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The Impact of Exploring Sexual Selection on Primary 
School Students’ Understanding of Evolution
Xana Sá-Pinto*
1
, Patrícia Pessoa
2
, Alexandre Pinto
3
, Pedro Cardia
4
 
and Joaquim Bernardino Lopes
5
• Several researchers and scientific institutions argue that evolution should 
be explored from the first school years. However, few studies have ana -
lysed primary school students’ understanding of evolutionary processes 
or evaluated the impact of educational activities on such knowledge. The 
available data: i) suggest that primary school students can learn about 
evolution; and ii) identify differential reproduction as the key evolution 
concept less often used by students to make and justify evolutionary pre -
dictions. In the present study, we evaluate the impact of an educational 
programme on primary school students’ level of understanding of evolu -
tion by sexual selection and on their ability to employ differential repro -
duction to propose and justify evolutionary predictions. An evaluation 
framework was applied to estimate primary school students’ level of un -
derstanding of evolution by sexual selection in third- and fourth-grade 
classes, before and after the students were exposed to the educational pro -
gramme. A significant increase in the level of understanding of evolution 
by sexual selection was observed in the target classes, but not in the con -
trol classes. This result was primarily driven by a significant increase in the 
students’ justifications employing the concept of differential reproduction. 
The results suggest that activities that model and simulate biological evo -
lution through sexual selection can contribute to primary school students’ 
understanding of evolutionary processes.
 Keywords: primary school, sexual selection, evolution education, 
conceptual understanding, model-based learning
1 *Corresponding Author. Research Centre on Didactics and Technology in the Education of 
Trainers, Education, Department of Education and Psychology, University of Aveiro, Portugal; 
xanasapinto@gmail.com. 
2 Research Centre on Didactics and Technology in the Education of Trainers, Education, 
Department of Education and Psychology, University of Aveiro, and University of Trás-os-
Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal.
3 Center for Research and Innovation in Education, ESE (School of Education), Polytechnic of 
Porto, Portugal.
4 Ambiente e Inovação, Portugal. 
5 Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal.
doi: https://doi.org/10.26529/cepsj.1508

122 the impact of exploring sexual selection on primary school students’ ...
Vpliv raziskovanja spolne selekcije na razumevanje 
evolucije pri osnovnošolcih
Xana Sá-Pinto, Patrícia Pessoa, Alexandre Pinto, Pedro Cardia in 
Joaquim Bernardino Lopes
• Več raziskovalcev in znanstvenih ustanov trdi, da je treba evolucijo 
raziskovati že v prvih šolskih letih, vendar pa je malo študij analizira -
lo razumevanje evolucijskih procesov pri osnovnošolcih ali ovrednotilo 
vpliv izobraževalnih dejavnosti na tako znanje. Razpoložljivi podatki: i) 
nakazujejo, da se osnovnošolci lahko učijo o evoluciji; ii) opredeljujejo 
diferencialno reprodukcijo kot ključni koncept evolucije, ki ga učenci 
redkeje uporabljajo za navedbo in utemeljitev evolucijskih napovedi. V 
tej študiji ocenjujemo vpliv izobraževalnega programa na raven razu -
mevanja osnovnošolcev glede evolucije s spolno selekcijo in na njihovo 
sposobnost uporabe diferencialne reprodukcije za predlaganje in ute -
meljitev evolucijskih napovedi. Pri tem je bilo uporabljeno evalvacij -
sko ogrodje za oceno stopnje razumevanja evolucije s spolno selekcijo 
osnovnošolcev v oddelkih tretjega in četrtega razreda, pred tem in po 
tem, ko so bili učenci izpostavljeni izobraževalnemu programu. Znatno 
povečanje stopnje razumevanja evolucije s spolno selekcijo so opazili v 
ciljnih, ne pa tudi v kontrolnih razredih. Ta rezultat je bil predvsem po -
sledica znatnega povečanja utemeljitev učencev, ki uporabljajo koncept 
diferencialne reprodukcije. Izsledki kažejo, da lahko dejavnosti, ki mo -
delirajo in simulirajo biološko evolucijo s spolno selekcijo, prispevajo k 
razumevanju evolucijskih procesov pri osnovnošolcih.
 Ključne besede: osnovna šola, spolna selekcija, evolucijska vzgoja, 
konceptualno razumevanje, modelno učenje

