• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.531-545
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• 2024

The purpose of this study was to develop instructional programs aimed at enhancing middle school students' understanding of evolutionary concepts using a step-by-step writing strategies and an applicable evaluation rubric for evolutionary concepts. To achieve this, a step-by-step writing instructional model (PEECE) was devised as a method for scientific writing, and essential evolutionary core concepts were selected considering the middle school curriculum's coverage of biological evolution. Six evolutionary core concepts-variation, inheritance of variation, differential survival and reproduction, microevolution, and macroevolution-were chosen, with each serving as the focus of a lesson in a four-lesson program following the PEECE lesson model. The program was implemented with 16 students in a co-curricular middle school class. Pre- and post-lesson evolutionary concept checklists were administered to diagnose and compare the level of evolutionary concept understanding. Additionally, students' writing materials for each evolutionary core concept were collected, scored using an evolutionary concept evaluation rubric, and thoroughly analyzed. The results indicated that the step-by-step writing strategy effectively enhanced understanding of the six evolutionary core concepts and reduced cognitive biases and misconceptions about evolution. Contrasted with the optional evolution concept test, the descriptive writing activity provided a more tangible insight into students' scientific concepts, biases, and misconceptions, facilitating teachers' assessment of understanding and feedback provision. Moreover, the jointly developed evaluation rubric offered specific scoring criteria, enabling objective assessment without subjective influence, allowing analysis and scoring of students' writing materials across evaluation areas for collecting fundamental data.