Transforming Introductory Biology at University of Alaska, Anchorage

阿拉斯加大学安克雷奇分校生物学入门课程的变革

• 批准号: 1823935
• 负责人: Sarah Gerken
• 金额: $ 30万
• 依托单位: University of Alaska Anchorage Campus
• 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 2022-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1823935&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Transforming; Introductory; Biology; University; Alaska

The general education biology course at the University of Alaska, Anchorage (UAA) enrolls a high proportion of first-time students, many of whom arrive underprepared for the rigors of college education. Thus, the pass rates for this course are consistently low. To improve student success, this project will redesign the course to include interactive practices such as instant responses, one-minute discussions and writing assignments, and rubrics to grade presentations by fellow students. Introduction of similar activities into an introductory course for biology majors improved the pass rates from 46% to 87%. Project personnel will identify what elements of the majors' course are particularly successful and will use that information, along with a survey of best practices in biology education, to revamp the curriculum for the general education course. UAA serves a diverse student population often underrepresented in STEM fields, including 81% who receive need-based financial aid. The project is designed to investigate what aspects of the new course will resonate most strongly with the diverse student population at UAA. Faculty at UAA will participate in workshops to improve their teaching and faculty incentives will promote implementation of best teaching practices. The planned course revisions are designed to increase course completion, increase science literacy, and improve quantitative reasoning skills. Additionally, it is envisioned that the revisions will encourage more students to pursue STEM majors and careers, helping to fill a national need for increasing the STEM workforce. Finally, approximately 7% of the students enrolled in the general education course are training to be K-12 teachers. Improving their college biology experience may have positive impacts on their future classrooms.This project will use a mixed methods approach to identify and quantify course elements that increase course completion, retention, science literacy, and quantitative reasoning in a diverse student body. Quantitative analysis will include a difference in differences (DiD) approach to mimic an experimental design and to isolate the impact of the intervention. The impact will be measured as changes in pre- and post-intervention scores for the treatment group (students who participate in the redesigned curriculum) and control group (students who took the course prior to the redesign). Literature relating to active learning strategies in STEM considers learning gains in a single setting that is already using active learning. This project incorporates a quasi-experimental DiD design using a large dataset and diverse student body with a range of academic and demographic characteristics and has the potential to make a significant contribution to the field. A qualitative analysis will supplement and add depth to the quantitative findings; axial coding of focus group interviews with majors, non-majors in the traditional course, and non-majors in the revised course will be analyzed using within-case analysis of each group. Comparative analysis with pattern matching will be used for a cross-case analysis to identify commonalities and differences between the groups. In addition to these empirical contributions, the analysis will support curriculum design, faculty development, and course assessment for the general education biology course. Professional development and faculty incentives have the potential to enhance teaching and learning throughout the courses offered by the Department of Biological Sciences and ensure implementation fidelity to the best practice pedagogical approaches. The findings of this project are expected to be especially informative for commuter colleges and other open-enrollment institutions with diverse student bodies, including indigenous student populations.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.

阿拉斯加大学安克雷奇分校 (UAA) 的通识教育生物学课程招收了大量新生，其中许多人在入学时对大学教育的严格性准备不足。 因此，该课程的通过率一直很低。 为了提高学生的成功率，该项目将重新设计课程，加入互动练习，例如即时回复、一分钟讨论和写作作业，以及对同学的演讲进行评分的评分标准。 将类似的活动引入生物专业的入门课程中，通过率从 46% 提高到 87%。 项目人员将确定专业课程的哪些内容特别成功，并将利用该信息以及对生物教育最佳实践的调查来修改通识教育课程的课程。 UAA 为 STEM 领域的多元化学生群体提供服务，其中 81% 的学生接受基于需求的经济援助。 该项目旨在调查新课程的哪些方面将与UAA 的多元化学生群体产生最强烈的共鸣。 UAA 的教师将参加研讨会以改进他们的教学，教师激励措施将促进最佳教学实践的实施。 计划的课程修订旨在提高课程完成率、提高科学素养和提高定量推理技能。 此外，预计修订将鼓励更多学生攻读 STEM 专业和职业，有助于满足国家增加 STEM 劳动力的需求。 最后，大约 7% 的通识教育课程学生正在接受 K-12 教师培训。 提高他们的大学生物学经验可能会对他们未来的课堂产生积极影响。该项目将使用混合方法来识别和量化课程要素，以提高多元化学生群体的课程完成率、保留率、科学素养和定量推理能力。 定量分析将包括差异中的差异（DiD）方法来模拟实验设计并隔离干预的影响。 影响将通过治疗组（参加重新设计的课程的学生）和对照组（在重新设计之前参加课程的学生）干预前和干预后分数的变化来衡量。 与 STEM 中主动学习策略相关的文献考虑了在已经使用主动学习的单一环境中的学习收益。 该项目采用了准实验性 DiD 设计，使用大型数据集和具有一系列学术和人口特征的多元化学生群体，有潜力对该领域做出重大贡献。 定性分析将补充并增加定量结果的深度；传统课程中的专业、非专业和修订课程中的非专业焦点小组访谈的轴向编码将使用每组的案例内分析进行分析。 与模式匹配的比较分析将用于跨案例分析，以识别各组之间的共性和差异。 除了这些实证贡献之外，该分析还将支持通识教育生物学课程的课程设计、教师发展和课程评估。 专业发展和教师激励有可能加强生物科学系提供的整个课程的教学和学习，并确保实施忠实于最佳实践教学方法。 该项目的研究结果预计将为通勤学院和其他拥有多元化学生群体（包括土著学生群体）的开放招生机构提供特别有用的信息。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进行评估，被认为值得支持以及更广泛的影响审查标准。

项目成果

Mediating Students’ Fixation with Grades in an Inquiry-Based Undergraduate Biology Course

在基于探究的本科生物学课程中调节学生对成绩的关注

• DOI: 10.1007/s11191-020-00161-3
• 发表时间: 2020-09
• 期刊: Science education
• 作者: DeFeo, Dayna Jean;Tran, Trang C.;Gerken, Sarah
• 通讯作者: Gerken, Sarah

The Effect of a Paired Lab on Course Completion and Grades in Nonmajors Introductory Biology

结对实验室对非专业生物学入门课程完成和成绩的影响

• DOI: 10.1187/cbe.20-03-0041
• 发表时间: 2020-09
• 期刊: CBE—Life Sciences Education
• 作者: DeFeo DJ;Bibler A;Gerken S
• 通讯作者: Gerken S