Faculty Survey Results: A Snapshot of Teaching Paleontology

Participants at the Teaching Paleontology workshop in 2009 submitted surveys that provide information on how paleontology is taught at the undergraduate level. The results provide demographics on paleontology courses, as well as information on student misconceptions, topics that students find particularly difficult, and recent advances that should be incorporated into paleontology courses.

Paleontology in the Classroom

Elective or Requirement

The majority of paleontology courses taught by workshop participants are electives for geology majors; just under 32% are required courses for geology majors. A handful of courses are required for biology, environmental science, or earth science education majors. Over a quarter of the courses are cross-listed in another department, mostly Biology.

Integrated into Courses

Nearly three-quarters of participants noted that paleontology concepts are integrated into one or more introductory courses in their department, while almost half said that paleontology is integrated into one or more courses for majors. On the other hand, only 17.5% of respondents indicated that paleontology is a component of a departmental field course.

The majority of paleontology courses taught by participants are targeted to upperclassmen in Grades 15-16 (72%) and enroll less than 15 students (58%).

Course Design

Orientation

When asked to identify the orientation of their paleontology course, a slim majority (62.3%) described their courses as concept-oriented or some combination of concept-oriented plus one or more other categories. A large minority (32.1%) identified their courses as taxon-oriented.

Prerequisites

Course prerequisites were diverse, with most courses requiring at least one prerequisite. Historical Geology, with or without Physical Geology, was common, as was the option to use a biology course instead. Much less common prerequisites were Sedimentology/Stratigraphy, a research or field methods course, or a writing course.

Lab

The great majority of paleontology courses (86.8%) include a lab.

Textbook

Prothero's Bringing Fossils to Life McGraw-Hill, 2003) and Foote and Miller's Principles of Paleontology (W.H. Freeman, 2006) are the most commonly used textbooks, although nearly 10% of participants do not use a textbook and an additional 13.5% are undecided on which textbook to select.

Lab Text

Few participants identified a separate lab text, with those who did mostly specifying a text used as a "supplement," "lab resource," or "recommended" reading:

• Boardman et al. – Fossil Invertebrates
• Clarkson - Invertebrate Palaeontology & Evolution
• Hammer and Harper - Paleontological Data Analysis
• McKinney - Exercises in Invertebrate Paleontology
• Milsom and Rigby - Fossils at a Glance

Key Concepts and Skills, Challenges and Misconceptions

Key Paleontological Concepts

Evolution and phylogenetic concepts were by far the most commonly cited by participants when asked to list the three most important concepts that students should master in an undergraduate paleontology course. Geologic time and biostratigraphy, the nature of the fossil record, and taxonomic knowledge of major fossil groups were also popular choices.

Most Important Skills

Participants were clearly challenged to identify important paleontological skills that students should master. Numerous respondents lapsed into citing concepts or topics to be learned, or provided vague statements like "data analysis". Describing and identifying fossil taxa was cited by the majority of participants.

Recent Advances

Participants were asked to list three recent advances in paleontology that should be incorporated into courses. Their responses are summarized here:

1. Discoveries of new fossil evidence of major evolutionary transitions (e.g., Tiktaalik, feathered dinosaurs, mammals at PETM, humans)
2. Modern phylogenetic techniques, computational systematics, combined analyses of morphology and genes, molecular clocks
3. "Evo-devo", developmental regulatory genes, epi- and paragenetics
4. Quantitative morphometrics
5. New applications of biomechanics to fossils
6. New data on timing, extent, causes, etc. of key events (e.g., Ediacaran-Cambrian Explosion, invasion of land, Permo-Triassic and Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinctions, evolution of humans)
7. New data on Archean and Proterozoic conditions and events
8. Renewed appreciation of the role of paleoecology in the history of life on Earth
9. New (bio)geochemical techniques in paleoecology, paleoenvironment, paleoclimate studies (e.g., isotopes, trace elements, biomarkers)
10. Micropaleontology in climate studies
11. Earth system science, atmosphere-lithosphere-biosphere interactions, chemical cycles
12. Application of paleontology to modern climate change, human impacts on climate/ecosystem function, ecosystem conservation and restoration
13. Ongoing debate about the fossil record of biodiversity
14. Taphonomic studies, including how preservation happens and the analysis of megabiases
15. Geomicrobiology (including taphonomy and the search for life on Mars)
16. New sites with exceptional preservation; recovery of fossil DNA, proteins
17. Advances in dating methods, improved resolution of biostratigraphic records
18. Integration of biostratigraphy with sequence stratigraphy
19. New paleogeographic and sea level curve reconstructions
20. New fossil imaging technologies (e.g., CT scanning, synchrotron X-ray fluorescence)
21. Advances in digital microscopy, digital imaging, animations, 3D pdfs
22. Compilation and use of large, online databases
23. Use of geospatial technology (GPS, GIS, remote sensing) in fieldwork
24. New data from previously inaccessible areas (e.g., China)
25. Shift to multi-disciplinary, global, team-based projects
26. Widespread access to electronic paleontological journals

Most Difficult Concepts

Interestingly, while phylogenetics was identified by participants as a key concept, key skill, and important recent advance, it was also singled out as an especially difficult concept for students to grasp. The large number of terms and fossil taxa to learn was also commonly mentioned by participants as difficult for students. A diverse array of other concepts were also cited by one or more participants.