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Introduction
Although evolution understanding is fundamental for students in order 
to address important sustainability problems (Jørgensen et al., 2019), several 
studies show that many people are unable to understand, or even to accept, 
evolution (see, for example, Miller et al., 2006; Kuschmierz et al., 2021).
In order to overcome this problem, several researchers and scientific 
institutions argue that evolution is a core idea around which learning progres -
sions in biology should be built from the first school years (Nadelson et al., 
2009; National Research Council [NRC], 2012, 2013; Wagler, 2010, 2012; see 
also the review of Treagust & Tsui, 2013 by Torkar, 2017). Despite this, few stud -
ies have analysed the ability of primary school students to learn about evolu -
tion, or evaluated the impact of educational activities on primary school stu -
dents’ understanding of evolutionary processes (see, however, Berti et al., 2015; 
Brown et al., 2020; Campos & Sá-Pinto, 2013; Emmons et al., 2017; Kelemen 
et al., 2014; Sá-Pinto et al., 2021a). In a systematic literature review conducted 
by Bruckermann et al. (2020), aimed at identifying which precursory concepts 
in evolution early childhood and primary school children already possess or 
develop after an educational intervention, the authors found that even chil -
dren aged up to seven years are able to understand the basic mechanisms of the 
core concepts in evolution, such as variation, inheritance and natural selection. 
Grether (2021) used lesson plans with active learning activities to teach specific 
evolutionary learning objectives (fossils, vestigial traits, common ancestry, her -
itability, natural selection and evolutionary time) to primary school students 
(grades 3–5). This author reports a substantial improvement in the students’ 
understanding of evolutionary concepts after engaging in these activities. Using 
a storybook intervention that explored the concepts of intraspecific diversity, 
heredity, environmental change, differential survival, differential reproduction 
and frequency change over generations, two studies show that kindergarten 
and primary school students can learn about evolution by natural selection 
(Emmons et al., 2017; Kelemen et al., 2014). Sá-Pinto et al. (2017a) proposed 
a framework to evaluate primary school students’ level of understanding of 
evolution by natural selection and Sá-Pinto et al. (2021a) adapted it to evalu -
ate an educational transdisciplinary activity that used a problem-based learn -
ing approach to teach fourth graders about natural selection and numerical 
sequences related to geometric growth. This study shows that primary school 
students can learn about evolution and are able to apply the key concepts re -
lated to natural selection (selective pressure, differential survival, differential 
reproduction, frequency change; following Tibell and Harms, 2017) to explain 

124 the impact of exploring sexual selection on primary school students’ ...
or predict biological scenarios (see Mestrinho et al., 2023 for students’ math -
ematics learning). A study by Brown et al. (2020) also shows that, although 
primary school students reveal some common evolution misconceptions, these 
are easily overcome with instruction, a picture that strongly contrasts with what 
is known regarding older students, whose misconceptions are shown to resist 
instruction (Bishop & Anderson, 1986; Nehm & Reilly, 2007). Although these 
studies support primary school students’ ability to learn about natural selec -
tion, the results of Sá-Pinto et al. (2017a, 2021a) show that differential reproduc -
tion is not frequently mentioned by students. This is particularly worrying, as 
differential reproduction is the most important parameter determining indi -
viduals’ fitness, and because students tend to believe that fitness is determined 
by the individual’s ability to survive, their strength or intelligence (Gregory, 
2009). These results highlight the importance of further exploring the concept 
of differential reproduction. Recently, Sá-Pinto et al. (2017b) have argued that 
exploring sexual selection may help students to further understand evolution, 
as this process focuses on the parameter that defines an individual’s fitness: its 
reproductive output.
Although sexual selection was only named later (Darwin, 1871), the im -
portance of this process for species’ evolution has been recognised since the 
first joint publication of Darwin and W allace (1858). In this publication, Darwin 
wrote that »Besides this natural means of selection, by which those individuals 
are preserved, whether in their egg, or larval, or mature state, which are best 
adapted to the place they fill in nature, there is a second agency at work in most 
unisexual animals, tending to produce the same effect, namely, the struggle of 
the males for the females. These struggles are generally decided by the law of 
battle, but in the case of birds, apparently, by the charms of their song, by their 
beauty or their power of courtship, as in the dancing rock-thrush of Guiana. 
The most vigorous and healthy males, implying perfect adaptation, must gen -
erally gain the victory in their contests. This kind of selection, however, is less 
rigorous than the other; it does not require the death of the less successful, but 
gives to them fewer descendants« (Darwin & Wallace, 1858, p. 50).
Since Darwin’s first description, the process of sexual selection has been 
strongly debated by the research community, with several authors arguing that 
it would be a component of ‘broad sense’ natural selection (reviewed by An -
dersson, 1994; Shuker & Kvarnemo, 2021). Several studies have supported the 
importance of the competition for mates in species evolution and speciation 
processes (reviewed by Andersson, 1994; Andersson & Simmons, 2006). Fur -
thermore, the effect of sexual selection in some traits opposes the effect of natu -
ral selection (when defined in its ‘narrow sense’ emphasising the viability or 

