As students learn biology at different levels of education, their tenacious and inaccurate prior
conceptions pose a challenge to conceptual change. Educators and researchers have …

Evolution is a unifying theory in biology and is challenging for undergraduates to learn. An
instructor's ability to help students learn is influenced by pedagogical content knowledge …

We developed and validated the Conceptual Assessment of Natural Selection (CANS), a
multiple-choice test designed to assess how well college students understand the central …

Active-learning instructors are more effective when they use pedagogical content knowledge
(PCK) to anticipate, interpret, and respond to student thinking. PCK is topic-specific and …

Understanding evolution is critical to learning biology, but few college instructors take
advantage of the body of peer-reviewed literature that can inform evolution teaching and …

Background Active learning, on average, increases student performance in STEM courses.
Yet, there is also large variation in the effectiveness of these implementations. A consistent …

While interdisciplinary collaboration is desired among researchers, traditional science
instruction generally results in science disciplines being taught as separate entities. This …

Background Simulations can be an active and engaging way for students to learn about
natural selection, and many have been developed, including both physical and virtual …

Background This research builds on a previous study that looked at the effectiveness of a
simulation-based module for teaching students about the process of evolution by natural …

Evolution by natural selection is the fundamental backbone of the life sciences. Therefore, it
is important for teacher education programs to ensure graduates possess a strong …