Knowledge of human evolution among the 8th and 9th grade primary school pupils in the Ljubljana region

Evolucija človeka je pomemben del pouka, saj nas nauči kdaj, kje in kako se je razvila naša vrsta. Učenci se z njo prvič srečajo v sedmem razredu pri zgodovini. Bolj podrobno pa konec devetega razreda pri biologiji. Raziskave kažejo, da imajo tako učitelji kot učenci težave z razumevanjem te teme. Cilj diplomskega dela je bil ugotoviti, kakšno je znanje učencev 8. in 9. razreda o evoluciji človeka. Preveriti smo želeli, ali je znanje povezano s spolom, starostjo in šolo, ki jo učenci obiskujejo. Zanimalo nas je tudi, ali se pri naših učencih pojavljajo enake napačne predstave kot pri učencih drugih držav, ki smo jih zasledili v tuji literaturi. Teste je reševalo 192 učencev 8. in 9. razreda. Z raziskavo smo ugotovili, da imajo učenci 8. razreda zelo podobno znanje kot učenci 9. razreda. Razlik med spoloma nismo našli. Ugotovili smo, da se znanje učencev o evolucij človeka razlikuje glede na šolo, ki jo učenci obiskujejo. Pri učencih se pojavljajo tipične napačne predstave. Napačne predstave se enakomerno pojavljajo tako pri 8. razredu kot pri 9. razredu, in sicer tako pri dekletih kot pri fantih. V napačnih predstavah smo našli statistično pomembne razlike pri učencih, ki prihajajo iz različnih osnovnih šol.Human evolution is an important part of curriculum, because it teaches us when, where and how our species has developed. Pupils get to know it in 7th grade of primary school in the history class. They learn more about it at the end of 9th grade in the biology class. Research reveals that not only pupils, but also teachers have problems with understanding of this topic. The aim of this graduation thesis was to find out what is the knowledge about human evolution like between pupils of 8th and 9th grades. We wanted to check, if their knowledge depends on gender, age, and school, which pupils attend. We were also interested if pupils in Slovenia have the same misconceptions as pupils in other countries, which have been described in foreign literature. Tests were written by 192 pupils from 8th and 9th grade. Our research demonstrated that pupils from the 8th grade have quite the same knowledge as pupils from the 9th grade. We have not found any differences between genders. We revealed that knowledge of pupils depends on school, which they attend. They also experience typical misconceptions about this topic. These appear in 8th and also 9th grade among both, boys and girls. The differences in misconceptions varied between pupils from different primary schools