A research-based tree-thinking curriculum produced significantly larger pretest-to-posttest gains than business-as-usual instruction in introductory biology¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · causal r2 · q2 · i2 medium
Currency · newest study 2016 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Students receiving the experimental tree-thinking instruction improved significantly more from pretest to posttest than students receiving business-as-usual instruction (gain 1.16 vs. 0.48 on the composite). → Laura R. Novick and Kefyn M. Catley 2016 q2 i2 The between-condition advantage corresponds to a medium effect size (Cohen's d = 0.59). → Laura R. Novick and Kefyn M. Catley 2016 (2)

Evidence¶

Laura R. Novick and Kefyn M. Catley 2016¶

Laura R. Novick and Kefyn M. Catley. (2016). Fostering 21st-Century Evolutionary Reasoning: Teaching Tree Thinking to Introductory Biology Students. CBE—Life Sciences Education 15:ar66. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.15-06-0127

q2 · i? · causal · r2

Quasi-experimental pretest/posttest study in a large introductory biology course; 55 business-as-usual and 62 experimental students analyzed with 2 × 2 mixed ANOVAs. The condition-by-time interaction was significant, with gains of "1.16" versus "0.48"; no effect size is attached to the interaction itself.

"The interaction indicated that the improvement from pretest to posttest was significantly larger for students in the experimental instruction condition (1.16) than for those in the business-as-usual condition (0.48"

Laura R. Novick and Kefyn M. Catley 2016 (2)¶

Laura R. Novick and Kefyn M. Catley. (2016). Fostering 21st-Century Evolutionary Reasoning: Teaching Tree Thinking to Introductory Biology Students. CBE—Life Sciences Education 15:ar66. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.15-06-0127

q2 · i2 · causal · r2

The same ANOVA study's gain scores yield "a Cohen’s d of 0.59", characterized by the authors as a medium size effect for the experimental instruction's increased effectiveness relative to business-as-usual instruction.

"These gain scores yield a Cohen’s d of 0.59, which represents a medium size effect for the increased effectiveness of our experimental instruction relative to business-as-usual instruction."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Business-as-usual students who completed the phylogenetics laboratory gained only on some tree-thinking skills, with no increase on polytomy, inference, or subsets of the ToL — related
• Tree-thinking gains from the experimental curriculum were retained on an unannounced closed-book posttest given 5–6 weeks after primary instruction — related
• Evolutionary sequence instruction was ineffective: nearly half of students incorrectly included autapomorphies as evidence for a relationship — related
• Students reify visually depicted cladogram relationships, and understanding cladograms as subsets of the complete Tree of Life may be the fundamental difficulty in acquiring tree-thinking expertise — related