A Vision for Change: Using ATP (Ambassador Training Program) to Energize Departmental Transformation

已授予朗伍德大学组织一个大使培训计划，以支持实施愿景和变革报告中提出的建议，作为本科生生命科学教育伙伴关系（PULSE）使命的一部分。在2012年9月，脉冲合作伙伴（HHMI，NIH/NIGMS和NSF）任命40愿景和变革领导研究员，以刺激本科生物学教育的变革。研究员从两年制学院、文科学院、综合大学和研究型大学中选出。研究员们组织成四个工作组，其总体目标是帮助生命科学系在全国范围内改变他们的计划，以增加学生对核心概念的学习，提高学生在科学领域的保留率，并使所有学生成为更具好奇心和科学素养的公民。《愿景和变革》报告载有一些关于改进本科生生命科学教育的建议，但没有提供实施战略。 目前的奖项是培训一批研究员成为外部促进者或“大使”，他们将访问学院和大学的生命科学系，并协助当地的规划和实施。 在顾问的支持下，传播脉冲工作组将开发，测试和实施大使培训计划。 最初的大使队伍将在以后培训其他研究员，随着计划的发展，更广泛的社区成员将成为大使。 由“把握脉搏”工作小组制订的“价值观及认同指标”，将作为部门评估本身采纳价值观及认同建议的进度的蓝本。在这种自我评估的同时，一个部门可以要求一个训练有素的大使团队进行校园访问，以促进有关教育改革的丰富对话，并为推进改革的实施提供指导和资源。传播脉冲工作组正在建立一个“工具包”的资源，各部门可以使用时，改革他们的方法来教学本科生。 从一开始，对这一组织变革努力的评估就将是一个中心考虑因素，传播这一评估的方法和结果将有助于其他寻求促进部门一级创新和改革的项目。 有关规则、大使计划和工具包的信息可在www.pulsecommunity.org网站上查阅;所有项目都将在未来一到两年内随着更多部门的实地测试而更新。 PULSE项目的结果将发布在pulsececonomy网站上，并在专业会议上与生命科学界分享。 该项目由生物科学理事会和本科教育部教育和人力资源理事会共同资助，作为其支持本科生物学教育愿景和变革的努力的一部分。

An award has been made to Longwood University to organize a training program for Ambassadors to support implementation of recommendations made in the Vision and Change report as part of the mission of the Partnership for Undergraduate Life Sciences Education (PULSE). In September 2012, the PULSE partners (HHMI, NIH/NIGMS, and NSF) appointed 40 Vision and Change Leadership Fellows to stimulate transformative changes in undergraduate biology education. Fellows were selected from two-year colleges, liberal arts colleges, comprehensive universities, and research universities. The Fellows organized into four working groups with the overarching goal of helping life science departments transform their programs in a national effort to increase student learning of core concepts, increase student retention in the sciences, and prepare all students to be more curious and scientifically literate citizens. The Vision and Change report contained a number of recommendations for improving undergraduate life sciences education but did not furnish an implementation strategy. The current award is to train a cadre of Fellows to become external facilitators or "Ambassadors" who will visit college and university life science departments and assist with local planning and implementation. With support from a consultant, the Spreading the PULSE Working Group will develop, test, and implement an Ambassador training program. The initial cohort of Ambassadors will later train other Fellows and, as the program grows, members of the broader community to become Ambassadors. The V&C Rubrics, developed by the Taking the PULSE Working Group, will serve as a blueprint for departments to evaluate their own progress in adopting the V&C recommendations. In conjunction with this self-assessment, a department may request an on-campus visit by a team of trained Ambassadors to facilitate rich dialog about educational transformation and provide guidance and resources for moving forward with the implementation of reforms. The Spreading the PULSE Working Group is building a "Toolkit" of resources that departments can use when reforming their approach to teaching undergraduates. From its beginning, assessment of this organizational change effort will be a central consideration, and the dissemination of the methods and outcomes of that assessment will serve other projects seeking to foster department-level innovation and transformation. Information about the Rubrics, Ambassadors program, and Toolkit is available on the www.pulsecommunity.org website; all items will be updated as more departments field-test them over the next one to two years. Results from the PULSE project will be posted on the pulsecommunity website and shared with the life sciences community at professional meetings. This project is being funded jointly by the Directorate for Biological Sciences and the Directorate of Education and Human Resources, Division of Undergraduate Education as part of their efforts to support Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education.