Addressing Undergraduate Student Misconceptions about Natural Selection with an Interactive Simulated Laboratory

Abstract

Although evolutionary theory is considered to be a unifying foundation for biological education, misconceptions about basic evolutionary processes such as natural selection inhibit student understanding. Even after instruction, students harbor misconceptions about natural selection, suggesting that traditional teaching methods are insufficient for correcting these confusions. This has spurred an effort to develop new teaching methods and tools that effectively confront student misconceptions. In this study, we designed an interactive computer-based simulated laboratory to teach the principles of evolution through natural selection and to correct common student misconceptions about this process. We quantified undergraduate student misconceptions and understanding of natural selection before and after instruction with multiple-choice and open-response test questions and compared student performance across gender and academic levels. While our lab appeared to be effective at dispelling some common misconceptions about natural selection, we did not find evidence that it was as successful at increasing student mastery of the major principles of natural selection. Student performance varied across student academic level and question type, but students performed equally across gender. Beginner students were more likely to use misconceptions before instruction. Advanced students showed greater improvement than beginners on multiple-choice questions, while beginner students reduced their use of misconceptions in the open-response questions to a greater extent. These results suggest that misconceptions can be effectively addressed through computer-based simulated laboratories. Given the level of misconception use by beginner and advanced undergraduates and the gains in performance recorded after instruction at both academic levels, natural selection should continue to be reviewed through upper-level biology courses.

Testing the effectiveness of two natural selection simulations in the context of a large-enrollment undergraduate laboratory class

“…The module includes questions and guiding text throughout that is designed both to increase students' understanding of the conditions of natural selection, and also to confront common misconceptions about natural selection. An earlier version of the simulation is described in detail in Abraham et al (2009). The version used in our study has all of the instructions onscreen and includes questions throughout the activity (mostly multiple-choice) with immediate feedback (Clarke-Midura et al unpublished observations).…”

“…Natural selection simulations can help dispel misconceptions about the process because students can see, as they view the simulation, that individuals do not change but instead that differential survival and reproduction combined with heritability change the composition of the next generation, and that selection acts on pre-existing variation rather than inducing variation. Simulations that have been developed for teaching natural selection have included both simulations in which students physically manipulate objects or their own body to represent the population (Fifield and Fall 1992;Van Thiel 1994;Siegel et al 2005;Price 2011;Eterovic and Santos 2013;Hildebrand et al 2014), and also simulations of virtual populations (Latham and Scully 2008;Abraham et al 2009;BraySpeth et al 2009;Soderberg and Price 2003;Yamanoi and Iwasaki 2015).…”

Alternative Framework, Attitudes towards Science and Problem Learning: A Pilot Study

“…Ali Shamsuddin, 2006). Students already have the scientific knowledge acquired from the environment, interaction with parents and friends, media, culture and socialization factors in which one concept is usually related directly to the students' understanding related to the environment (Joel K. Abraham et al, 2009). Before learning occurs, students already have their views and opinions of different explanations as recommended by scientists (Osborne et al, 1983).…”

The dandelion evolution outreach program: learning through inquiry-based community engagement

“…Though small studies often show very little effect of simulation gaming on cognitive gains (but see Perry et al 2008, Abraham et al 2009) versus traditional teaching approaches (i.e. lectures), meta-analyses of adequately controlled studies do show that there is significant benefit to these active learning strategies (i.e.…”