Evolution Korea
The financial crisis that struck Asia forced a major reappraisal of the old system of government-business alliances and the public management of private risks. In Korea this meant a shift in the model of development.
In a controversial decision, the South Korean government has asked textbook publishers to ignore requests for removing examples of evolution in high school science texts. This includes the evidence for the evolution of horses and of 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 from high school science texts. The Society for Textbook Revise, an independent branch of the Korea Association for Creation Research which aims to rid biology textbooks of "atheist materialism," was behind the move. The STR claims such materialism portrays negative images to students, causing them to be skeptical.
When the STR's campaign hit the news, scientists around the world expressed alarm. In a letter to the editor of Nature evolutionary biologist Jae Choe from Ewha Womans University in Seoul complained that South Korea had given in to religious prejudice. He was backed by colleagues from across the country, who formed an organization called Evolution Korea to organize a petition against the changes to the textbooks.
Researchers are worried that the STR campaign will spread to other parts of the world where the prevalence of creationism is rising. The letter to Nature warned of the anti-evolution campaign increasing pressure on textbook revisions, specifically in countries with large Christian and Muslim populations.
The South Korean culture is particularly strong for the evolution debate. 26 percent of South Koreans belong to of a religious community and the majority of them practice Christianity or Buddhism. Many Koreans also adhere to Ch'ondogyo, an ideology based on Confucian principles that emphasizes social harmony, individual self-cultivation, and self-respect. Ch'ondogyo believes that humans are one with Hanulnim the God of the Sun, and that heaven-bound blessings can be derived through good works.
All of this has made creationism fertile ground. Multiple studies have shown students with religious backgrounds to be more hesitant to learn about evolution as compared to those who do not. The causes behind this are not obvious. Students who are religious may be less experienced with the theories of science, making them more susceptible to creationists influence. Another factor could be that students who have religious backgrounds may see evolution as an idea that is not a religion, which makes them less comfortable.
2. Evolution and Science
In recent years, the scientific community has been concerned about anti-evolution efforts in schools. A 2009 survey revealed that nearly 40 percent of Americans believe that biological evolution is not true and that believing in it would be contrary to their faith-based beliefs. Despite the popularity of creationism in some states, many scientists feel that the best strategy to stop this trend is not to be actively involved in it, but rather to inform the public about the evidence supporting evolution.
Scientists are accountable to instruct their students in science that includes the theory of evolution. They should also educate the public on the research process and the way in which knowledge is validated. They must explain how theories of science are often challenged and modified. However, misconceptions regarding the nature of scientific research frequently fuel anti-evolution beliefs.
Many people mistake the term "theory" as a guess or guess. However, in science the theory is thoroughly tested and verified using empirical data. A theory that has survived repeated testing and observation is a scientific concept.
The debate over evolution theory is a great chance to discuss the importance of scientific methodology and its limits. It is essential for people to understand that science is unable to answer questions about the purpose or meaning of life, but only provides a mechanism by which living things can grow and change.
A well-rounded education should also include exposure to all major scientific fields including evolutionary biology. This is particularly important because the jobs people are employed in and the choices they make require understanding of how science functions.
The majority of scientists around world agree that humans have changed over time. click through the next site that predicted the adults' view of the consensus around this issue found that those who had higher levels of education and knowledge of science were more likely to believe that there is a broad agreement between scientists regarding human evolution. Those with more religious faith but less knowledge of science tend to disagree more. It is crucial that teachers emphasize the importance of knowing the consensus on this issue to ensure that individuals have a solid foundation for making informed decisions about their health care, energy use, and other policy issues.
3. Evolution and Culture
Cultural evolution is a close cousin of mainstream evolutionary theory. It explores how organisms like humans learn from one another. Researchers in this area use elaborate tools and investigative models that are adapted from evolutionary theorists and go back to the prehistoric human to discover the origins of culture.
This method also acknowledges the differences between the characteristics of culture and biological. Cultural traits are acquired slowly, whereas biological traits are mostly inherited simultaneously (in sexual species, at fertilization). In the end, the acquisition of one cultural trait may affect the development of another.
In Korea For instance the emergence of Western fashion elements in the late 19th and early 20th century was the result of a complicated sequence of events. One of the most important was the arrival of Japanese occupation forces, who introduced Western hairstyles and clothing styles to Korean society.
Then, when Japan left Korea in the 1930s, some of these trends began to change. At the close of World War II, Korea was once more united and was again under the rule of the Choson dynasty.
Today, Korea is an economic and political power. Despite click through the next site , the economy of Korea has grown consistently over the past decade and is set to maintain its steady growth in the near future.
However, the current administration faces numerous challenges. One of the biggest is the inability to come up with an effective strategy to address the economic crisis. The crisis has exposed weaknesses of the country's economic policies, mainly its overreliance on exports and foreign investment that may not be sustainable in the long run.
As the crisis has shattered the confidence of investors, the government has to rethink its economic strategy and look for alternative ways to boost domestic demand. It will also have to reform the incentive monitoring, control, and discipline systems that are currently in place to ensure the stability of the financial system. This chapter provides a variety of scenarios of how the Korean economy could grow in the post-crisis period.
4. Evolution and Education
One of the biggest challenges for evolution educators is how to teach evolutionary concepts in a way that is suitable for students of various levels of development and ages. Teachers must, for example, be sensitive to the diversity of religions within their classrooms and create a learning environment where students of both religious and secular beliefs are comfortable. Teachers must also be able recognize common misconceptions regarding evolution and be able to address them in the classroom. Additionally, teachers should have access to a variety of resources to teach evolution and be able locate them quickly.
In this context the Thinking Evolutionarily Convocation was an important step in bringing evolutionary scientists and educators from a variety of sectors to discuss the best practices for teaching evolution. Participants included representatives from scientific societies and educational research organizations, as well as government funding agency officials and curriculum designers. The convergence of various stakeholders led to the development of the common recommendations which will serve as the basis for future actions.
One of the most important recommendations is that the teaching of evolution should be integrated in all science curricula at every level. National Science Education Standards (NRC), which call for the integration of evolution across all life sciences with a progression that is developmentally appropriate, are one method to achieve this goal. A new publication from the NRC offers guidance to schools on how to integrate evolution into the life science curriculum.
A number of studies have demonstrated that a more thorough and comprehensive understanding of evolution is associated with greater student knowledge and belief in evolution. It is difficult to estimate the causality of teaching in the classroom, since the curriculum for schools do not change in a random manner and are influenced by the timing of state board of education and gubernatorial elections. To overcome this problem I utilize an ongoing data set that allows me to control for fixed state and year effects and individual-level variation in the beliefs of teachers about evolution.
Another important result is that teachers who feel more comfortable teaching evolution report having less intrapersonal barriers to doing so. This is consistent with the idea that a more experienced faculty is less likely to avoid discussing evolution topics in the classroom and might be more likely use strategies such as a reconciliatory approach known to improve the acceptance of undergraduate students of evolution (Harms and Reiss 2019; Tolman et al., 2020).