A Large-scale Systematic Exploration of the Impact of Culturally Competent Biology Education

对文化能力生物学教育影响的大规模系统探索

• 批准号: 1818659
• 负责人: Sara Brownell
• 金额: $ 42.3万
• 依托单位: Arizona State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-10-01 至 2024-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1818659&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Large; scale; Systematic; Exploration; Impact

Undergraduate biology education touches on a variety of topics that may counter cultural beliefs held by undergraduate students. Although these topics are supported by widely accepted scientific theories, many college students are uncomfortable learning about them. Past research illustrates that differences between instructors' and students' beliefs may result in biology instructors teaching in ways that are not culturally sensitive to student beliefs. Cultural competence is the ability of one group of people to effectively communicate to other groups of people who may have different cultural backgrounds and beliefs. Although there are instructional practices that have been proposed to be culturally competent when teaching about these topics, there are few rigorous studies that sufficiently test the effectiveness of these practices and none examine multiple instructors and/or institutions. For this project, a large-scale nationwide study will be conducted to explore if and when Culturally Competent Practices (CCPs) can (1) create more comfortable learning environments for college students, (2) reduce students' perceived conflicts between their beliefs and biology, and (3) improve student understanding of biological theories. Including CCPs in the teaching of biology will lead to a better educated citizenry, specifically to a better understanding of the scientific process, which is in the national interest.Although a large number of published studies recommend CCPs in biology instruction, very few use data to support their recommendations and no studies use a pre-/post-measurement design with a comparison group of students not exposed to CCPs. Additionally, there is currently no systematic and standardized way to measure the use of CCPs and there is also wide variation in the measurement of student outcomes, which make comparisons among published studies difficult and generalizations nearly impossible. Notably, there have been no large-scale studies done to try to compare the efficacy of CCPs in multiple settings. This project aims to address these gaps and to develop survey instruments to deploy in a large-scale national study to systematically measure the impact of CCPs on undergraduates learning about biology. The project will develop surveys to measure instructor use of CCPs in biology instruction and student outcomes resulting from incorporation of CCPs. Three potential student outcomes will be addressed: (1) student perceived comfort in their biology learning environment, (2) student perceived conflict between their beliefs and biological theories, and (3) student acceptance of the tenets of biology. At least 54 life science instructors teaching over 11,000 students in 84 courses will participate in the study and deploy the student survey instrument, making this one of the largest studies conducted on undergraduate biology education to date. The project will use natural variation between instructors in the use of CCPs in biology instruction to systematically test the impact of CCPs on student outcomes. The overarching focus of this proposal is to explore the use of CCPs, which if shown to be effective, could help make biology classrooms more inclusive, particularly for students with strongly held cultural or religious beliefs, who comprise a large fraction of undergraduate biology students.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