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fecundity components of fitness; this definition of natural selection will be used 
throughout the present article) as it occurs, for example, in the evolution of or -
naments (reviewed by Andersson, 1994; Shuker & Kvarnemo, 2021). Given this, 
the concept of sexual selection has been retained and is widely used to refer to 
the fitness component related to success in the competition for access to mates, 
or gametes. Andersson defined sexual selection in a trait as »differences in re -
productive success, caused by competition over mates and related to the expres -
sion of the trait« (Andersson, 1994, p. 7). More recently, Shuker and Kvarnemo 
have proposed an alternative definition of sexual selection as »any selection 
that arises from fitness differences associated with non-random success in the 
competition for access to gametes for fertilisation« (Shuker & Kvarnemo, 2021, 
p. 781), thus emphasising that, although access to mates (pre-copulatory mating 
success) may be the first step, sexual selection can still occur after mating (post-
copulatory mating success). Several factors may affect the strength of sexual se -
lection acting in a sex, including sex differences in parental investment, mating 
systems, sex ratios or operational sex ratios (extensively reviewed by Anders -
son, 1994 and summarised in Sá-Pinto et al., 2017b). Although females are often 
the limiting sex for reproduction (thus imposing a stronger sexual selection in 
males), there are numerous exceptions to this pattern (see examples in Sá-Pinto 
et al., 2017b). Sexual selection will favour traits that improve the ability of indi -
viduals of a sex to maximise their access to mates (or gametes). These include 
traits that allow them to find mates faster than others, to attract more (or better) 
partners of the limiting sex, to keep rivals away, to keep reproductively active 
for a longer period, and to produce more gametes (summarised in Sá-Pinto et 
al., 2017b). Importantly, favoured traits may act before and/or after copulation, 
as pointed out by Shuker and Kvarnemo (2021).
The teaching of sexual selection is fundamental for students to make 
sense of the surrounding world. Palanza and Parmigiani (2016) argue that the 
combined teaching of sexual and natural selection is fundamental for medicine 
and psychology students to understand the anatomy, physiology and behaviour 
of humans, the selective pressures that condition the evolution of these features, 
and how the mismatch between past and present conditions cause human vul -
nerabilities to diseases and behavioural disorders.
Despite the importance of sexual selection for biological processes and 
for fostering students’ understanding about these processes, few educational 
activities designed to promote learning about this process are described, and 
even fewer studies have analysed students’ knowledge or ability to learn about 
this process (reviewed in Sá-Pinto et al., 2017b). Kalinowski et al. (2013) de -
scribe six activities that were implemented with students in introductory 

126 the impact of exploring sexual selection on primary school students’ ...
biology courses to promote their learning about evolution by natural selection. 
One of them was a class discussion related to peacock feathers, in which stu -
dents were asked to propose explanations for the evolution of this trait before 
and after being presented data regarding female mating preferences. The other 
activities explored the selection of dog breeds to introduce the concept of selec -
tion, the coat colour in oldfield mice ( Peromyscus polionotus ) to introduce the 
sources of variation, human evolution to introduce natural selection, antibi -
otic resistance to introduce complex traits evolution, and the apparent suicide 
of lemmings to introduce behavioural evolution. The authors show that, after 
exploring this pack of six activities, students increased their understanding of 
natural selection. Luttikhuizen (2018) described a card game for students to 
learn about processes that are frequency dependent, including cases of sexual 
selection. Although the authors do not present data for the students’ learning 
evaluation, they report that these activities were successfully explored with 
university students. Kane et al. (2018) developed a series of activities for mid -
dle school students to use trinidadian guppies (live animals and models of the 
species Poecilia reticulata ) to explore several evolutionary processes, including 
sexual selection (through mathematical modelling situations). Although the 
authors did not evaluate the impact of the activities on students’ learning, both 
teachers and students praised these activities. Bouwma-Gearhart and Bouwma 
(2015) also propose using live crickets from the species Acheta domesticus to 
help students build progressively better models of evolution that account for 
both natural and sexual selection, as well as the interplay between these two 
processes, an approach that was applied to high school and university students. 
However, no information is provided on how these activities contributed to 
students’ learning. Fee and Alfano (2013) propose a set of activities that explore 
several species of birds of paradise as models for students to learn about both 
natural and sexual selection. Lawson (2003) proposed an activity to be explored 
by sixth graders or older students that uses coins to model evolution by sexual 
and natural selection. Sá-Pinto et al. (2017b) propose two activities for students 
to learn about sexual selection by mate choice and male-male competition that 
model these processes through a card game and balloon sword contests. These 
few studies show that: i) most of the activities were proposed and implemented 
with older students (university and high schools); ii) the impacts of the activi -
ties on students’ learning are most often assumed rather than evaluated. The 
latter means that no information is available on the impact of exploring sexual 
selection on primary school students’ understanding of evolutionary processes. 
In the present study, we aim to contribute to overcoming this lack of informa -
tion by studying: i) whether activities modelling biological evolution through 

