reappraisal the old system of government and business alliances, as well as public management of risks. In Korea this meant a shift in the development paradigm.
In a controversial move, the South Korean government has requested publishers of textbooks to ignore calls for the removal of examples of evolution from high school science texts. This includes the evidence for the evolution of horses and the avian an ancestor Archaeopteryx.
1. Evolution and Religion
A creationist group in South Korea has successfully convinced textbook publishers to omit evidence of evolution in high school science textbooks. The move was a result of a campaign by the Society for Textbook Revise (STR) an independent branch of the Korea Association for Creation Research that aims to clear biology books of "atheist materialism." The STR claims such materialism portrays negative images to students, making them be skeptical.
When the STR's campaign made the news, scientists around the world reacted with alarm. Jae Choe, an evolutionary biologist at Ewha Womans University, Seoul wrote in an open letter to Nature's editor that South Korea had succumbed to religious prejudice. He was backed by colleagues around the country, who formed a group called Evolution Korea to organize a petition to protest the changes to the textbooks.
Researchers are also worried that the STR campaign will spread to other parts of the globe, where the spread of creationism is increasing. The letter to Nature warned that the anti-evolutionist movement will intensify pressure for revisions to textbooks in other countries, notably those with strong Christian and Muslim populations.
South Korea has a particularly powerful cultural backdrop for the debate about evolution. 26 percent of the nation's citizens belong to one of the religious groups and the majority of them adhere to Christianity or Buddhism. In addition, many Koreans adhere to Ch'ondogyo, a philosophy that is based on Confucian principles that emphasizes harmony among people and individual self-cultivation. Ch'ondogyo is a belief system that teaches that humans are one with Hanulnim, the God of the Sun, and that the heavenly blessings can be derived through the good deeds of a person.
All of this has made creationism fertile field. Several studies have shown that students with religious backgrounds tend to feel more uncomfortable about learning evolution than those who do not have a religious background. The underlying causes are not clear. Students with a religious background may be less familiar with the theories of science, making them more susceptible to the creationists' influence. Another factor could be that students who have religious backgrounds might view evolution as a concept that is agnostic, making them feel less comfortable.
2. Evolution and Science
In recent years, anti-evolution programs in schools have raised concern within the scientific community. A survey conducted in 2009 revealed that nearly 40 percent of Americans believed that biological evolution was not true and that it could conflict with their religious beliefs. Many scientists believe that, despite the success of creationism the best method to combat this movement is to educate the public about the evidence that supports evolution.
Scientists are required to teach their students about science including the theory of evolution. They also need to inform the public about the scientific process, and how scientific knowledge is gathered and confirmed. They should also explain that scientific theories are often challenged and revised. However, misconceptions about the nature and purpose of research can fuel anti-evolution views.
For instance, many people are able to confuse the term "theory" with the everyday meaning of the word - a guess or guess. In the field of science, however, a hypothesis is rigorously tested and empirical data is used to confirm it. A theory that is tested and observed repeatedly becomes a scientific principle.
The debate about the theory of evolution is a wonderful chance to discuss the importance of scientific method and its limits. It is important to be aware that science is not able to answer questions about the purpose of life or meaning, but rather provides a mechanism for living things to grow and change.
A well-rounded education must include exposure to all major scientific fields including evolutionary biology. This is crucial because the jobs that people hold and the decisions they make require understanding of how science functions.
The vast majority scientists in the world agree that humans have evolved through time. A recent study that predicted the adults' view of the consensus on this issue found that those with higher levels of education and science knowledge were more likely to believe there is a consensus among scientists about human evolution. The people with more religious faith and less science-based knowledge tend to be more skeptical. 에볼루션 is important that educators emphasize the importance of understanding this consensus so that people can make informed decisions regarding energy use, health care, and other policy matters.
3. Evolution and Culture
A close relative to the popular evolutionary theory, cultural evolution explores the many ways that organisms, including humans, learn from and with one another. Researchers in this field employ explanation tools and models adapted from evolutionary theorists and go back to the prehistoric human to determine the origins of culture.
This approach also recognizes the differences between biological and cultural characteristics. While biological traits are generally acquired at once (in sexual species, at fertilization), cultural traits can be acquired over a protracted period of time. In the end, the acquisition of one cultural characteristic can affect the development of another.
In Korea For instance, the adoption of Western fashion elements in the latter half of the 19th century and the early 20th century was the result of a complex series of events. One of the most significant was the arrival in Korea of Japanese occupation forces, who introduced Western clothing and hairstyles.
After that, when Japan departed Korea in the 1930s, some of those trends began to reverse. By the end World War II, Korea was united once more but this time under Choson dynasty rule.
Today, Korea is an economic and political power. Despite the current global financial crisis, the country's economy has grown consistently over the past decade and is set to maintain its steady growth in the future.
The current government is faced with many challenges. One of the biggest is its inability to develop a coherent policy to address the economic crisis. The crisis has revealed the weaknesses of the country's economy policies, particularly its dependence on exports and foreign investment, which may not be sustainable over the long term.
The crisis has shaken the confidence of investors, the government must review its economic strategy and come up with alternatives to increase domestic demand. To ensure a stable and stable financial environment the government will need to reform its incentive, monitoring and discipline systems. This chapter offers a variety of scenarios on how the Korean economy might develop post-crisis.
4. Evolution and Education
The challenge for evolution educators is to teach evolutionary concepts that are appropriate for various levels of development and ages. Teachers, for instance, must be sensitive to the religious diversity of their classrooms and create a space where students with secular and religious views feel comfortable in learning about evolution. Additionally, teachers must be aware of common misconceptions about evolution, and how to address them in their classrooms. Teachers should also have quick access to the various resources available to teach evolution.
In this context, Thinking Evolutionarily Convocation played an important role in bringing together evolutionary researchers and educators from various sectors to discuss best methods for teaching about Evolution. Participants included representatives from scientific societies and educational research organizations, as well as government funding agency officials and curriculum developers. The convergence of these diverse stakeholders resulted in a consensus set of recommendations that will be the basis for future action.
One of the most important recommendations is that the study of evolution should be integrated in all science curricula at any level. To achieve this the National Science Education Standards (NRC) call for evolution to be taught in a unified manner across all sciences, with a progression of ideas that are developmentally appropriate. A new publication from the NRC offers guidelines to schools on how to integrate evolution into the life science curriculum.
Several studies have found that a more comprehensive teaching of evolution can lead to greater student knowledge and belief in evolution. However the estimation of causal effects in the classroom is a challenge given that school curricula are not assigned randomly and evolve over time because of the predetermined dates of gubernatorial election and appointments to the state board of education. To overcome this limitation, I use a longitudinal data set which lets me control for state and year fixed effects and the individual-level variation in teacher beliefs regarding the evolution of their curriculum.
Teachers who are more comfortable teaching evolution also have less internal barriers. This is in line with the hypothesis that more experienced faculty are less likely to be hesitant about teaching about evolution in the classroom, and could be more inclined to use strategies like a reconciliatory method which is used to increase the acceptance of undergraduate students of evolution.