The evolution of the inflorescence head in Asteraceae is important in the diversification of this largest angiosperm family. The aggregation of heads into higher-order capitulescences (secondary heads or syncephalia) is considered evolutionarily advanced. The genera Moscharia, Nassauvia, Polyachyrus, and Triptilion of the subtribe Nassauviinae (Mutisieae) have syncephalia with differing degrees of capitula condensation. ITS and plastid trnL-trnF regions were analyzed separately and together using maximum parsimony and maximum likelihood to examine the evolution of syncephalia in the Nassauviinae. The four genera displaying syncephalia do not form a clade minus taxa without syncephalia, indicating that secondary heads in Nassauviinae have either convergently evolved twice in the subtribe (or, very unlikely) once with multiple reversions. Strong support was obtained for a sister relationship between Leucheria (without syncephalium) and Polyachyrus, and both sister to Moscharia. Nassauvia and Triptilion form a distinct clade but are sister to other genera, Perezia and Panphalea, without syncephalium. Previous hypotheses postulated the evolution from simple to more complex secondary heads. We show that the ancestor of Moscharia, Polyachyrus, and Leucheria, in a more arid habitat, had a complex type of secondary head, and loss of complexity occurred in response to a shift from arid to mesic conditions.
The Postsecondary Instructional Practices Survey (PIPS) is a valid and reliable measure of self-reported instructional practices of postsecondary instructors, including individuals outside science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. This paper describes the development and validation processes, scoring conventions and results outputs, and applications of the PIPS.
Background: Collecting data on instructional practices is an important step in planning and enacting meaningful initiatives to improve undergraduate science instruction. Self-report survey instruments are one of the most common tools used for collecting data on instructional practices. This paper is an instrument-and item-level analysis of available instructional practice instruments to survey postsecondary instructional practices. We qualitatively analyzed the instruments to document their features and methodologically sorted their items into autonomous categories based on their content. The paper provides a detailed description and evaluation of the instruments, identifies gaps in the literature, and provides suggestions for proper instrument selection, use, and development based on these findings. Results: The 12 instruments we analyzed use a variety of measurement and development approaches. There are two primary instrument types: those intended for all postsecondary instructors and those intended for instructors in a specific STEM discipline. The instruments intended for all instructors often focus on teaching as well as other aspects of faculty work. The number of teaching practice items and response scales varied widely. Most teaching practice items referred to the format of in-class instruction (54 %), such as group work or problem solving. Another important type of teaching practice items referred to assessment practices (35 %), frequently focusing on specific types of summative assessment items used. Conclusions: The recent interest in describing teaching practices has led to the development of a diverse set of available self-report instruments. Many instruments lack an audit trail of their development, including rationale for response scales; whole instrument and construct reliability values; and face, construct, and content validity measures. Future researchers should consider building on these existing instruments to address some of their current weaknesses. In addition, there are important aspects of instruction that are not currently described in any of the available instruments. These include laboratory-based instruction, hybrid and online instructional environments, and teaching with elements of universal design.
Adoption of evidence based instructional practices is not widespread in American institutions of higher education. This is due in part to reforms focusing on individual teaching practices rather than conditions for system reform. Since measurement of organizational conditions is critical for widespread change, we developed and validated the Survey of Climate for Instructional Improvement (SCII). SCII has 30 Likert-scale statements, 5 supplementary questions, and 9 demographic items. It is designed to measure five aspects of organizational climate in postsecondary settings: leadership, collegiality, resources, respect for teaching, and organizational support. The goal of this paper is to describe (a) our development process, (b) steps in validation, and (c) patterns in the data from 917 instructors at six institutions of higher education in the United States. Our results indicate that the instrument is reliable and has the potential to differentiate among institutions, disciplines, departments, and other demographic variables. Although the survey is interdisciplinary, we highlight notable organizational climate differences between STEM and non-STEM disciplines. We also identify organizational climate differences for cis-gender women and graduate student instructors, highlighting unique professional support needs for these groups. We expect our findings and the instrument to be useful for campus change leaders, faculty developers, higher education researchers, and discipline-based education researchers.
Students often have difficulty understanding inheritance patterns and issues associated with the nature of science as a process. To help address these issues, we developed a unit plan based on Gregor Mendel’s well-known research on inheritance patterns among pea plants. The unit introduces students to Mendel’s background and the questions he sought to address. Students then conduct their own investigation, using Virtual Genetics Lab II (VGLII) software to attempt to confirm Mendel’s results. In the course of completing their investigations, students learn about alternative inheritance patterns to Mendelian genetics. The unit was created in the context of a college introductory biology course but could be implemented in a high school course.
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