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sexual selection can assist primary school students to learn and apply the con -
cept of differential reproduction; and ii) whether these students can understand 
the processes of sexual selection and apply this knowledge to predict biological 
scenarios.
Method
Educational activity
In order to promote students’ learning about evolution by sexual se -
lection, we planned an educational programme that included four sessions of 
approximately two hours each. The first and second sessions were introduc -
tory sessions exploring two key principles that, according to Tibell and Harms 
(2017), are fundamental to understanding evolution: the variation principle 
and the heredity principle. To explore the variation principle, the students ex -
plored the intraspecific variability in humans through an activity adapted from 
Campos and Sá-Pinto (2013). In a class discussion, the students were initially 
asked to identify variable human traits. In small groups, they were then asked 
to choose two traits from those initially listed to describe, categorise, quantify 
and depict the different phenotypes, and to group their classmates according to 
these phenotypes. During this activity, the students mentioned and explored 
mostly observable traits (such as skin, hair and eye colour, height, etc.), but 
traits such as ‘voice’ and ‘blood types’ were also mentioned and analysed. At the 
end of the session, the students were asked to observe the chosen traits in their 
family members and to register the information in a genealogical tree provided 
to them. The genealogical trees were used in the second session to explore the 
principle of heritability. Following Campos and Sá-Pinto (2013), we asked the 
students to analyse with whom they each shared a higher number of features 
and, for each feature, which of their family members displayed such features. 
After the students noticed that some phenotypes ‘jumped’ generations, the re -
searchers explored with the children the concept of dominant, recessive and 
co-dominant phenotypes, using blood types and imaginary genealogical trees 
to exemplify the transmission and expression of these features.
The students were only introduced to sexual selection in the third and 
fourth sessions, through two activities that model a scenario of mate choice and 
male competition, as described by Sá-Pinto et al. (2017b). Briefly, in the activity 
of the third session, the students were asked to model sexual selection occurring 
in a male-biased population. They played the role of the females and were asked 
to choose their mates from a pool of cards that initially displayed four distinct 

128 the impact of exploring sexual selection on primary school students’ ...
and equally frequent phenotypes. The individuals chosen reproduce, each giving 
rise to three fertile descendants (one female – the student – and two males – two 
cards with the same phenotype of the one chosen by the student) and then die. 
This model was used for three generations. The frequency of each phenotype in 
each generation was recorded on the blackboard and the changes observed across 
generations, as well as the causes for those changes, were discussed with the en -
tire class. In order for students to understand how the sex ratio could affect the 
strength of sexual selection, the same model was applied to a scenario in which 
the students were at the same number of the cards. The results of this scenario 
were compared to those previously obtained and the reasons for the differences 
were discussed in the classroom. Some examples of species with biased and unbi -
ased sex ratios and their sexual dimorphism were then presented to the students 
using a resource provided by Sá-Pinto et al. (2017b). In the fourth session, the 
students explored intrasexual competition, modelling this process through bal -
loon sword fights. They were asked to play the role of males who had to fight 
with other males to secure access to mates with balloon swords that modelled a 
body feature such as horns or antlers. Balloon swords of two very distinct sizes 
were randomly assigned to the students, who were randomly assigned to pairs. 
In each pair, the student who first touched their opponent three times with their 
sword wins and reproduces leaving two descendants with a sword of the same 
size as their parent’s sword. The student who loses the fight does not reproduce 
her/his sword. In each generation, the frequency of the size of the swords, which 
was initially equal, was registered on the board and the reasons for the frequency 
changes observed across generations were discussed with the students.
Evaluation of students’ understanding of evolution by sexual 
selection
The sessions were applied in a convenience sample of one third-grade 
class (N = 19, ages ranging from 8 to 9 years old) and one fourth-grade class (N 
= 15, ages ranging from 9 to 10 years old) recruited from a Portuguese public 
school. Informed consent to perform the study and collect the students’ answers 
was obtained from the students’ legal guardians. Consent to perform the study 
was also obtained from the teachers and the school board. No personal data 
was collected from the students, who were identified only with a code number.
The students were tested for their ability to use knowledge on sexual selec -
tion to predict the evolutionary outcome of a biological system two days before 
and one day after the sessions. The evaluation instrument was inspired by the one 
proposed by Sá-Pinto et al. (2017a), but adapted to a sexual selection scenario. The 

