School of Education, University of Colorado , Boulder, CO 80309 , USA ; Present address: Miss Porter's School, 60 Main Street, Farmington, CT 06032, USA.
Biol Open. 2012 Apr 15;1(4):405-10. doi: 10.1242/bio.2012031. Epub 2012 Feb 27.
While evolutionary theory follows from observable facts and logical inferences (Mayr, 1985), historically, the origin of novel inheritable variations was a major obstacle to acceptance of natural selection (Bowler, 1992; Bowler, 2005). While molecular mechanisms address this issue (Jablonka and Lamb, 2005), analysis of responses to the Biological Concept Inventory (BCI) (Klymkowsky et al., 2010), revealed that molecular biology majors rarely use molecular level ideas in their discourse, implying that they do not have an accessible framework within which to place evolutionary variation. We developed a "Socratic tutorial" focused on Muller's categorization of mutations' phenotypic effects (Muller, 1932). Using a novel vector-based method to analyzed students' essay responses, we found that a single interaction with this tutorial led to significant changes in thinking toward a clearer articulation of the effects of mutational change. We suggest that Muller's morphs provides an effective framework for facilitating student learning about mutational effects and evolutionary mechanisms.
虽然进化理论是基于可观察的事实和逻辑推理得出的（Mayr，1985），但从历史上看，新的可遗传变异的起源是自然选择被接受的主要障碍（Bowler，1992；Bowler，2005）。虽然分子机制解决了这个问题（Jablonka 和 Lamb，2005），但对生物概念清单（BCI）的反应分析（Klymkowsky 等人，2010）表明，分子生物学专业的学生很少在他们的论述中使用分子水平的概念，这意味着他们没有一个可以理解的框架来放置进化变异。我们开发了一个“苏格拉底式辅导”，重点是 Muller 对突变表型效应的分类（Muller，1932）。使用一种新颖的基于向量的方法分析学生的论文回答，我们发现与这个辅导的一次互动导致了思维方式的显著变化，更清晰地阐明了突变变化的影响。我们认为，Muller 的形态提供了一个有效的框架，有助于学生学习突变效应和进化机制。
