Table 1 Description, source, and frequency of student use of misconceptions about natural selection in pretest open-response questions
Misconceptions | Description | Reference | # Pretests (N = 338) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
MC1 | Willful Change | Organisms willfully change their traits or the traits of their offspring | e.g. Bishop and Anderson 1990 | 125 (37%) |
MC2 | Directed Variation | Variation arises due to environmental or selection pressure | e.g. Bishop and Anderson 1990 | 152 (45%) |
MC3 | Intra-generational Change | Trait change occurs within a generation | e.g. Brumby 1984 | 53 (16%) |
MC4 | Population Change | Populations change their traits together as a whole | e.g. Bishop and Anderson 1990 | 68 (20%) |
MC5 | Inheritable Phenotypic Change | Acquired changes to phenotype of parent are inherited genetically by offspring | e.g. Lawson and Thompson 1988 | 4 (1.2%) |
MC6 | Variation through Drift | Genetic drift can create trait variation | e.g. Nehm and Reilly 2007 | 6 (1.8%) |
MC7 | Fitness=strength | Fitness is directly related to physical strength | e.g. Bishop and Anderson 1990 | 1 (0.3%) |
MC8 | Dominance=Selective Advantage | Dominant alleles are always selectively advantageous | e.g. Nehm and Reilly 2007 | 1 (0.3%) |