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test introduced students to a beetle population (see Figure 1a), initially presenting 
polymorphism in males’ mandible sizes. The students were asked to predict the 
frequency of the jaw sizes after one hundred years, knowing that: i) male beetles 
used their mandibles to fight other males and move them away from females; 
ii) each beetle only lives one year; and iii) mandible size is a heritable trait. The 
English translation of the test presented to the students can be found in Figure 
1a. The test was read aloud to the entire class, and the researchers further clarified 
the task orally by asking the students to make their predictions and justifications 
considering the three mandible male phenotypes already depicted in the figure. 
The researchers also clarified the meaning of some terms, such as mandibles. The 
students were asked to draw and provide a written justification for their predic -
tions, and were given 15 minutes to complete these tasks. Following Sá-Pinto et 
al. (2017a), after the tasks were completed, each student was asked to verbally 
explain their predictions and their justifications before handing in the test. Irre -
spective of the type of student answer, when the students verbally provided more 
information to the researcher than was written or drawn on the test, they were 
asked to add that information to their answer. Approximately 30 minutes were 
necessary for all of the students to complete this process in each class. The pre- 
and post-tests were similar. Control classes were used to verify the impact of the 
students’ double exposure to the test and to evaluate the internal validity of the 
process (Lahm, 2004). The two control classes (one third- and one fourth-grade 
class) were from the same school as the target classes, but were not exposed to 
the educational programme. The tests were applied on the same days in all of the 
control and target classes. No significant differences were found between pre- and 
post-test in the control classes, thus ensuring the internal validity of our evalua -
tion instrument (Lahm, 2004).
The students’ answers were analysed using content analysis. The key 
concepts related to the selection dimension proposed by Tibell and Harms 
(2017) were used as categories of the analysis: selective pressure; differential 
survival; differential reproduction; trait relative frequency change in popula -
tion (Table 1). We did not look for evidence of students mentioning speciation 
as divergence between populations, as it was not an expected outcome from the 
proposed biological scenario. Furthermore, we did not evaluate the key con -
cepts related to the dimensions of heredity and variation, as, following Sá-Pinto 
et al. (2017a, 2021a), the information related to these key concepts was provided 
to the students in the test. The expected fittest phenotype was considered to be 
the larger mandibles, unless the student provided information in the answer to 
support a credible biological scenario in which other phenotypes increase the 
progeny of the individuals more than the larger mandibles.

130 the impact of exploring sexual selection on primary school students’ ...
Table 1
Categories of the content analysis, their definition and examples of answers 
attributed to each category of the analysis. The section of the answer that justifies 
its attribution to the specific category is highlighted in bold
Category of analysis Definition 
Example of an answer classified as 
evidence for a category
Trait relative fre-
quency change
the student predicts that the 
expected fittest phenotype 
would become the most 
frequent
I think that in one hundred years there 
will be only males with big mandibles, 
as these win more often than the others 
and form more families and have more 
offspring with the same mandibles
Selective advantage the student states that the 
expected fittest males would 
win more fights
I think that in one hundred years there 
will be only males with big mandibles, 
as these win more often than the others 
and form more families and have more 
offspring with the same mandibles
Differential repro-
duction
the student justifies the 
frequency increase of the ex-
pected fittest male phenotype 
mentioning its differential 
reproduction advantage.
I think that in one hundred years there 
will be only males with big mandibles, 
as these win more often than the others 
and form more families and have more 
offspring with the same mandibles
Differential survival the student justifies the 
frequency increase of the ex-
pected fittest male phenotype 
mentioning its differential 
survival advantage.
Because the males with small beaks die 
more often in the fights.
A score of one was attributed to each category except differential sur -
vival, as sexual selection does not require differential survival to take place. The 
level of understanding of evolution by sexual selection (LUESS) revealed by 
each answer, regarding both predictions and corresponding justifications, was 
determined by summing the scores attributed to each rubric item identified 
in that answer. The LUESS could range between L0: no evolutionary thinking 
involved in the answer (see example in Figure 1b), to L3: the ability to correctly 
predict population evolution and justify it with differential reproduction due to 
differential ability to win fights (Figure 1c).
Two science education researchers evaluated all of the students’ answers: 
one with a background in primary school teacher training (AP), and one with 
an evolutionary biology background (XSP). Given the evaluators’ training, in -
terrater reliability was estimated as the percentage of initial agreement between 
the evaluators (McHugh, 2012). Interrater reliability was higher than 94.8% for 
all of the items analysed, a reliability considered as acceptable (Stemler, 2004, 
p.3). Answers not equally rated by the two researchers were discussed and, fail -
ing a consensus, removed from the analyses. The McNemar test was used to 

