Related Homepag that hit Asia forced a major reappraisal of the old system of government-business alliances and the management by the public of private risks. In Korea, this meant a change in the model of development.
In a controversial move, the South Korean government has requested textbook publishers to ignore requests to remove examples of evolution in high school science texts. This includes the evidence for the evolution of horses and the bird ancestor Archaeopteryx.
1. Evolution and Religion
A South Korean creationist group has pushed textbook publishers to remove evidence of evolution from high-school science texts. The Society for Textbook Revise, an independent offshoot from the Korea Association for Creation Research which aims to rid biology textbooks of "atheist materialism," was behind the decision. The STR claims that this kind of materialism paints an unhopeful picture for students and can lead to their eventual denial of faith.
Scientists from all over the world 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 by colleagues from across the country who gathered into a group named Evolution Korea to organize an anti-textbook petition.
Some scientists are also concerned that the STR campaign will spread to other parts of the globe where the belief in the prevalence of creationism is rising. The letter to Nature warned of the anti-evolution campaign increasing pressure on textbook revisions, especially in countries with large Christian and Muslim populations.
South Korea's cultural background is particularly strong in the debate on evolution. 26 percent of the country's residents belong to a religious denomination and the majority of them adhere to Christianity or Buddhism. In addition, many Koreans adhere to the Ch'ondogyo philosophy, which is based on Confucian principles that emphasizes harmony among people and personal self-cultivation. Ch'ondogyo is a belief system that teaches that humans are one with Hanulnim the God of the Sun, and that the heavenly blessings can be derived through the good deeds of a person.
All of this has made creationism fertile ground. Numerous studies have found that students with religious backgrounds to be more uncomfortable learning about evolution than those who don't. The underlying causes of this phenomenon are not clear. Students who are religious may be less familiar with scientific theories, which makes them more vulnerable to creationists' influence. Another possible factor is that students who have religious backgrounds are more likely to see evolution as an atheistic concept and therefore less at ease with it.
2. Evolution and Science
In recent times, scientists have been concerned about anti-evolution initiatives in schools. A 2009 survey revealed that more than 40 percent of Americans believe that biological evolution is a lie and that believing in it could be in conflict with their convictions about religion. Despite the fact that creationism has been a huge success in some states, many scientists feel that the best way to combat this inclination is not to engage with it, but rather inform the public about the evidence that supports evolution.
Scientists are responsible to instruct their students in science, which includes the theory of evolution. They also need to inform the public about the scientific process and how knowledge is collected and confirmed. They must also clarify that scientific theories are frequently challenged and reformulated. However, misperceptions about the nature of scientific research frequently create anti-evolution beliefs.
For instance, some people may confuse the word "theory" with the everyday meaning of the word, which is a hunch or a guess. In the field of science, however, the hypothesis is tested thoroughly, and empirical data is used to confirm it. A theory that is tested and observed repeatedly becomes a scientific principal.
The debate about evolutionary theory is a good opportunity to discuss the importance of the scientific method and its limitations. It is crucial to be aware that science cannot provide answers to questions about life's purpose or meaning, but provides a mechanism for living things to grow and change.
A comprehensive education should include exposure to all major fields of science including evolutionary biology. This is important because many jobs and choices require people understand the way science works.
The majority of scientists around the world agree that humans have evolved over time. A recent study that predicted the adults' opinions of the consensus on this issue found that those who had higher levels of education and science knowledge were more likely to believe that there is a consensus between scientists regarding human evolution. The people who have more religious beliefs but less science knowledge tend to be more divided. It is crucial that teachers insist on understanding the 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
A close cousin to the popular evolutionary theory, the concept of cultural evolution explores the many ways that humans and other species learn from and with one another. Researchers in this field employ elaborate tools and investigative models derived from evolutionary theorists and reach back to human prehistory to determine the origins of culture.
This approach also recognizes the distinction between traits that are cultural and biological. While biological traits are largely acquired at once (in sexual species, during fertilization), cultural traits can be acquired over a lengthy period of time. This means that the emergence of one cultural characteristic can affect the development of another.
In Korea the introduction of Western style elements in the latter part of the nineteenth and early 20th century was the result of an elaborate sequence of events. One of the most important was the appearance in Korea of Japanese occupation forces that introduced Western hairstyles and clothes.
Then, when Japan left Korea in the 1930s, a portion of those trends began to reverse. At the close of World War II, Korea was once again united and was again under the rule of the Choson dynasty.
Today, Korea is an economic and political power. Despite the current global financial crisis, the country's economy has grown consistently over the last decade and is poised to continue its healthy growth in the coming years.
However, the current government faces numerous challenges. One of the biggest is the inability to come up with a coherent policy to address the economic crisis. The crisis has exposed shortcomings of the country's economic policies, particularly its dependence on foreign investment and exports, which may not be sustainable over the long term.
The crisis has shaken the confidence of investors. This means that the government has to reconsider its strategy and come up with ways to increase domestic demand. It will also have to reform the incentive monitoring, monitoring, and discipline systems currently in place to create the stability of the financial system. This chapter offers a variety of scenarios on how the Korean economy could grow in a post-crisis environment.
4. Evolution and Education
The challenge for evolution educators is to teach evolutionary concepts that are appropriate for various levels of development and ages. For example, teachers must be aware of the religious diversity of their classrooms and create a setting that students who have religious and secular views are comfortable with learning about evolution. Teachers should also be able recognize common misconceptions about evolution and be able to correct them in the classroom. Teachers must also have easy access to the many resources that can be used to teach evolution.
In this context the Thinking Evolutionarily Convocation was an important step in bringing together evolutionary scientists and educators from a range of fields to discuss best methods for teaching about evolution. Participants included representatives from scientific societies as well as educational researchers, officials from government funding agencies, and curriculum developers. The convergence of various stakeholders led to the development of a set of shared recommendations that will serve as the basis for future actions.
One important recommendation is that the study of evolution should be included in all science curricula at every level. To achieve this the National Science Education Standards (NRC) require that evolution be taught in a seamless manner across all life sciences, with a progression of concepts that are developmental appropriate. Furthermore, a new publication from the NRC offers guidelines to schools on how to integrate evolution into the science curriculum.
Numerous studies have shown that a more thorough and comprehensive understanding of evolution is linked to more knowledge and belief in evolution. However it is difficult to determine the causal impact of teaching in the classroom is difficult because school curriculums are not assigned randomly and change over time because of the predetermined timeframe of gubernatorial elections as well as state board of education appointments. To overcome this issue I employ an ongoing dataset that gives me to control the fixed effects of state and years and individual-level variations in the beliefs of teachers regarding evolutionary theory.
Teachers who are more comfortable teaching evolution also have fewer internal barriers. This is in line with the notion that faculty who are more confident are less likely to avoid questions about evolution in the classroom. They may also be more inclined to employ strategies such as a reconciliatory approach that is known to boost the students' understanding of evolution.