The origins of Biology as a science. The impact of the evolution theories and issues associated with its teaching and learning

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the most important events in the history of Biology that gave its theoretical corpus and scientific status, emphasizing the role that Lamarck and Darwin’s theory of evolution fulfilled in this process, and to review some of the current issues associated with the teaching and learning of the theory of evolution by natural selection. Initially, the studies of life received a strong criticism by a school of thought originated in the Vienna Circle in the second decade of the last century and which placed Physics at the top of the scientific activities. According to this, the existence of a single method and explanation of natural and social phenomena was promulgated, reducing any system to its constituent parts. Controversies about Biology focused on the paucity of laws, the lack of mathematics in their classifications and the impossibility to falsify many of their hypotheses, primarily the historical ones. Over time, the new currents of thought in the Philosophy of Science recognized the absence of a unique method and language of science. Then, Biology was recognized for its distinctive features and study objects, with these having an irreducible complexity, and an irrefutable place for action for chance and probability. For this purpose, Lamarck and Darwin made significant contributions, offering a vision of life in permanent transformation. However, it was the theory of evolution by natural selection proposed by Darwin which generated a scientific revolution, giving the world a secular explanation to the origin of the species. Currently, in the field of education there are different challenges for teaching and learning evolution, including the presence of numerous misconceptions, to the scientific view, in teachers, pupils and textbooks. The implications of Biology and evolution by natural selection both in science and in the science education are discussed.