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Abstract
This article focuses on variations in children' s understanding of the evolution of species and the origin of humans, and on how these variations are related to classroom instruction. In order to evaluate the children' s concept development as influenced by teaching method, children from two classes who participated in a teaching experiment throughout the third grade were interviewed. The teaching experiment aimed at teaching the children the theoretical concepts of evolution by teaching them to integrate their knowledge into coherent models. Two experimental groups from two different schools were interviewed during the middle of the fourth grade. A control group of children from a class that had not been taught the concepts of evolution were also interviewed. Analyses of the interviews showed that the manner of instruction influenced the children's conceptions, both in the area they were taught, the evolution of species, and a related area, the origin of humans.
