Problems in learning the concept of natural selection

TLDR: This paper found that over half of first-year university students with an Advanced-level biology background were consistently unable to apply this concept to common environmental problems, and that the major cause of these interrelated errors was students extrapolating from changes occurring within the lifetime of an individual, to account for evolutionary changes altering populations over many generations.

Abstract: In a written test investigating the level of understanding of the concept of natural selection, only 18 per cent of a group of first-year university students with an Advanced-level biology background were consistently able to apply this concept to common environmental problems. In their explanations, over half the students mistakenly formulated a ‘theory of adaptation by induced mutation’ instead of a ‘theory of evolution by natural selection’. On further analysis, many students had a poor understanding of adaptation, immunity, the origin of mutations, and the laws of inheritance. A major cause of these interrelated errors was students extrapolating from changes occurring within the lifetime of an individual, to account for evolutionary changes altering populations over many generations.