Correlations Between Tree Thinking and Acceptance of Evolution in Introductory Biology Students

Table 7 Percentage of student responses for each option in 14 TTCI questions^a (labeled T1-T14) in total data pooled across semsters (N = 304) and the percentage of correct responses for each question in the U ₂₇ and L _27 % groups (N = 82)

	T1	T2	T3	T4	T5	T6	T7	T8	T9	T10	T11	T12	T13	T14	Mean (SD)
Pre-test
a	4.1	1.3	7.8	29.7	5.7	63.8	74.0	1.4	11.7	13.5	1.4	36.8	9.8	2.4
b	24.8	53.6	47.3	7.3	78.3	7.6	13.7	45.2	6.8	14.5	14.1	25.4	15.9	19.9
c	10.5	30.9	31.5	26.6	3.0	4.5	5.0	32.8	4.9	13.7	7.2	13.7	23.5	41.5
d	35.5	7.3	6.8	19.5	8.3	13.1	4.8	17.9	28.8	6.0	62.8	12.3	23.9	17.5
e	25.1	6.8	6.5	16.9	4.8	11.0	2.5	2.8	47.7	52.3	14.5	11.7	26.9	18.7
U _27 %	59.8	72.0	64.6	34.2	91.5	76.8	95.1	51.2	81.7	73.2	75.6	69.5	54.9	42.7	67.3 (17.5)
L _27 %	17.1	30.5	37.8	11.0	56.1	47.6	51.2	18.3	8.5	29.3	41.5	11.0	9.8	6.1	26.8 (17.5)
D	0.43	0.41	0.27	0.23	0.35	0.29	0.44	0.33	0.73	0.44	0.34	0.59	0.45	0.37	0.45 (0.13)
Post-test
a	3.9	2.9	1.4	7.3	6.3	69.0	81.9	0.3	7.5	11.8	2.2	65.1	13.3	2.5
b	13.1	74.0	88.0	17.2	88.8	3.5	2.2	37.9	1.7	4.8	29.6	17.8	11.1	25.3
c	3.9	10.9	8.7	63.8	0.7	0.0	8.6	58.2	3.1	1.9	2.2	2.3	18.0	26.3
d	50.3	6.3	0.7	3.6	0.7	8.2	3.5	1.6	17.0	0.6	63.8	7.4	7.3	2.5
e	28.8	5.9	1.2	8.1	3.5	19.3	3.8	1.9	70.7	80.9	2.2	7.4	50.3	43.4
U _27 %	65.9	90.2	98.8	89.0	95.1	81.7	96.3	89.0	97.6	97.6	80.5	89.0	91.5	74.4	88.3 (9.64)
L _27 %	30.5	54.9	76.8	39.0	80.5	46.3	64.6	26.8	40.2	51.2	52.4	25.6	15.9	13.4	44.2 (20.9)
D	0.35	0.35	0.22	0.50	0.15	0.35	0.32	0.62	0.57	0.46	0.28	0.63	0.76	0.61	0.44 (0.18)

Discrimination Index (D) values are given for each TTCI question in the pretest and post-test. Italic indicates percentage of correct answers.
^aQuestion topic areas. Questions 1–4: representation of time and parts of a phylogeny. Questions 5 and 10: comparing node rotations and branching patterns among phylogenies. Questions 6–9, 13: determining relationships among taxa. Question 11: evaluating trait evolution. Questions 12 and 14: comprehensive interpretation of information in phylogeny. Complete TTCI assessment with questions is available in Additional file 1.

ISSN: 1936-6434