Strategies for Addressing Difficult Concepts

1. Identify misconceptions and explore them.
2. Repeat a concept in multiple class sessions/contexts/applications.
3. Break down complex connections into simpler pieces.
4. Provide plenty of practice – opportunities to apply a concept, practice a skill.
5. Introduce quantitative techniques early and often, with lots of opportunities to practice (for quantitative skills).
6. Use simulations (of time scale, of rocks, of fossil assemblages).
7. Use directed reading of articles to show chronological development of an idea, how new evidence is integrated into the story (for integrative thinking).
8. Use a graphic correlation exercise in which students work through all the steps involved, then answer various geologic questions based on results (for biostratigraphy, integrative thinking).
9. Use an exercise in which students pick and SEM a microfossil, then draw it and compare their drawing to the SEM (for taxonomic practices).
10. Use an exercise in which students draw their own timeline with characteristic groups (for learning time scale).
11. Use exercises in which students create and/or use cladograms, do the entire process step-by-step themselves (for cladistics).
12. Use an exercise in which students reconstruct the environment of a local outcrop (for linking fossils to environment).

Misconceptions/Preconceptions

Participants identified various misconceptions / preconceptions with which students arrive in a paleontology course, and offered suggestions for how to address them. In addition to the conceptual issues listed below, participants mentioned misconceptions about the nature of paleontology or the course, e.g., that paleontology is not important or relevant, hasn't progressed in many years, and is merely descriptive (an idea reinforced by other faculty); or that it will be an "easy" course requiring only rote memorization.

Students ...

1. Think that "fossil" = dinosaur.
2. Hold a simplistic view of the fossil record.
3. Have an inaccurate view of the completeness of the fossil record‚ either a "we can't know anything" attitude or overconfidence that we can typically resolve events down to human timescales.
4. Don't understand how organisms are preserved and what information is lost.
5. Think that every individual of a fossil species will look exactly the same.
6. Think they can't possibly identify, understand, or interpret complex anatomies.
7. Are ignorant about modern biodiversity, animal types.
8. Think that taxonomy, systematics, phylogeny is unimportant and boring.
9. Don't understand cladistics, identifying derived features.
10. Hold a host of misconceptions about evolution: mistaken notion of linear replacement of ancestor by descendant; evolutionary progress; the typical rate of evolutionary change; conflating species-level change with the origin of higher taxa / lack of understanding of hierarchies; a Lamarckian view that evolution changes individuals during their lifetimes; relatedness of particular groups; creationist views.
11. Think that the Earth, or their specific locality, and life on it haven't changed much over time.
12. Don't understand functional morphology.
13. Think that multicellular life arose at the base of the Cambrian.
14. Have trouble with the age of the Earth: geologic time in relation to evolution; radiometric dating methods; conflation of time intervals (e.g., mammoths lived with dinosaurs); "young Earth" views.
15. Don't grasp the challenges, importance, and limitations of getting information from field sites.
16. Don't understand that strata, rather than bedding contacts, represent the bulk of geologic time.
17. Don't grasp that limestones are offshore of muds and sands in facies models.
18. Have fuzzy ideas about the scientific method, what science is.
19. Display dualistic or black-and-white thinking; think that science has single, "neat" right answers.
20. Think that hypotheses cannot be tested in the historical sciences.

Strategies for Addressing Misconceptions/Preconceptions

1. Draw out misconceptions in class and discuss them.
2. Discuss practical relevance of course material, recent paleontological research, including your own research projects.
3. Include exercises with direct relevance to Pleisto-Holocene paleoenvironmental analysis and change.
4. Emphasize that asking quality questions is more important than memorization.
5. Show as many different kinds of fossils as possible.
6. Use an activity with household objects that explores variability and classification schemes.
7. Use exercises that force students to confront the anatomy of specimens logically, with an eye to developing hypotheses about function, etc.
8. Ask questions about the meaning of phylogeny, interpretation of phylogenies.
9. Have students explain what information is being conveyed by examples of evolutionary trees.
10. Start unit on evolution with a cartoon full of misconceptions about evolution, which students must critique; then they create their own, better cartoon.
11. Discuss evolution in its historical / social framework.
12. Present evidence of evolution without calling it evolution – let students realize what it is they are seeing.
13. Use a range-through chart exercise to demonstrate that ancestors and descendants can co-exist.
14. Assign Stephen Jay Gould essays on lack of evolutionary progress.
15. Use a palynology activity showing how vegetation has changed locally over the last 100,000+ years.
16. Discuss the evidence for multicellular life in the Proterozoic.
17. Explain the process by which we arrive at knowledge, not just what that knowledge is.
18. Cultivate an appreciation for "grayness" vs. black-and-white thinking.
19. Use activities incorporating real paleontological data, to show the level of uncertainty.
20. Use exercises in which students must develop testable predictions.