"Cheetahs have become faster and faster because they have realized that it is necessary"—this statement should make teachers sit up and take notice when they teach the principles of evolution. Many students have incorrect ideas about it. They fail to recognize the principle of random variations that represent a survival advantage and instead assume that evolutionary processes are directed towards a goal, that a species has unchanging traits, that useful characteristics are inherited, or they anthropomorphise organisms by assuming that they act consciously. "In everyday life, such concepts are sometimes helpful, but scientifically they are inaccurate," says Nina Minkley. "Teachers need to diagnose them in biology lessons and take targeted countermeasures, because they otherwise get in the way of a scientifically correct understanding."
