Understanding and acceptance of evolution among high school students in Dolenjska

In Slovenia, the evolution theory is taught today in biology class from the 9th grade of elementary school on. In this thesis, we wanted to verify what is the extent of the knowledge of secondary school students in Dolenjska region in the field of evolution theory and to what degree they accept this theory. In addition we wanted to know whether school, sex and age of the students have influence on it. The data was collected using a questionnaire, which included survey questions and knowledge assessment questions. We questioned students of two secondary schools in Dolenjska region which conduct general high school programme. In total 270 students of 1st, 2nd and 3rd year participated. It turns out that the students of all the three years in Dolenjska region have adequate knowledge of evolution, but it does not improve from the first to the third year. We found out that the students generally do not accept the ideas of creationism, especially they are not accepted by the third-year students. Among the answers of girls and boys no significant differences were found. But they were found among the responses of the students from both schools, where the questionnaire was conducted. We can conclude that the students' knowledge about the evolution theory is adequate and is also accepted by the students