Development and Evaluation of a Nature of Science-Based Online Course in Tenth-Grade Evolution

Published: March 9, 2022 Worldwide, misconceptions and non-scientific notions about evolution are prevalent within academic circles. As online learning gains popularity because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is crucial to identify practices that support learning in these contexts. Using the ADDIE instructional model, this study developed and evaluated a nature of science-based online course in evolution for tenth-grade junior high school students. Results revealed that the biology teachers considered the quality of pedagogies, resources, and delivery strategies in the online course excellent. Correspondingly, the students deemed the classroom climate in the online course exceptional in terms of instructor behaviors, course structure, course clarity, and student connectedness. The online course also helped them understand how evolution works through the videos and informative content and accept evolution by considering that several pieces of evidence and information support it and science and religion are not contradictory. Although the online course is good the way it is for most students, some of them provided recommendations for improvement. Overall, the students regarded the online course as recommendable because it is educational and manageable.


INTRODUCTION
Online learning is envisaged to be mainstream worldwide by the year 2025 [1]. Thus, its preparation for the future is of paramount importance [2]. However, the COVID-19 pandemic can hasten this timeline as it has produced the most significant education disturbance in history, impacting billions of students worldwide [3]. Halting face-to-face instruction is the most effective way to contain the transmission of COVID-19 [4]. Several learning institutions worldwide have shifted to online delivery of lessons to ensure learning continuity [3]. Online learning offers flexibility for the students in the place and time they learn [5]. It improves their retention of information and allows them to work through the material quickly, which means that the changes caused by COVID-19 might persist [6]. Resources to support online learning are indispensable at this time, and they will remain to be essential even after the COVID-19 pandemic is over [7]. As online learning gains popularity nowadays, it is crucial to identify practices that highly support learning in these contexts. Furthermore, it is imperative to align online learning with the Philippine K to 12 science curriculum.
The Philippines' Department of Education [8] envisions a K to 12 science curriculum that is geared towards the "development of scientifically, technologically, and environmentally literate and productive members of society who are critical problem solvers, responsible stewards of nature, innovative and creative citizens, informed ISBN: 978-623-5729-30-5 Proceedings homepage: https://conferenceproceedings.ump.ac.id/index.php/pspfs/issue/view/11 64 decision-makers, and effective communicators." Moreover, the Philippine K to 12 science curriculum intertwines both science content and processes. In the absence of content, the students will struggle in using science processes, which are best learned contextually. Situating the curriculum around problems that stimulate students' curiosity facilitates them in learning and appreciating the relevance and usefulness of science. Instead of relying on textbooks, teachers must use different hands-on, minds-on, and hearts-on activities to hone students' interests and develop them into active learners [8]. Implementing the Philippine K to 12 science curriculum in the new normal and beyond requires significant adjustments in the teaching practices, particularly in the online delivery of lessons. Furthermore, this study focused on evolution since the breadth and depth of understanding needed to grasp this science content area is under the Philippine K to 12 science curriculum.
Evolution has been considered the core theme of biology since it provides a powerful elucidation for the unity and diversity of life on Earth [9]. Theodosius Dobzhansky [10], one of the founders of modern evolutionary theory, remarkably declared that "Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution." In the Philippines, students are first introduced to evolution at the junior high school level (tenth grade) [11], although some underlying concepts are taught beforehand. For most students, evolution is hard to grasp [12]. Several of them hold a multitude of misunderstandings about this science content area (e.g., evolution is goal-directed and improves organisms) [13]. Moreover, students deem evolution to contradict the sacred scriptures since it considers the equality between humans and animals [14]. These misconceptions and non-scientific notions often result in misunderstanding and rejecting evolution. Educational efforts must be made to inculcate the significance of evolution to modern biology, how the scientific community understands and accepts this theory, and how it typifies well-grounded scientific practices yet remains tentative scientific knowledge.
To tackle these pertinent issues in evolution education, particularly in the Philippines, Partosa [15] called for integrating the nature of science (NOS hereafter) in the science curricula. NOS describes how scientists do what they do, how science answers questions, and how scientific knowledge is generated [16]. It includes several aspects such as tentativeness, observation and inference, social and cultural embeddedness, creativity and imagination, theories and laws, and scientific methods [17]. For the students to learn about the NOS, they must discuss and reflect on the characteristics of scientific knowledge [18], [19]. Local and foreign empirical investigations have shown that explicit instruction about the NOS can improve the students' understanding of science and enhance their understanding and acceptance of evolution [20]- [22]. Given the essential role of evolution in the Philippine K to 12 science curriculum, it is a suitable science content area for improving instructional practices.
