| dc.contributor.author | Dees, Jonathan Andrew | |
| dc.description.abstract | Phylogenetic trees are powerful tools of evolutionary biology that have become prominent across the life sciences. Consequently, learning to interpret and reason from phylogenetic trees is now an essential component of biology education. However, students often struggle to understand these diagrams, even after explicit instruction. One factor that has been observed to affect student understanding of phylogenetic trees is style (i.e., diagonal or bracket). The goal of this dissertation research was to systematically explore effects of style on student interpretations and construction of phylogenetic trees in the context of an introductory biology course. Before instruction, students were significantly more accurate with bracket phylogenetic trees for a variety of interpretation and construction tasks. Explicit instruction that balanced the use of diagonal and bracket phylogenetic trees mitigated some, but not all, style effects. After instruction, students were significantly more accurate for interpretation tasks involving taxa relatedness and construction exercises when using the bracket style. Based on this dissertation research and prior studies on style effects, I advocate for introductory biology instructors to use only the bracket style. Future research should examine causes of style effects and variables other than style to inform the development of research-based instruction that best supports student understanding of phylogenetic trees. | en_US |
| dc.publisher | North Dakota State University | |
| dc.rights | NDSU Policy 190.6.2 | |
| dc.title | Effects of Phylogenetic Tree Style on Student Comprehension | en_US |
| dc.type | Dissertation | en_US |
| dc.type | Video | en_US |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2017-09-25T14:52:24Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2017-09-25T14:52:24Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2017 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/10365/26496 | |
| dc.description.sponsorship | STEM Education Ph.D. Program fellowship from North Dakota State University | en_US |
| dc.description.sponsorship | National Science Foundation (NSF) grants (DRL-1420321 and DUE-1156974) | en_US |
| dc.rights.uri | https://www.ndsu.edu/fileadmin/policy/190.pdf | |
| ndsu.degree | Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) | en_US |
| ndsu.college | Science and Mathematics | en_US |
| ndsu.college | Graduate and Interdisciplinary Studies | en_US |
| ndsu.department | Biological Sciences | en_US |
| ndsu.department | Center for Science and Mathematics Education | en_US |
| ndsu.program | Zoology | en_US |
| ndsu.program | STEM Education | en_US |
| ndsu.advisor | Momsen, Jennifer | |
