In 1988, Robert O'Hara coined the now ubiquitous phrase "tree thinking" to highlight the importance of cladistics for proper evolutionary reasoning. This accessible phrase has been taken up widely in the professional, popular, and educational literatures, and it has played an important role in helping spread phylogenetic thinking far…

In nature, competition within and between species is the norm, yet nature is also reputed to be a "peaceable kingdom" where animals cooperate rather than compete. This study explored how such contrasting views of nature influence students' biological reasoning. College undergraduates (n = 165) assessed the prevalence of cooperative…

Computational thinking (CT) is becoming increasingly important for K-12 science education, thus warranting new integrations of CT and science content. This intervention study integrated CT through unplugged, or handwritten, algorithmic explanations of natural selection. As students investigated natural selection in varying contexts (specific and…

This case study focuses on a multidecade time-series study of changes in public acceptance of evolution in the United States. Change over time is often a central issue in social science research. There are two kinds of change over time. Time-series studies address change in populations or groups over time. Longitudinal studies address changes in…

Water is one of the most common molecules in the universe. Water is polarized, but it has many states besides the normal tetrahedron depicted in standard biology texts. Water is also the most ubiquitous molecule on Earth, the universal solvent. It is the internal and external habitat of cells. Ecologically, water is contiguous with life and the…

Previous research has shown that students employ intuitive thinking when understanding scientific concepts. Three types of intuitive thinking--essentialist, teleological, and anthropic thinking--are used in biology learning and can lead to misconceptions. However, it is unknown how commonly these types of intuitive thinking, or cognitive…

Conflict-reducing practices during evolution instruction have been recommended to increase students' perceived compatibility between evolution and religion, increase evolution acceptance, and decrease stereotypes about religious students in science. However, the efficacy of these practices has not been demonstrated in a randomized controlled…

The Red Queen effect takes its name from a scene in Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking-Glass," where Alice and the Red Queen are constantly running, yet remain in the same place relative to one another. In competitive ecosystems, this translates to the idea that, "in order to survive, a technology solution must evolve faster just…

This case study focuses on a longitudinal study of changes in public acceptance of evolution in the United States. Change over time is often a central issue in social science research questions. There are two kinds of change over time. Time-series studies address change in populations or groups over time. Longitudinal studies address changes in…

Evolution is the central concept of biology and key to a comprehensive understanding of any complex biological interaction. It has proven to be a particularly difficult subject for both teachers and students. Hybrid teaching environments have the potential to support students in learning about complex topics and simultaneously enable researchers…

Evolution is challenging to understand for students. Frequently, students hold coexisting intuitive conceptions based on cognitive biases and scientific conceptions of evolution. For the self-regulation of intuitive and scientific conceptions, metacognitive awareness is fundamental. However, students are mostly unaware of their conceptions. A…

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is one method for implementing inclusive education that can have tangible benefits for all learners, increasing educational accessibility. Furthermore, UDL can be used as a vehicle to train majority nondisabled students in methods of inclusive education. We implemented an inclusive education pedagogical…

There is emerging evidence that Christian undergraduates can be stigmatized in undergraduate biology classrooms. This stigma seems to stem from the secular culture of biology and may be affected by instructor identity as most biology instructors are non-religious, but no studies have examined the impact of instructors revealing that they are…

This study analyzes the effect of different instructions on threshold concepts within material covering natural selection on students' use of concepts about evolution. Moreover, it examines students' use of concepts as interconnected networks when reasoning about natural selection and analyzes how these concepts relate to each other regarding…

Multicultural science education advocates that science education should pay attention to the uniqueness of students from different backgrounds. In developing instructional strategies, educators should respect students' differences according to their culture. However, In Taiwan, while Darwin's theory of evolution is taught in high school biology,…