To improve the teaching of evolution in online contexts during the new normal and beyond, we developed and evaluated a NOS-based online course in tenth-grade evolution. In this study, we sought to answer the following questions: (1) What are the biology teachers' ratings of the online course quality in terms of pedagogies, resources, and delivery strategies? (2) What are the students' ratings of the classroom climate in the online course in terms of instructor behaviors, course structure, course clarity, and student connectedness? (3) What are the students' perceptions of how the online course supports their learning of evolution?

METHODOLOGY
This study is an action research that used the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) Cycle as a research design to improve online instructional practices in tenth-grade evolution. The participants include twenty-one tenth-grade junior high school students from the Science, Technology, and Engineering Program (STEP) of a public high school at Calapan City, Oriental Mindoro, Philippines, and ten biology teachers with remarkable experience and qualifications.
In developing and evaluating the NOS-based online course in tenth-grade evolution, this study used the ADDIE instructional model, which consists of the following major parts: Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation. The Most Essential Learning Competencies (MELCs) released by the Department of Education [11] for tenth-grade science were examined in the analysis phase. The design phase is concerned with the assessment tools, online activities, content, subject matter analysis, lesson planning, and media selection. In the development phase, the lessons in evolution were created on Canvas ® based on the design phase. After the lessons were developed, the online course was implemented to the tenth-grade students during the fifth and sixth week of the third quarter of School Year 2020-2021 for two two-hour online class sessions. One lesson was taught per week. For each week, the first hour of the two-hour session was intended for the synchronous online class session, whereas the remaining one hour was intended for the asynchronous online class session. Lastly, in the evaluation phase, the biology teachers evaluated the quality of the online course after the development phase using the Quality Guidelines for Online Courses (QGOC) adapted from Herrington et al. [23]. The results from this instrument were then analyzed, and the online course was revised based on their suggestions. The students also evaluated the classroom climate in the online course using the Online Learning Climate Scale (OLCS) adopted from Kaufmann et al. [24]. In determining the mean level of agreement for each item in the QGOC and OLCS, the following categories were used: strongly agree (4.20-5.00), agree (3.40-4.19), neutral (2.60-3.39), disagree (1.80-2.59), and strongly disagree (1.00-1.79). Furthermore, four open-ended questions were used to encourage the students to express how the online course facilitated their learning of evolution. The data collected from their responses to these questions were subjected to thematic content analysis, following the steps of Mills and Gay [25].

Figure 1. Screenshots of the Lessons in the Online Course
Informed by the MELCs, the NOS-based online course in tenth-grade evolution has two lessons that focus on how evolution occurs by natural selection and the pieces of evidence (i.e., paleontological, anatomical, embryological, and genetic and molecular evidence) that support it (Fig. 1). Moreover, these lessons introduce and reinforce aspects of the NOS such as tentativeness, observation and inference, social and cultural embeddedness, creativity, scientific laws and theories, and scientific methods. In terms of pedagogies, the teacher serves as coach and facilitator of the online course, and the students are linked through buddy systems. Students' metacognitive skills are supported and developed through multiple answers and free-response questions with unlimited attempts that provide tolerance for errors and opportunities to test out, get feedback, and refine their NOS ideas iteratively. Engaging problems and activities that highlight the accurate representation of evolution were also provided in the online course to facilitate the students in constructing more scientifically accurate evolutionary conceptions. In addition, intuitive and clear organizational strategies were employed in arranging various resources (i.e., illustrative materials, videos, and texts) for the students to see how the key ideas are related. The resources used are current and relevant and provide a scientific perspective about the evolutionary theory. Specifically, the videos provide a genuine depiction of how the development of evolutionary thought has been done, how biologists have designed experiments to investigate the occurrence of natural selection in the wild, and how science and religion are compatible. Besides, the concept cartoons and scientific diagrams provide a scientifically correct explanation for the occurrence and evidence of evolution. Concerning delivery strategies, the site where the online course was developed can be accessed reliably on several electronic devices, its navigation and orientation are seamless, and the materials can be viewed and downloaded within a reasonable time. Students can also find the information on the website about the online course, and the instructions are placed in each online activity. Furthermore, the site has an appropriate communication channel available to students and teachers.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
a. Biology Teachers' Ratings of the Online Course Quality Presented in Table 1 are the biology teachers' average ratings of pedagogies. Each element was highly acceptable to them. All in all, pedagogies had an average rating of 4.40, which is verbally interpreted as "strongly agree." Biology teachers' average ratings of resources are shown in Table 2. Each element for resources was highly acceptable to them. Generally, this area had an average rating of 4.53, which is verbally interpreted as "strongly agree."  Table 3 shows the biology teachers' average ratings of delivery strategies. Most of the elements for delivery strategies were highly acceptable to them. In general, this area had an average rating of 4.34, which is verbally interpreted as "strongly agree."  Table 4. Generally, instructor behaviors had an average rating of 4.95, which is verbally interpreted as "strongly agree." Shown in Table 5 are the students' average ratings of the course structure. Overall, the course structure factor had an average rating of 4.65, which is verbally interpreted as "strongly agree."  Table 6 shows the students' average ratings of the course clarity. In general, the course clarity factor had an average rating of 4.83, which is verbally interpreted as "strongly agree." Presented in Table 7 are the students' average ratings of student connectedness. All in all, the student connectedness factor had an average rating of 4.75, which is verbally interpreted as "strongly agree." (1) The videos in the online course facilitated me in understanding the occurrence of evolution.
