Thinking on your feet: potentially enhancing phylogenetic tree learning accessibility through a kinaesthetic approach.

Background: Phylogenetics is one of the main methodologies to understand cross-cutting principles of evolution, such as common ancestry and speciation. Phylogenetic trees, however, are reportedly challenging to teach and learn. Furthermore, phylogenetics teaching methods traditionally rely solely on visual information, creating inaccessibility for people with visual impairment. Sensory learning style models advocate for tailoring teaching to individual preferred sensory learning style. However, recent research suggests that optimal learning, independently of preferred learning style, depends on the types of transmitted information and learning tasks. The lack of empirically-supported education into the effectiveness of teaching phylogenetics through alternative sensory modalities potentially hinders learning. The aim of this study was to determine whether phylogenetic trees could be better understood if presented in kinaesthetic or multisensory teaching modalities.

Results: Participants (N = 52) self-assessed personal learning style and were randomly assigned to: visual, kinaesthetic or multisensory learning conditions. Phylogeny reading performance was better for both kinaesthetic and multisensory teaching conditions, compared to the visual teaching condition. There was no main effect and no interaction effect of personal learning style.

Conclusions: This study establishes a baseline for further research by suggesting that easy-to-implement kinaesthetic teaching modalities might support phylogenetic tree learning and reading. This has practical implications for evolution education and accessibility for students with visual impairment, underscoring the need to shift from vision-centric teaching paradigms towards evidence-based instructional strategies that accommodate sensory diversity.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12052-024-00215-y.