Natural Selection as an Emergent Process

What is it about?

Natural selection is frequently misunderstood by students and the general public. Research in psychology and human development has shown that our thought patterns are structured in ways that predispose us to misunderstand processes like selection. Natural selection is an emergent process where interactions between individuals in a group result in collective patterns that may be surprising or unexpected. For example, flocking behavior in starlings, schooling behavior in fish, and mound construction by termites are complex collective patterns that result from local interactions between individual members of the group. Similarly, patterns of evolutionary adaptation in populations can be explained as an emergent process where local interactions between members of the population and between those members and the other species with which they interact result in change in the population distribution over time. Helping students to see natural selection as emergent should improve their understanding of the process. This paper reviews some studies that have shown this to be an effective approach for teaching other emergent processes. Instructional recommendations based on these studies are presented here, but more research is needed to determine the full extent to which this approach can improve students’ understanding. Free eprint at http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/d2ZET8b6jKegxYrrFhWt/full

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Why is it important?

Natural selection is one of several important evolutionary processes that enable us to understand and explain many changes in biological systems. Selection also has application in understanding problems in agriculture (pesticide resistant insects) and medicine (antibiotic resistant bacteria). Scientific literacy requires a sound understanding of natural selection. http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/d2ZET8b6jKegxYrrFhWt/full