(2) The online course provided me with important information about the occurrence of evolution. The second open-ended question, Did the online course help you accept evolution? If so, how? Why? If not, why not? also brought about agreement among all students. Two major themes emerged from the analysis of answers to this question. They were: (1) Numerous pieces of evolutionary evidence and information.
(2) Notion of compatibility between science and religion.
Regarding the third question, What can be done to the online course to make it better?, most students found that the online course is fine as it is currently. On the other hand, some students recommended more discussion time. Other students suggested more learning materials, more engaging activities, and more information to improve the online course.
Lastly, the fourth open-ended question, Would you recommend this online course who want to learn evolution? Why? elicited agreement among all students. Two major themes emerged from the analysis of answers to this question. They were: (1) The online course is educational.
(2) The online course is manageable.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The NOS-based online course in tenth-grade evolution has excellent pedagogies, resources, and delivery strategies. Primarily, it can foster the mental involvement and reflection of students on NOS and has various resources such as illustrative materials, videos, and texts. Also, the site where the online course was developed can be accessed reliably regardless of electronic devices, and its navigation and orientation are smooth and efficient. Teachers teaching evolution can use this online course to improve their online instructional practices in evolution as this educational intervention is suitable and ready for online instruction. What is more, the online course produced a positive classroom climate among students. It shows that the online course instructor created opportunities to be deemed by the students as understanding, available, obliging, present, and compassionate. Likewise, it indicates that the instructor provided ways for the students to interact with, connect, and work with their peers. It also suggests that the online course presented explicit instructions, expectations, and proficiency in using technology to support students' learning.
Besides, the students highly valued the videos and informative content in the online course to help them understand how evolution occurs. Incorporating these ways of engaging with the content is necessary to provide the students an accurate representation of evolution, highlight its scientific validity, and point out the relatedness among the living and extinct organisms on Earth. Moreover, the online course helped the students accept evolution by considering that various evidence and information support it, and science and religion are not in conflict. It is critical to provide students with shreds of proof and facts as evidentiary lines that they can use to justify their acceptance of the evolutionary theory. In addition, religious beliefs have a crucial role in developing worldviews, and teachers should not regard them as wrong or mistaken ideas. The primary purpose of teaching evolution is to facilitate the students to understand and accept evolution and not change their religious beliefs.
On top of that, while most students considered the online course good the way it is, some recommended additional time for online discussion for its improvement. Other students suggested more learning materials, more engaging activities, and more information. In this study, the most significant challenge we faced was the limited time allotted in teaching science (2 hours/week). To maximize online discussion time, we suggest providing prelecture videos to the students and utilizing synchronous online class discussions to address their questions or concerns about the lesson. Overall, the students regarded the online course as recommendable because it is educational and manageable. This confirms the online course's effectiveness and efficiency in teaching tenthgrade evolution.
As online courses keep on gaining popularity to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 and educational disturbances, teachers must foster the best instructional and learning practices in online learning contexts, especially in improving the teaching of evolution. This study showed that using explicit instruction about the NOS is beneficial in teaching evolution in an online learning environment since this instructional approach facilitated the students to accept evolution. Future studies must investigate the use of explicit instruction about the NOS in teaching evolution using other learning delivery modalities, such as modular distance learning, television/radiobased instruction, blended distance learning, and homeschooling.