Prevalence and Persistence of Misconceptions in Tree Thinking

Darwin described evolution as “descent with modification.” Descent, however, is not an explicit focus of most evolution instruction and often leaves deeply held misconceptions to dominate student understanding of common ancestry and species relatedness. Evolutionary trees are ways of visually depict...

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Autores principales:	Tyler A. Kummer, Clinton J. Whipple, Jamie L. Jensen
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	American Society for Microbiology 2016
Materias:	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Biology (General) QH301-705.5
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/017db8c196ae4b439c40a68583af8bdc
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:017db8c196ae4b439c40a68583af8bdc2021-11-15T15:13:57ZPrevalence and Persistence of Misconceptions in Tree Thinking10.1128/jmbe.v17i3.11561935-78851935-7877https://doaj.org/article/017db8c196ae4b439c40a68583af8bdc2016-12-01T00:00:00Zhttps://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/jmbe.v17i3.1156https://doaj.org/toc/1935-7877https://doaj.org/toc/1935-7885Darwin described evolution as “descent with modification.” Descent, however, is not an explicit focus of most evolution instruction and often leaves deeply held misconceptions to dominate student understanding of common ancestry and species relatedness. Evolutionary trees are ways of visually depicting descent by illustrating the relationships between species and groups of species. The ability to properly interpret and use evolutionary trees has become known as “tree thinking.” We used a 20-question assessment to measure misconceptions in tree thinking and compare the proportion of students who hold these misconceptions in an introductory biology course with students in two higher-level courses including a senior level biology course. We found that misconceptions related to reading the graphic (reading the tips and node counting) were variably influenced across time with reading the tips decreasing and node counting increasing in prevalence. On the other hand, misconceptions related to the fundamental underpinnings of evolutionary theory (ladder thinking and similarity equals relatedness) proved resistant to change during a typical undergraduate study of biology. A possible new misconception relating to the length of the branches in an evolutionary tree is described. Understanding the prevalence and persistence of misconceptions informs educators as to which misconceptions should be targeted in their courses.Tyler A. KummerClinton J. WhippleJamie L. JensenAmerican Society for MicrobiologyarticleSpecial aspects of educationLC8-6691Biology (General)QH301-705.5ENJournal of Microbiology & Biology Education, Vol 17, Iss 3, Pp 389-398 (2016)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Biology (General) QH301-705.5
spellingShingle	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Biology (General) QH301-705.5 Tyler A. Kummer Clinton J. Whipple Jamie L. Jensen Prevalence and Persistence of Misconceptions in Tree Thinking
description	Darwin described evolution as “descent with modification.” Descent, however, is not an explicit focus of most evolution instruction and often leaves deeply held misconceptions to dominate student understanding of common ancestry and species relatedness. Evolutionary trees are ways of visually depicting descent by illustrating the relationships between species and groups of species. The ability to properly interpret and use evolutionary trees has become known as “tree thinking.” We used a 20-question assessment to measure misconceptions in tree thinking and compare the proportion of students who hold these misconceptions in an introductory biology course with students in two higher-level courses including a senior level biology course. We found that misconceptions related to reading the graphic (reading the tips and node counting) were variably influenced across time with reading the tips decreasing and node counting increasing in prevalence. On the other hand, misconceptions related to the fundamental underpinnings of evolutionary theory (ladder thinking and similarity equals relatedness) proved resistant to change during a typical undergraduate study of biology. A possible new misconception relating to the length of the branches in an evolutionary tree is described. Understanding the prevalence and persistence of misconceptions informs educators as to which misconceptions should be targeted in their courses.
format	article
author	Tyler A. Kummer Clinton J. Whipple Jamie L. Jensen
author_facet	Tyler A. Kummer Clinton J. Whipple Jamie L. Jensen
author_sort	Tyler A. Kummer
title	Prevalence and Persistence of Misconceptions in Tree Thinking
title_short	Prevalence and Persistence of Misconceptions in Tree Thinking
title_full	Prevalence and Persistence of Misconceptions in Tree Thinking
title_fullStr	Prevalence and Persistence of Misconceptions in Tree Thinking
title_full_unstemmed	Prevalence and Persistence of Misconceptions in Tree Thinking
title_sort	prevalence and persistence of misconceptions in tree thinking
publisher	American Society for Microbiology
publishDate	2016
url	https://doaj.org/article/017db8c196ae4b439c40a68583af8bdc
work_keys_str_mv	AT tylerakummer prevalenceandpersistenceofmisconceptionsintreethinking AT clintonjwhipple prevalenceandpersistenceofmisconceptionsintreethinking AT jamieljensen prevalenceandpersistenceofmisconceptionsintreethinking
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Prevalence and Persistence of Misconceptions in Tree Thinking

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