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estimate the statistical significance of the changes in the frequency of each cod -
ing rubric item and the Wilcoxon test was used to estimate the statistical sig -
nificance of students’ LUESS between pre- and post-tests. All of the statistical 
analyses were performed with SPSSv23. 
Figure 1
Test presented to the students before and after the intervention and (a) example 
of students’ answers classified as L0 (b) and L3 (c)

132 the impact of exploring sexual selection on primary school students’ ...
Translation of the student’s answer in b) »I think that there will be bee -
tles of all mandible sizes because these reproduced and the mandibles of the 
sons are similar to those of their fathers«. Translation of the student’s answer in 
c) »I think that in one hundred years there will be only males with big mandi -
bles as these win more often than the others and form more families and have 
more offspring with the same mandibles«. Photo in a) reproduced under the 
creative commons share alike license from Von Anaxibia H. Rothacher. Origi -
nal upload was de: User: Matthias1987 - {own} http://h-r.gmxhome.de/index.
htmltransfered from de:Datei:Lucanus cervus73.jpg, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://
commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8768963.
Results
Table 2 shows the relative frequency of the answers that were assigned to 
each category of analysis (examples of answers can be found in Figure 1). When 
the two target classes are considered, more than 82% of the students revealed 
an L0 of the LUESS in the pre-tests. After engaging in the educational activi -
ties, 56% of the students achieved L3 of the LUESS (Figure 2). Thus, there was 
a significant increase in the target classes’ LUESS in the post-tests (Table 2) in 
both classes. 
Figure 2
Frequency of students attributed to each level of understanding of evolution by 
sexual selection (LUESS) when the two target classes are considered in both pre- 
and post-tests

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The increase in students’ LUESS from the pre-test to the post-test was due 
to a significant increase in the proportion of students who i) predicted that the 
expected fittest phenotype would become the most frequent and justified this 
prediction by ii) the increased ability of individuals with longer mandibles to 
win fights (selective advantage, Table 2), which would result in iii) an increased 
chance to secure females and have more progeny (differential reproduction; T able 
2). No significant increase was observed in the frequency of students mentioning 
differential survival of the two phenotypes in any of the classes.
Table 2
Results of pre- and post-tests evaluating the students’ ability to apply sexual 
selection to predict biological scenarios
Classes Tests
% of students’ answers including the analysed criteria
Trait relative 
frequency 
change
Differential 
reproduction
Selective 
advantage
Differential 
survival 
Average 
LUESS
K3T 
N = 19
Pre 10.5 5.3 5.3 0.0 0.21
Post 84.2 78.9 63.2 10.5 2.26
Dif. 
73.7 
(p = 0.001)
73.7 
(p = 0.000)
 57.9 
(p = 0.003)
10.5 
(p = 0.500)
2.05 
(Wp < 0.001)
K3C
N = 12
Pre 50.0 0.0 9.1 10.0 0.55
Post 41.7 0.0 8.3 25.0 0.50
Dif. 
-8.3 
(p = 1.000)
0.0
-0.8 
(p=1.000)
10.0 
(p = 1.000)
0.05
(Wp = 0.317)
K4T
N = 15
Pre 26.7 13.3 13.3 0.0 0.53
Post 80.0 60.0 73.3 0.0 2.13
Dif. 
53.3 
(p = 0.008)
46.7 
(p = 0.039)
60.0 
(p = 0.004)
0.0
1.6 
(Wp = 0.004)
K4C
N = 12
Pre 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0
Post 8.3 8.3 0.0 0.0 0.17
Dif. 
8.3 
(p = 1.000)
8.3 
(p = 1.000)
0.0 0.0
0.17
(Wp = 0.317)
Note.  K3T – Target third-grade class; K3C – Control third-grade class; K4T – Target fourth-grade 
class; K4C – Control fourth-grade class; N – sample size; Dif. – difference between results obtained in 
the pre-test (Pre) and the post-test (Post) by the same students; p – p values obtained in McNemar 
tests; Wp – p values obtained in Wilcoxon tests. All statically significant differences are highlighted in 
bold.

