Biology and Geology Teachers' Domain-Specific Pedagogical Content Knowledge of Evolution.

Why and how evolution is taught has been the subject of an often heated debate in the United States throughout the last century. The debate has influenced the teaching of science curricula at all levels. The science/religion debate was rekindled in 1999 when the Kansas Board of Education passed new testing standards that minimize the importance of evolution. The Creation Science Association for Mid-America (CSAMA) developed for a member of the Kansas Board of Education a draft of the state science standards in which evolutionary science was not mentioned. In a similar fashion, Kentucky's Department of Education deleted the word “evolution” from its standards and replaced it with “change over time.” These events at local and state levels and their effect on curriculum and instruction suggest a need to develop an increasingly robust understanding of how to teach evolution. This study was designed as one step in this process of increased understanding.