Table 2 Participant tree reading misconceptions, deficient skills, and mean score on the understanding evolutionary trees (UET) assessment
From: Correlations Between Tree Thinking and Acceptance of Evolution in Introductory Biology Students
F09 | F09 | S10 | S10 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Pretest | Posttest | Pretest | Posttest | |
Misconception | ||||
Representation of time in trees | 60 % | 0 % | 85 % | 0 % |
Node counting | 73 % | 0 % | 82 % | 15 % |
Reading across tips | 33 % | 47 % | 31 % | 54 % |
How character change shown in trees | 40 % | 0 % | 77 % | 8 % |
Deficient skill | ||||
Read traits from a tree | 67 % | 20 % | 54 % | 23 % |
Deduce ancestral traits | 40 % | 7 % | 54 % | 8 % |
Identify identical trees with different node rotations | 53 % | 27 % | 62 % | 31 % |
Construct a tree | 66 % | 19 % | 69 % | 8 % |
Mean UET score (SD) | 2.6 (1.5) | 4.0 (1.3) | 1.5 (1.2) | 3.0 (0.9) |