How an Early, Inclusive Field Course can Build Persistence in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
How an Early, Inclusive Field Course can Build Persistence in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
复制标题
早期的、包容性的实地课程如何建立生态学和进化生物学的持久性
DOI：
10.1093/icb/icab121
复制
发表时间：
2021
影响因子：
2.6
通讯作者：
Zavaleta, Erika S.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Race, Alexandra I;Beltran, Roxanne S;Zavaleta, Erika S.
实地课程已被认为是学生在科学领域取得成功的有力工具，但实地课程解决人口差异的潜力以及这些好处背后的机制尚不清楚。为了解决这些知识差距，我们对加州大学圣克鲁斯分校（一家大型拉美裔服务机构）非专业生态学和进化生物学课程“实地研究和保护简介”的学生进行了研究。我们研究了（a）参与对学生对其科学能力的看法的影响，以及（b）实地课程如何塑造学生的经历并建立他们对科学的社区感、信心和归属感。我们的混合方法包括对实地课程学生和对照组进行科学坚持 (PITS) 调查；与部分实地课程学生进行访谈、焦点小组和提示学生日记；和参与者观察。我们发现，现场课程参与者在 PITS 仪器的所有科学识别项目上的得分高于对照组（讲座课程）组的学生。来自代表性不足的少数群体的实地课程学生在 PITS 调查的六个组成部分中的每一个部分的得分也与代表性较高的同龄人相似或更高。从我们的定性数据来看，同伴社区成长的主题、与导师的关系、户外生活和工作的信心、基于团队的科学经验以及对知识和发现的贡献意识在整个课程中相互作用——特别是从最初的过夜实地考察到最后的实地考察——以协助这些收获并增强对科学的兴趣并支持坚持。这些发现强调了整体支持和社区建设作为包容性课程设计的必要驱动因素的重要性，特别是作为开始拆除科学中的排斥结构的一种方式。
Field courses have been identified as powerful tools for student success in science, but the potential for field courses to address demographic disparities and the mechanisms behind these benefits are not well understood. To address these knowledge gaps, we studied students in a nonmajors Ecology and Evolutionary Biology course, Introduction to Field Research and Conservation, at the University of California Santa Cruz, a large Hispanic-Serving Institution. We examined (a) the effects of participation on students’ perception of their scientific competencies and (b) how the field course shaped student experiences and built their sense of community, confidence and belonging in science. Our mixed-methods approach included the Persistence in the Sciences (PITS) survey with field course students and a control group; interviews, focus groups, and prompted student journal entries with a subset of field course students; and participant-observation. We found that field course participants scored higher on all science identity items of the PITS instrument than students in the control (lecture course) group. Field course students from underrepresented minority groups also scored similarly to or higher than their well-represented peers on each of the six PITS survey components. From our qualitative data, themes of growth in peer community, relationships with mentors, confidence living and working outdoors, team-based science experiences, and a sense of contributing to knowledge and discovery interacted throughout the course—especially from the initial overnight field trip to the final one—to assist these gains and strengthen interest in science and support persistence. These findings highlight the importance of holistic support and community building as necessary driving factors in inclusive course design, especially as a way to begin to dismantle structures of exclusion in the sciences.