134 the impact of exploring sexual selection on primary school students’ ...
Discussion 
The results from the present study support the hypothesis that students 
in third- and fourth-grade classes can learn about sexual selection when they 
engage in activities that model sexual selection by mate choice and intrasexual 
competition. This is supported by the strong and significant increase in the stu -
dents’ LUESS from the pre-test to the post-test in the two target classes (Figure 
2). The students were shown to learn about the key concepts related to sexual 
selection: selective advantage, differential reproduction and trait relative fre -
quency change. Although students have already been shown to be capable of 
learning about natural selection (Brown et al., 2020; Campos & Sá-Pinto, 2013; 
Emmons et al., 2017; Kelemen et al., 2014; Sá-Pinto et al., 2021a), to our knowl -
edge, this is the first study analysing the ability of primary school students to 
learn about sexual selection. Although sexual selection has been given much 
less attention in evolution education than natural selection, this evolutionary 
process strongly impacts species’ evolution and speciation processes. It there -
fore allows students to understand patterns of sexual dimorphism and the per -
sistence of some features related to reproduction that may decrease individuals’ 
survival, such as the tail of the peacock (reviewed in Sá-Pinto et al., 2017b). The 
results of the present study also support the potential of exploring sexual selec -
tion in order for students to learn about the role of differential reproduction, 
which is a key concept for the understanding of evolution that has been shown 
to be difficult for primary school students (Sá-Pinto et al., 2017a; Sá-Pinto et al., 
2021a). In fact, after engaging in the educational activities, 60% and 78.9% of the 
students in the fourth- and third-grade classes, respectively, correctly applied 
the concept of differential reproduction to justify their prediction. This strongly 
contrasts with results reported in studies where students were engaged in ac -
tivities exploring natural selection. After engaging in a storytelling activity and 
in a transdisciplinary project-based learning activity about natural selection, 
only 32% and 25% of the students, respectively, applied the concept of differ -
ential reproduction to explain or justify the predictions made about biological 
scenarios (Brown et al., 2020; Sá-Pinto et al., 2021a). The differences observed 
between the latter studies and the present one suggest that activities exploring 
sexual selection may contribute more effectively to students’ understanding of 
the importance of differential reproduction than activities exploring natural se -
lection. However, the different studies were performed with distinct students, 
by distinct people, using distinct educational approaches and in distinct cultur -
al backgrounds, thus precluding a direct comparison between them. The ability 
to compare the results is further limited by the low number of students involved 

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in the three studies. Furthermore, the time between the activities and the post-
tests was shorter in the present study than in the previous ones, which may 
have impacted students’ outcomes. Accordingly, additional studies are needed 
to comparatively evaluate the impact of activities exploring sexual and natural 
selection on students’ learning about differential reproduction.
An alternative explanation for the differences observed in the use of the 
concept of differential reproduction in the present and previous studies may 
lie in the different biological scenarios presented in the evaluation instruments 
used, which may have caused students to mobilise the concept of differential 
reproduction differently. In fact, the test used in this study presents a single bio -
logical scenario (trait gain in animals), precluding observation of whether the 
effects reported here are context-dependent, as it has been shown to occur in 
other situations (Nehm, 2018). Furthermore, this test presents the students with 
a very simplified model of what happens in the real species in terms of genetic 
diversity, heredity and trait expression. Additional studies exposing students to 
evaluation instruments with distinct and more realistic scenarios of natural and 
sexual selection would be needed to understand how the biological scenarios 
used impacted the mobilisation of the concept of differential reproduction.
We should also highlight the fact that the model we implemented in this 
activity mostly explored the effects of biased sex ratios in evolution by sexual 
selection, without providing any reason for the observed sex bias. However, 
several studies have shown that, with the exception of a small number of spe -
cies, biased sex ratios do not explain the patterns of sexual selection observed 
(Andersson et al., 1994). In fact, operational sex ratios and Bateman’s principles 
better explain the patterns of the observed sexual selection (Andersson et al., 
1994; Jones et al., 2005). Accordingly, future studies could explore how students 
learn about the factors driving sexual selection and focus on the reasons for bi -
ased operational sex ratios. For older students, Bateman’ s principles may also be 
explored to promote a deeper understanding of the causes of sexual selection. 
Future studies should also analyse whether the activity reported here results in 
students’ misconceptions about natural populations’ sex ratios or whether it 
fosters teleological explanations.
In any case, our results support the importance of exploring sexual se -
lection during mandatory education and from the initial school years, as well 
as the importance of introducing this concept in curricula and textbooks. The 
Portuguese official standards and the next generation science standards from 
the United States of America do not explicitly mention sexual selection, al -
though some of the learning goals detailed allow or even require this concept 
to be explored (reviewed in Sá-Pinto et al., 2017b). A better picture of how this 

