Evolution is of great importance for the knowledge and understanding of biology. In our research we prepared a questionnaire that was given to 116 students of classes 8 and 9 from a Slovenian and two Italian primary schools. With the research we wanted to find out what knowledge of the theory of evolution, about which they learn in Biology lessons, Slovenian and Italian teenagers have and if there are any differences among them. We also wanted to test their attitude towards the theory of evolution. We found out that Slovenian and Italian teenagers have an adequate knowledge of evolution, that older teenagers have a greater knowledge than the younger ones, and that there are no differences between girls and boys. There were small differences in the knowledge of evolution when comparing the two nationalities; the teenagers mostly accept the theory of evolution and their knowledge is not defined by religion. The theory of evolution is mostly accepted by older teenagers; however, there are no differences between the two genders. The theory of evolution is accepted more by Italian than Slovenian teenagers as the Italian teenagers statistically agreed less with creationist statements than the Slovenian students.
|