Evolution Korea
The economic crisis which swept Asia caused a major review of the old system of government and business alliances, as well the public management of risk. In Korea this meant a change in the development paradigm.
In a controversial decision, South Korea's government has asked textbook publishers to ignore requests to remove examples of evolution from science textbooks for high school students. These include the evidence for the evolution of horses as well as the Avian ancestral Archaeopteryx.
1. Evolution and Religion
A group of creationists in South Korea has successfully convinced textbook publishers to remove evidence of evolution from science textbooks for high school students. The decision was the 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 asserts that such materialism creates an image of negativity for students, making them abandon their faith.
Scientists across the globe expressed concern when the STR campaign was featured in the news. In a letter addressed to the editor of Nature the evolutionary biologist Jae Choe at Ewha Womans University in Seoul complained that South Korea had given in to religious prejudice. He was backed up by colleagues around the country, who formed an organization called Evolution Korea to organize a petition against the textbook changes.
Some researchers are concerned that the STR could be spread to other regions of the globe, including areas where the belief in creationism has been growing. The letter to Nature warned that the anti-evolution movement could intensify pressure for revisions to textbooks in other countries, especially those with large Christian and Muslim populations.
South Korea has a particularly significant cultural context for the evolution debate. 26 percent of South Koreans are members of a religion and the majority of them practice Christianity or Buddhism. Many Koreans also adhere to Ch'ondogyo, a philosophy based upon Confucian principles, which emphasizes harmony in the social, personal 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 obtained through the good deeds of a person.
All of this has made creationism fertile field. Numerous studies have found that students who have a religious background to be more reluctant to learn about evolution than those who do not. However, the root reasons for this phenomenon are unclear. Students who are religious might be less experienced with scientific theories, making them more susceptible to creationists influence. Another possibility is that students with religious backgrounds are more likely to see evolution as an atheistic idea and therefore less comfortable with it.
2. Evolution and Science
In recent times, the scientific community has been concerned about anti-evolution efforts in schools. A survey conducted in 2009 revealed that nearly 40 percent of Americans believed that biological evolution was not true and that it would be in conflict with their religious beliefs. Many scientists believe that despite the fact that creationism has been successful the best method to stop this movement is to educate the public on the evidence supporting evolution.
Scientists are responsible for teaching their students science that includes the theory of evolution. They should also inform the general public about the science process, and how scientific knowledge is gathered and confirmed. They should also explain how scientific theories are frequently challenged and changed. However, misconceptions regarding the nature of research conducted by scientists often cause people to believe that evolution is not real.
For instance, many people are able to confuse the term "theory" with the everyday meaning of the word - a guess or a guess. In science, however a hypothesis is rigorously tested and empirical evidence is used to verify it. A theory that is able to withstand repeated testing and observations becomes a scientific concept.
The debate over evolution theory is an excellent occasion to discuss both the importance of scientific methodology and its limits. It is crucial for people to understand that science is unable to answer questions about the purpose or meaning of life but it is merely a means that allows living things to grow and change.
A well-rounded education must include exposure to all major fields of science including evolutionary biology. This is essential because a variety of jobs and choices require people know the way science operates.
The vast majority of scientists around world believe that humans have changed over time. A recent study that predicted adults' view of the consensus on this issue found that those with higher levels of education and scientific knowledge were more likely to believe there is a general consensus among scientists on the subject of human evolution. The people who have more religious beliefs but less scientific knowledge tend to disagree more. It is essential that educators insist on knowing the general consensus on this issue, so that people have a solid basis for making informed decisions about their health care, energy use, and other policy issues.
3. Evolution and Culture
Cultural evolution is a cousin of the popular evolutionary theory. It examines how organisms like humans learn from one another. Researchers in this field use explanation models and tools that are adapted from the ones used by evolutionary theorists, and they go back to human prehistory to determine the origins of our capacity for culture.
This approach also recognizes the differences between biological and cultural characteristics. While biological traits are largely acquired at once (in sexual species, during fertilization), cultural traits can be acquired over a lengthy period of time. The acquisition of one cultural characteristic may affect the growth and development of another.
In Korea, the adoption of Western styles in the latter part of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was the result an intricate sequence of events. One of the most important was the arrival in Korea of Japanese occupation forces who introduced Western clothing and hairstyles.
When Japan quit Korea in the 1930s some of these trends began to reverse. At the close of World War II, Korea had once again unified, this time under the rule of the Choson dynasty.
Today, Korea is an economic and political power. Despite the recent financial crisis the economy of Korea has been growing steadily over the past decade. It is expected to continue this growth in the future.
The current government is confronted with a variety of challenges. The inability of the government to develop an effective strategy to tackle the current economic crisis is among the biggest challenges. The crisis has exposed shortcomings in the policies of the country particularly its dependence on foreign investment and exports which could not last.
에볼루션 게이밍 has shaken the confidence of investors, the government has to rethink its economic strategy and look for alternative ways to boost domestic demand. It also needs to reform the incentive, monitoring, and disciplining systems that are currently in place to ensure an environment that is stable for the financial sector. This chapter offers a variety of scenarios on how the Korean economy might develop in a post-crisis world.
4. Evolution and Education
A fundamental challenge for evolution educators is how to teach evolutionary concepts in a way that is suitable for students at various levels of development and ages. For instance, teachers need to be sensitive to the diversity of religions in their classrooms and create a setting where students with secular and religious views are comfortable with learning about evolution. Teachers must also recognize the most common misconceptions about evolution and how to deal with these in their classrooms. Teachers must also have quick access to the many resources to teach evolution.
In this regard the Thinking Evolutionarily Convocation was an important step in bringing together evolutionary scientists and educators from a variety of fields to discuss most effective methods of teaching evolution. Participants included representatives from scientific societies and educational research organizations, as well as officials from government funding agencies and curriculum developers. The convergence of diverse stakeholders helped identify a set of shared recommendations which will serve as the foundation for future actions.
A key recommendation is that the study of evolution should be integrated in every science curriculum at every level. To accomplish this it is recommended that the National Science Education Standards (NRC) require that evolution be taught in a unified manner across all sciences, with a progression of concepts that are developmental appropriate. A new publication from NRC provides guidelines to schools about how to integrate evolution in the life science curriculum.
Numerous studies have shown that a more comprehensive teaching of evolution is associated with more knowledge and belief in evolution. It is difficult to estimate causal effects in the classroom since school curricula don't change on a regular basis and are influenced by the timing of state boards of education and gubernatorial election. To overcome this issue I use an ongoing dataset that gives me to control the fixed effects of state and years as well as individual-level variations in the beliefs of teachers about evolutionary theory.
Another important finding is that teachers who are more comfortable with teaching evolution report having less personal barriers to teaching it. This is consistent with the idea that a more experienced faculty is less likely to avoid discussing evolution subjects in the classroom. They also might be more likely use strategies such as a reconciliatory approach known to increase undergraduate student acceptance of evolution (Harms and Reiss, 2019; Tolman et al. 2020).