本科生物学教育涉及各种可能与本科生所持有的文化信仰相悖的主题。 尽管这些主题得到了广泛接受的科学理论的支持，但许多大学生对了解它们感到不舒服。 过去的研究表明，教师和学生信仰之间的差异可能会导致生物教师的教学方式在文化上对学生的信仰不敏感。 文化能力是一群人与可能具有不同文化背景和信仰的其他群体进行有效沟通的能力。 尽管在教授这些主题时，有人提出了具有文化能力的教学实践，但很少有严格的研究能够充分测试这些实践的有效性，也没有对多个教师和/或机构进行审查。 对于该项目，将进行一项大规模的全国性研究，以探讨文化能力实践（CCP）是否以及何时能够（1）为大学生创造更舒适的学习环境，（2）减少学生在其信仰与生物学之间的感知冲突，（3）提高学生对生物学理论的理解。 将 CCP 纳入生物学教学将让公民受到更好的教育，特别是更好地理解科学过程，这符合国家利益。尽管大量已发表的研究建议在生物学教学中采用 CCP，但很少有人使用数据来支持他们的建议，并且没有研究使用前/后测量设计来对未接触 CCP 的学生进行比较。 此外，目前还没有系统和标准化的方法来衡量 CCP 的使用情况，而且学生成绩的衡量也存在很大差异，这使得已发表的研究之间的比较变得困难，并且几乎不可能进行概括。 值得注意的是，目前还没有进行大规模研究来尝试比较 CCP 在多种环境下的功效。 该项目旨在弥补这些差距，并开发调查工具，部署在大规模的全国性研究中，以系统地衡量 CCP 对本科生学习生物学的影响。 该项目将开展调查，以衡量教师在生物教学中使用 CCP 的情况以及因纳入 CCP 而产生的学生成绩。 将解决三个潜在的学生成果：（1）学生在生物学学习环境中感受到的舒适度，（2）学生感知到他们的信仰和生物学理论之间的冲突，以及（3）学生对生物学原理的接受程度。 至少 54 名教授 84 门课程、超过 11,000 名学生的生命科学教师将参与这项研究并部署学生调查工具，这使得这项研究成为迄今为止针对本科生物学教育进行的最大规模的研究之一。 该项目将利用教师在生物教学中使用 CCP 的自然差异来系统地测试 CCP 对学生成绩的影响。 该提案的首要重点是探索 CCP 的使用，如果被证明是有效的，可以帮助使生物课堂更具包容性，特别是对于具有强烈文化或宗教信仰的学生来说，这些学生占生物学本科生的很大一部分。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

项目成果

A Comparison of Online and In-Person Evolution Instruction That Includes Religious Cultural Competence

包括宗教文化能力在内的在线和面对面进化指导的比较

• DOI: 10.1128/jmbe.00067-22
• 发表时间: 2022-12
• 期刊: Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education
• 影响因子: 1.9
• 作者: Bowen, Chloe D.;Summersill, Alexa R.;Jensen, Jamie L.;Brownell, Sara E.;Barnes, M. Elizabeth
• 通讯作者: Barnes, M. Elizabeth

An exploration of how gender, political affiliation, or religious identity is associated with comfort and perceptions of controversial topics in bioethics

探索性别、政治立场或宗教身份如何与生物伦理学中有争议话题的舒适度和看法相关

• DOI: 10.1152/advan.00008.2022
• 发表时间: 2022-06
• 期刊: Advances in Physiology Education
• 影响因子: 2.1
• 作者: Edwards, Baylee A.;Roberts, Julie A.;Bowen, Chloe;Brownell, Sara E.;Barnes, M. Elizabeth
• 通讯作者: Barnes, M. Elizabeth

“Accepting Evolution Means You Can’t Believe in God”: Atheistic Perceptions of Evolution among College Biology Students

“接受进化论意味着你不能相信上帝”：大学生物学学生对进化论的无神论看法

• DOI: 10.1187/cbe.19-05-0106
• 发表时间: 2020-06
• 期刊: CBE—Life Sciences Education
• 作者: Barnes ME;Dunlop HM;Sinatra GM;Hendrix TM;Zheng Y;Brownell SE
• 通讯作者: Brownell SE

Are scientists biased against Christians? Exploring real and perceived bias against Christians in academic biology

科学家对基督徒有偏见吗？

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0226826
• 发表时间: 2020-01
• 期刊: PLOS ONE
• 影响因子: 3.7
• 作者: Barnes, M. Elizabeth;Truong, Jasmine M.;Grunspan, Daniel Z.;Brownell, Sara E.
• 通讯作者: Brownell, Sara E.

Different evolution acceptance instruments lead to different research findings

不同的进化接受工具导致不同的研究结果

• DOI: 10.1186/s12052-019-0096-z
• 发表时间: 2019-12
• 期刊: Evolution: Education and Outreach
• 作者: Barnes, M. Elizabeth;Dunlop, Hayley M.;Holt, Emily A.;Zheng, Yi;Brownell, Sara E.
• 通讯作者: Brownell, Sara E.