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A Deliberate Practice Approach to Teaching Phylogenetic Analysis
One goal of postsecondary education is to assist students in developing expert-level understanding. Previous attempts to encourage expert-level understanding of phylogenetic analysis in college science classrooms have largely focused on isolated, or “one-shot,” in-class activities. Using a deliberat...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
American Society for Cell Biology
2013
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3846518/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24297294 http://dx.doi.org/10.1187/cbe-13-03-0046 |
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author | Hobbs, F. Collin Johnson, Daniel J. Kearns, Katherine D. |
author_facet | Hobbs, F. Collin Johnson, Daniel J. Kearns, Katherine D. |
author_sort | Hobbs, F. Collin |
collection | PubMed |
description | One goal of postsecondary education is to assist students in developing expert-level understanding. Previous attempts to encourage expert-level understanding of phylogenetic analysis in college science classrooms have largely focused on isolated, or “one-shot,” in-class activities. Using a deliberate practice instructional approach, we designed a set of five assignments for a 300-level plant systematics course that incrementally introduces the concepts and skills used in phylogenetic analysis. In our assignments, students learned the process of constructing phylogenetic trees through a series of increasingly difficult tasks; thus, skill development served as a framework for building content knowledge. We present results from 5 yr of final exam scores, pre- and postconcept assessments, and student surveys to assess the impact of our new pedagogical materials on student performance related to constructing and interpreting phylogenetic trees. Students improved in their ability to interpret relationships within trees and improved in several aspects related to between-tree comparisons and tree construction skills. Student feedback indicated that most students believed our approach prepared them to engage in tree construction and gave them confidence in their abilities. Overall, our data confirm that instructional approaches implementing deliberate practice address student misconceptions, improve student experiences, and foster deeper understanding of difficult scientific concepts. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3846518 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2013 |
publisher | American Society for Cell Biology |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-38465182013-12-03 A Deliberate Practice Approach to Teaching Phylogenetic Analysis Hobbs, F. Collin Johnson, Daniel J. Kearns, Katherine D. CBE Life Sci Educ Articles One goal of postsecondary education is to assist students in developing expert-level understanding. Previous attempts to encourage expert-level understanding of phylogenetic analysis in college science classrooms have largely focused on isolated, or “one-shot,” in-class activities. Using a deliberate practice instructional approach, we designed a set of five assignments for a 300-level plant systematics course that incrementally introduces the concepts and skills used in phylogenetic analysis. In our assignments, students learned the process of constructing phylogenetic trees through a series of increasingly difficult tasks; thus, skill development served as a framework for building content knowledge. We present results from 5 yr of final exam scores, pre- and postconcept assessments, and student surveys to assess the impact of our new pedagogical materials on student performance related to constructing and interpreting phylogenetic trees. Students improved in their ability to interpret relationships within trees and improved in several aspects related to between-tree comparisons and tree construction skills. Student feedback indicated that most students believed our approach prepared them to engage in tree construction and gave them confidence in their abilities. Overall, our data confirm that instructional approaches implementing deliberate practice address student misconceptions, improve student experiences, and foster deeper understanding of difficult scientific concepts. American Society for Cell Biology 2013 /pmc/articles/PMC3846518/ /pubmed/24297294 http://dx.doi.org/10.1187/cbe-13-03-0046 Text en © 2013 F. C. Hobbs et al.CBE—Life Sciences Education © 2013 The American Society for Cell Biology. 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). “ASCB®” and “The American Society for Cell Biology®” are registered trademarks of The American Society of Cell Biology. |
spellingShingle | Articles Hobbs, F. Collin Johnson, Daniel J. Kearns, Katherine D. A Deliberate Practice Approach to Teaching Phylogenetic Analysis |
title | A Deliberate Practice Approach to Teaching Phylogenetic Analysis |
title_full | A Deliberate Practice Approach to Teaching Phylogenetic Analysis |
title_fullStr | A Deliberate Practice Approach to Teaching Phylogenetic Analysis |
title_full_unstemmed | A Deliberate Practice Approach to Teaching Phylogenetic Analysis |
title_short | A Deliberate Practice Approach to Teaching Phylogenetic Analysis |
title_sort | deliberate practice approach to teaching phylogenetic analysis |
topic | Articles |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3846518/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24297294 http://dx.doi.org/10.1187/cbe-13-03-0046 |
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