136 the impact of exploring sexual selection on primary school students’ ...
concept is explored is hampered by the lack of comprehensive comparisons of 
curricula of different countries in terms of their evolution concepts (Sá-Pinto 
et al. , 2021b). Regarding textbooks, Cavadas (2017) has shown that sexual selec -
tion was historically covered by Portuguese seventh-grade textbooks from 1890 
to 1955, but no information is available on how this concept is present in today’s 
textbooks, thus suggesting the importance of analysing recent textbooks. How -
ever, textbooks have also been reported to display important misconceptions 
on evolution (Cavadas, 2017; Nehm et al., 2008; Prinou et al., 2011) and a lack 
of concepts such as the Nature of Science (Kapsala et al., 2022), which are con -
sidered important for evolution understanding (Sá-Pinto et al., 2021b). Another 
important aspect to consider for introducing natural and sexual selection in 
primary schools is teacher training, as several studies report low pedagogical 
content knowledge and low willingness to teach evolution (Cavadas & Sá-Pinto 
et al., 2021; Prinou et al., 2011), as well as other topics of biology (see, for exam -
ple, Yli-Panula et al., 2017), among many primary school teachers.
Conclusion
In the present study, we show that there is a positive impact of the early 
introduction to evolution by sexual selection to students. Our results support 
the importance of developing and testing active learning activities that allow 
students to learn about this process from the first school years, with increasing 
complexity. In fact, when compared to natural selection, much fewer activi -
ties have been described for students to learn about sexual selection (and even 
fewer have been studied for their impacts on student knowledge; however, see  
Bouwma-Gearhart & Bouwma, 2015; Fee & Alfano, 2013; Lawson, 2003; Moore 
et al., 2012; Sá-Pinto et al., 2017b). The study also supports the importance of 
explicitly introducing this concept in national curricula in order to promote a 
deeper understanding of evolutionary processes and the impacts of these pro -
cesses on our own features and on daily life problems.
The present study has some limitations that should be taken into con -
sideration and that highlight the importance of performing additional studies: 
i) the limited number of students, school contexts and countries do not allow 
us to generalise our results; ii) the post-test was done one day after the students 
explored the last activity, thus precluding an understanding of the long-term 
learning impacts of the activity; iii) the test used presents students a single bio -
logical scenario (trait gain in animals), thus precluding gaining an insight into 
whether the effects reported here are context-dependent, as has been shown to 
be the case in other situations (Nehm, 2018). Accordingly, there is a need for 

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studies that involve a higher number of students and school contexts, that in -
clude an additional post-test performed to study the long-term learning effects 
of the educational programme, and that use tests with at least one additional 
biological scenario that would result in trait loss. 
The present study should be taken as an initial step to understand the 
impact of introducing primary school students to sexual selection in their un -
derstanding of evolution. The results support suggestions previously made by 
several authors and institutions (Nadelson et al., 2009; NRC, 2012, 2013; W agler, 
2010, 2012) that students should explore evolutionary processes from the first 
school years in order to foster their evolution understanding. 
Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge the teachers and the students who partic -
ipated in this study, along with their parents and the school board team. Patrí -
cia Pessoa and Xana Sá-Pinto are funded by Portuguese national funds through 
FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I. P., within the scope of the 
PhD grant 2020.05634.BD, and of the framework contract foreseen in the num -
bers 4, 5 and 6 of Article 23 of the Decree-Law 57/2016 of 29 August, amended 
by Law 57/2017 of 19 July, respectively. This work is financially supported by 
National Funds through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I. P., 
under the project UIDB/00194/2020. The inED is funded by National Funds 
through the FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I. P., within the 
scope of the project UIDB/05198/2020 (Centre for Research and Innovation in 
Education, inED).
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Biographical note
Xana Sá-Pinto has a PhD in Biology. Since 2015 member of the re -
search centre in didactics and technologies in teacher training at the University 
of Aveiro (CIDTFF.UA). Since then, her research focuses on how to promote 
students’ scientific literacy and the impact of this in their attitudes towards 
nature conservation and sustainability problems. She works in the context of 
transdisciplinary research networks that involve academic and non academic 
stakeholders with diverse and complementary profiles.
Patrícia Alexandra Fonseca Pessoa, PhD student, is an elemen -
tary school teacher doing her PhD in Didactics of Science and Technology at 
the University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro. Her research interests include 
addressing socioscientific issues related to sustainability in light of biological 
evolution at early grade levels.
Alexandre Pinto, PhD, Professor of Science Education at the Poly -
technic Institute of Porto – School of Education, Portugal. His research interest 
is Science and Technology Education namely: teaching practices, teacher train -
ing and professional development.
Pedro Cardia, PhD, is a biologist and, since July 2022, a senior or -
nithologist at STRIX - Ambiente e Inovação. His research interests lie at the 
intersection of ornithology, conservation biology and scitizen. Between 2019 
and 2020 served as the national coordinator for the III Portuguese Breeding 
Bird Atlas and the country’s new Red List of Birds.Is a national eBird reviewer 
for Portugal. Currently working in several biodiversity monitor.
Joaquim Bernardino Lopes, PhD and Habilitation, is associate profes -
sor in the field of physics education at UTAD (Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e 
Alto Douro), Portugal. His research interest is Sciences and T echnological Educa -
tion, namely: teaching practices, teacher training and professional development, 
students’ epistemic practices; orchestration of digital tools in epistemic learning 
contexts, and articulation between arts and S&T in educational contexts.