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Evolution Korea The financial crisis that hit Asia led to a major rethinking of the traditional system of government, business alliances, as well as public management of risk. In Korea, that meant an evolution of the development paradigm. In a controversial move South Korea's government has requested textbook publishers to ignore requests to remove examples of evolution in science books for high school students. This includes the evidence supporting the evolution of horses and the bird ancestor Archaeopteryx. 1. Evolution and Religion A South Korean creationist group has pushed textbook publishers to remove evidence of evolution from high school science texts. The move was a result of a campaign run by the Society for Textbook Revise (STR) which is an branch of the Korea Association for Creation Research, which wants to rid textbooks on biology of “atheist materialism.” The STR claims that such materialistic thinking creates a negative picture for students and can lead to their eventual loss of faith. When the STR's ad campaign made the news , scientists across the globe expressed concern. Jae Choe, evolutionary biologist at Ewha Womans University, Seoul, complained in an open letter to Nature's editor that South Korea had succumbed to religious prejudice. He was supported by colleagues from across the country who formed a group named Evolution Korea to organize an anti-textbook petition. Some scientists are worried that the STR could expand to other parts of the globe, where creationism is on the rise. The letter to Nature warned of the anti-evolution campaign increasing pressure on textbook revisions, especially in countries with large Christian and Muslim populations. South Korea has a particularly powerful cultural backdrop for the debate about evolution. 26 percent of the country's residents belong to one of the religious groups and the majority of them adhere to Christianity or Buddhism. In addition, a lot of Koreans adhere to the Ch'ondogyo philosophy, which is based on Confucian principles which emphasizes harmony in society and personal self-cultivation. Ch'ondogyo teaches that the human being is one with Hanulnim, the God of Sun and that the heavenly blessings can be achieved through the good works of one's. All of this has made creationism a fertile ground. A number of studies have demonstrated that students who have a religious background are more hesitant about learning about evolution than students without religion. The reasons behind this aren't evident. Students with a religious background may not be as knowledgeable about the theories of science, making them more susceptible to the creationists' influence. Another possible factor is that students with religious beliefs are more likely to see evolution as an atheistic idea, which may make them less at ease with it. 2. Evolution and Science In recent years, campaigns against evolution in schools have raised concern among the scientific community. A survey in 2009 revealed that 40 percent of Americans believed that biological evolution was not true and that it would conflict their religious beliefs. Many scientists believe that despite the fact that creationism has been successful the best way to counter this belief is to educate the public on the evidence supporting evolution. Scientists are responsible to teach their students science including the theory of evolution. They must also inform people about the scientific process and how knowledge is gathered and confirmed. They should also explain that theories of science are often challenged and reformulated. However, misinformation about the nature and purpose of scientific research can lead to a negative view of evolution. For instance, some people confuse the term “theory” with the common meaning of the word – a guess or a guess. In science, however, a hypothesis is rigorously tested and empirical data is used to confirm it. A theory that has survived repeated testing and observation is a scientific principle. The debate over evolution theory is an excellent opportunity to discuss both the importance of scientific methodology and its limitations. It is important that people understand that science is not able to provide answers to questions about life's purpose or meaning, but instead provides a mechanism for living things to evolve and evolve. A comprehensive education should include exposure to all major scientific fields including evolutionary biology. This is particularly important because the jobs that people have and the choices they make require understanding of how science functions. The vast majority scientists in the world believe that humans have evolved through time. A recent study predicting adults' views of the consensus on this subject found that those with higher levels of education and knowledge of science were more likely to believe that there is a consensus among scientists about human evolution. The people with more religious faith and less science knowledge tend to be more skeptical. It is crucial that teachers insist on the importance of knowing the consensus on this issue to ensure that people are able to making informed decisions regarding their health care, energy use and other policy issues. 3. Evolution and Culture Cultural evolution is a close cousin of mainstream evolutionary theory. It examines the ways that humans and other species learn from one another. Researchers in this field use explanatory tools and investigative models that are adapted from evolutionary theorists and go back to the prehistoric human to discover the earliest sources of culture. This method also acknowledges that there are some differences between cultural and biological traits. Cultural traits can be acquired gradually while biological traits are usually acquired at the same time (in sexual species, at fertilization). As a result, the acquisition of one cultural characteristic can affect the development of another. In Korea for instance, the adoption of Western fashion elements in the latter part of the 19th century and the early 20th century was the result of a complicated sequence of events. One of the most important was the arrival of Japanese occupation forces, who introduced Western hairstyles and styles of clothing to Korean society. When Japan left Korea in the 1930s some of these trends began to change. At the close of World War II, Korea was united once more but this time under the Choson dynasty rule. Today, Korea is an economic and political power. Despite the recent global financial crisis, the economy of Korea has been growing steadily over the past decade and is expected to sustain its steady growth in the future. The current government is confronted by a myriad of problems. One of the most serious is its inability to find an effective strategy to deal with the economic crisis. The crisis has exposed weaknesses in the country's policies and its reliance on exports and foreign investment that may not last. Since the financial crisis has destroyed the confidence of investors, the government must reconsider its economic strategy and look for alternative ways to boost domestic demand. It will also have to overhaul the incentive monitoring, control, and discipline systems that are in place to guarantee an environment that is stable for the financial sector. This chapter outlines several scenarios of how the Korean economy could grow in the post-crisis period. 4. Evolution and Education The challenge for evolution educators is how to teach evolutionary concepts that are appropriate for different levels of development and ages. Teachers, for instance, must be aware of the religious diversity in their classrooms and create a space where students with both secular and religious views feel comfortable learning evolution. Teachers should also be able recognize common misconceptions about evolution and be able to correct them in the classroom. Finally, teachers must be able to access a range of resources that are available to teach evolution and be able to find them quickly. In this context, Thinking Evolutionarily Convocation played an important role in bringing evolutionary researchers and educators from different sectors to discuss best methods of teaching Evolution. Participants included representatives from scientific societies, educational research, officials from government funding agencies and curriculum developers. The convergence of diverse participants helped to identify some common guidelines which will serve as the foundation for future actions. It is important to include evolution in all science curricula, at every level. To achieve this, the National Science Education Standards (NRC) call for evolution to be taught in a unified manner across all life sciences, with a progression of ideas that are developmentally appropriate. A new publication from the NRC offers guidelines to schools on how to integrate evolution into their life science curriculum. A number of studies have demonstrated that a more thorough and comprehensive understanding of evolution is linked to higher levels of student understanding and belief in the concept of evolution. However the estimation of the causal effect of evolution in the classroom is challenging due to the fact that school curriculums are not assigned randomly and evolve in time as a result of the predetermined timeframe of gubernatorial elections as well as state board of education appointments. To overcome this problem I use a longitudinal data set that gives me to control for the effects of years and states fixed and individual-level variations in teacher beliefs about evolutionary theory. Another significant finding is that teachers who feel more comfortable teaching about evolution report having fewer personal barriers to doing so. This is in line with the hypothesis that more experienced faculty are less likely to avoid questions about evolution in the classroom. They may also be more likely to employ strategies such as the reconciliatory method that is known to boost the students' understanding of evolution.