Collaborative Research: Uncovering Biology Department Cultural Commitments to Graduate Student Teaching Professional Development

合作研究：揭示生物学系对研究生教学专业发展的文化承诺

• 批准号: 2300999
• 负责人: Grant Gardner
• 金额: $ 27.3万
• 依托单位: Middle Tennessee State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-10-01 至 2026-09-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2300999&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Uncovering; Biology; Department

The United States needs a strong scientific workforce, yet only about 50% of undergraduate students seeking a degree in Biology complete that major. One of the main reasons students leave the Biology major is their perception that instruction in introductory courses is of poor quality. In many cases, graduate students are the instructors of record, especially for discussion and laboratory sections. Despite the significant instructional role that graduate students play, there is a documented lack of teaching professional development in graduate programs. This pilot project will use consensus surveys with experts to identify aspects of departmental cultures in biology fields associated with graduate student teacher training. Findings from this pilot project will be the basis for future research and for supporting higher quality training of and teaching by graduate students. This study will utilize a Delphi methodology to identify consensus aspects of biology departmental cultural commitments associated with support for or challenges to graduate student teaching professional development. The central research question is: What are the consensus biology departmental values and beliefs that experts associate with departmental support for or resistance to teaching professional development? The multi-round, Delphi study will enable the project team to engage a sample of 40 experts from biology departments. The project is designed to iteratively generate a list of cultural commitments and rank the list in terms of importance to teaching professional development. The resulting analysis will be used by the project team to develop and propose a change theory for improving the quality of graduate student teaching professional development in biology departments. This project is supported by NSF’s EDU Core Research (ECR) program. The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that generates foundational knowledge in the field. Investments are made in critical areas that are essential, broad, and enduring: STEM learning and STEM learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development.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.

美国需要一支强大的科学队伍，但只有大约 50% 的生物学学位学生完成该专业，学生离开生物学专业的主要原因之一是他们认为入门课程的教学质量很差。在许多情况下，研究生是记录的讲师，特别是在讨论和实验室部分，尽管研究生发挥着重要的教学作用，但有记录表明研究生项目中缺乏教学专业发展。确定生物学领域部门文化的各个方面该试点项目的结果将成为未来研究和支持研究生更高质量培训和教学的基础。本研究将利用德尔菲法来确定与生物学系文化承诺相关的共识。中心研究问题是：专家们对研究生教学专业发展的支持或抵制的共识生物学系价值观和信念是什么？使项目团队能够聘请 40 名专家作为样本该项目旨在迭代生成一份文化承诺清单，并根据对教学专业发展的重要性对清单进行排名，项目团队将使用所得分析来开发和提出提高质量的变革理论。该项目由 NSF 的 EDU 核心研究 (ECR) 项目支持，该项目强调基础 STEM 教育研究，在关键领域进行投资。广泛，并且持久性：STEM 学习和 STEM 学习环境、扩大 STEM 参与以及 STEM 劳动力发展。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。