Natural selection: learning paradigms

Abstract

The aim is to analyze the main difficulties students face when learning the main evolutionary concepts in school, most particularly the one of natural selection. We will draft some explanations for the obstacles that emerge when trying to modify alternative conceptions about this issue which are invalid from the current evolutionary biology point of view and that even remain among undergraduate students. Those difficulties identified in the learning process are then linked to the historical reconstruction of evolutionary theory by variation and natural selection. We support some proposals and highlight some must-answer question for further development in this field.