RCN-UBE Incubator: Willamette Valley Biological Education Network (WVBEN): Using Regional Pedagogical Communities to Improve Undergradaute Learning Environments in Biology

威拉米特谷生物教育网络（WVBEN）项目需要规划和初步发展一个可持续的区域教学社区，使教师参与专业发展活动，以改善本科生物教育，并为其他区域网络的发展提供一个模式。教学团体将包括公立、私立、两年制和四年制院校，教师来自生物、化学、教育和数学。这个教师发展项目源于这样一种信念，即单个教师单独行动通常没有知识、意愿、时间、支持或资源来进行和维持教学改革。目标是通过建立一个长期持续的、协作的、关注学生学习证据的区域教学社区，降低这些改革的障碍。WVBEN将通过记录其进展和传播所吸取的经验教训，为不断增长的关于网络价值的数据基础作出贡献。它将发展和执行教学审计和需求评估调查，并评估活动对参与者的影响。领导团队将记录组织结构的工作情况，并确定如何改进它。此外，将记录所接触的机构数目以及这些机构对加入区域教学共同体的反应。这个项目将通过建立一个区域教学网络来加强生物科学教育的基础设施。通过评估、记录和传播其工作，它将促进对我们如何通过创建实践社区来改变机构文化和教师活动的理解。该网络将被设计为其他地区的典范，提供有关实践社区价值的数据，并作为更大的区域西北生物教育网络的基础。该项目由生物科学局和本科教育司联合支持。

The Willamette Valley Biological Education Network (WVBEN) project entails the planning and initial development of a sustainable regional pedagogical community to engage faculty members in professional development activities that improve undergraduate biology education and provide a model for development of other regional networks. The pedagogical community will include public, private, 2-year, and 4-year institutions with faculty members from biology, chemistry, education and mathematics. This faculty development project emerges from the belief that individual faculty members acting alone generally do not have the knowledge, will, time, support or resources to mount and sustain pedagogical reform. The goal is to lower these barriers to reform by establishing a regional pedagogical community that is sustained over time, collaborative, and focused on evidence about student learning.WVBEN will contribute to the growing base of data on the value of networks by documenting its progress and disseminating the lessons learned. It will develop and implement pedagogical audit and needs assessment surveys and assess the impact of activities on participants. The leadership team will document how well the organizational structure is working and determine how it can be improved. In addition, the number of institutions contacted and the response of those institutions to joining a regional pedagogical community will be documented.This project will enhance the infrastructure for education in biological sciences by establishing a regional pedagogical network. By assessing, documenting and disseminating its work it will foster understanding of how we change institutional cultures and faculty activities through creating communities of practice. The network will be designed to serve as a model for other regions, contribute to data about the value of communities of practice, and serve as the foundation for the larger regional Northwest Biological Education Network. This project is supported jointly by the Biological Sciences Directorate and the Division of Undergraduate Education.