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Ronald A. Jenner – Science & Education, 2025
In 1988, Robert O'Hara coined the now ubiquitous phrase "tree thinking" to highlight the importance of cladistics for proper evolutionary reasoning. This accessible phrase has been taken up widely in the professional, popular, and educational literatures, and it has played an important role in helping spread phylogenetic thinking far…
Descriptors: Evolution, Biology, Thinking Skills, Scientific Concepts
Catie Nielson; Emma Pitt; Michal Fux; Kristin de Nesnera; Nicole Betz; Jessica S. Leffers; Kimberly D. Tanner; John D. Coley – CBE - Life Sciences Education, 2025
Previous research has shown that students employ intuitive thinking when understanding scientific concepts. Three types of intuitive thinking--essentialist, teleological, and anthropic thinking--are used in biology learning and can lead to misconceptions. However, it is unknown how commonly these types of intuitive thinking, or cognitive…
Descriptors: Language Usage, College Students, Biology, Scientific Concepts
Berrit K. Czinczel; Daniela Fiedler; Ute Harms – American Biology Teacher, 2025
Evolution is the central concept of biology and key to a comprehensive understanding of any complex biological interaction. It has proven to be a particularly difficult subject for both teachers and students. Hybrid teaching environments have the potential to support students in learning about complex topics and simultaneously enable researchers…
Descriptors: Evolution, Science Instruction, Biology, Educational Technology
Bickford, John H. – Journal of Curriculum Studies, 2023
Teaching and learning are grounded on age-appropriate, credible curricular resources, which can be formal (i.e. textbooks) and informal (i.e. trade-books). As Charles Darwin's ideas galvanized biology and racism, this study examined his historical representation within trade-books (e.g. biography, narrative non-fiction, expository, etc.),…
Descriptors: Evolution, Misconceptions, Science Curriculum, History Instruction
Matuk, Camillia; Uttal, David H. – Research in Science Education, 2020
Biologists use tree diagrams to illustrate phylogenetic relationships among species. However, both novices and experts are prone to misinterpret this notational form. A difficulty with reasoning with cladograms is that intuitive narrative conceptions of evolution as a linear progression interfere with perceiving the hierarchical relationships that…
Descriptors: Undergraduate Students, Biology, Visual Aids, Data Interpretation
King, Kathryn – Journal of College Science Teaching, 2021
This study examines what prior knowledge and misconceptions about evolutionary theory students bring with them into an introductory biological anthropology course. One hundred and fifty-three students completed short, anonymous surveys about evolution on the first day of class before any content was discussed. Of a possible seven points, the…
Descriptors: Misconceptions, Student Attitudes, Evolution, Knowledge Level
Shawn K. Stover; Michelle L. Mabry – Bioscene: Journal of College Biology Teaching, 2022
Here, we present a ten-year assessment of core concept retention, with an emphasis on evolution, by senior biology majors at a small, private liberal arts college. For concepts that are regularly revisited throughout the biology curriculum, we found that knowledge retention was robust. However, for concepts that are encountered only during the…
Descriptors: Concept Formation, Retention (Psychology), Biology, Majors (Students)
Ferguson, Daniel G.; Jensen, Jamie L. – American Biology Teacher, 2023
The United States still has one of the lowest evolution acceptance rates in the world. Biology educators have been diligent in their methods to increase evolution acceptance and knowledge, with much success. However, misconceptions still arise through education, textbooks, and even social and religious settings that may influence our citizens' low…
Descriptors: Evolution, Misconceptions, Biology, Science Instruction
Fischer, Julian; Machts, Nils; Bruckermann, Till; Möller, Jens; Harms, Ute – Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 2022
Background: The professional knowledge of pre-service teachers is highly important for effective and successful teaching. In recent years, many research groups have been engaged in developing simulated classroom environments to capture especially the pedagogical knowledge (PK) of pre-service teachers, neglecting the content-related facets of…
Descriptors: Preservice Teachers, Preservice Teacher Education, Biology, Pedagogical Content Knowledge
Hartelt, Tim; Martens, Helge; Minkley, Nina – Science Education, 2022
Students possess alternative conceptions of many science topics, and these conceptions can act as obstacles for learning scientific concepts. In the field of biology education, students' alternative conceptions of evolution have been widely investigated. However, there is little research on how teachers diagnose and deal with these alternative…
Descriptors: Science Education, Scientific Concepts, Misconceptions, Concept Formation
Ferguson, Daniel G.; Jensen, Jamie L.; Arok, Adhieu; Bybee, Seth M.; Ogden, T. Heath – Journal of College Science Teaching, 2022
Acceptance of human evolution seems to be the majority position for the U.S. population; however, acceptance of evolution among conservative Christian groups is low, sometimes below 50%. There are many different reasons for this low acceptance, leading to a significant disconnect between scientific specialists and the general population. This…
Descriptors: Evolution, Science Instruction, Student Attitudes, Role Models
Barnes, M. Elizabeth; Misheva, Taya; Supriya, K.; Rutledge, Michael; Brownell, Sara E. – CBE - Life Sciences Education, 2022
Hundreds of articles have explored the extent to which individuals accept evolution, and the Measure of Acceptance of the Theory of Evolution (MATE) is the most often used survey. However, research indicates the MATE has limitations, and it has not been updated since its creation more than 20 years ago. In this study, we revised the MATE using…
Descriptors: Evolution, Measures (Individuals), Knowledge Level, Scientific Principles
Daniel George Ferguson – ProQuest LLC, 2022
The theory of evolution is the central combing theory that brings together all the tenets of biology that bring about a solid understanding of life. It is also one of the most controversial scientific theories of all time and is widely rejected by about 40% of the general public in the United States. One of the biggest reasons for low evolution…
Descriptors: Evolution, Molecular Structure, Biology, Science Instruction
Wise, Michael J. – Bioscene: Journal of College Biology Teaching, 2018
The Hardy-Weinberg principle (HWP) is a fundamental model upon which much of the discipline of population genetics is based. Despite its significance, students often leave introductory biology courses with only a shallow understanding of the use and implications of the HWP. I contend that this deficiency in student comprehension is too-often a…
Descriptors: Introductory Courses, Biology, Teaching Methods, Genetics
Kuschmierz, Paul; Beniermann, Anna; Graf, Dittmar – International Journal of Science Education, 2020
In evolution education, misconceptions about evolutionary concepts impact students' learning. Much research exists on assessing knowledge about evolution using different instruments. The current article introduces the KAEVO 2.0 instrument, which includes various evolutionary aspects representing microevolution and macroevolution. The introduced…
Descriptors: Science Education, Evolution, Scientific Concepts, Misconceptions