Document Type
Article
Publication Version
Published Version
Publication Date
Winter 2014
Journal or Book Title
CBE - Life Sciences Education
Volume
13
Issue
4
First Page
666
Last Page
676
DOI
10.1187/cbe.14-01-0003
Abstract
Phylogenetic trees are widely used visual representations in the biological sciences and the most important visual representations in evolutionary biology. Therefore, phylogenetic trees have also become an important component of biology education. We sought to characterize reasoning used by introductory biology students in interpreting taxa relatedness on phylogenetic trees, to measure the prevalence of correct taxa-relatedness interpretations, and to determine how student reasoning and correctness change in response to instruction and over time. Counting synapomorphies and nodes between taxa were the most common forms of incorrect reasoning, which presents a pedagogical dilemma concerning labeled synapomorphies on phylogenetic trees. Students also independently generated an alternative form of correct reasoning using monophyletic groups, the use of which decreased in popularity over time. Approximately half of all students were able to correctly interpret taxa relatedness on phylogenetic trees, and many memorized correct reasoning without understanding its application. Broad initial instruction that allowed students to generate inferences on their own contributed very little to phylogenetic tree understanding, while targeted instruction on evolutionary relationships improved understanding to some extent. Phylogenetic trees, which can directly affect student understanding of evolution, appear to offer introductory biology instructors a formidable pedagogical challenge.
Rights
This article is distributed by The American Society for Cell Biology under license from the author(s). It is available to the public under an Attribution–Noncommercial– Share Alike 3.0 Unported Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0).).
Copyright Owner
J. Dees et al
Copyright Date
2014
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Dees, Jonathan; Momsen, Jennifer L.; Niemi, Jarad; and Montplaisir, Lisa, "Student Interpretations of Phylogenetic Trees in an Introductory Biology Course" (2014). Statistics Publications. 18.
https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/stat_las_pubs/18
Comments
This article is from CBE-Life Sciences Education 13 (2014): 666, doi: 10.1187/cbe.14-01-0003