The PALM Network: Enhancing undergraduate biology education and building the professional biology educators workforce through long-term mentorships

促进主动学习和辅导研究协调网络侧重于在主动学习中提供持续的指导，这一做法被证明在提高不同STEM学生的成功和留住方面非常有效。该项目对现有的教师和博士后研究员开放，并通过几个生命科学专业学会和一系列教育机构的教师进行协调。网络协调员将招募参与者，并为分享他们在加强主动学习方面的成就提供场所。将特别努力纳入少数族裔服务机构和社区大学的教师，许多服务不足的学生在这些地方开始他们的大学生涯。其结果将是一个不断扩大的全国本科教师网络，他们实践有效的主动学习方法，从而提高本科STEM教育的质量。短期接触主动学习原则往往不足以促进教学实践从讲课为主向更有效的学习形式的重大改变。棕榈树网络的目标是提供长期的实践指导经验，使棕榈树学者能够体验到实现有效变革所需的教学和文化变革的范围，从而导致变革，这将对每个棕榈树学者所在机构的教学文化产生积极影响。Palm将利益相关者聚集在一起，支持教学导师，以促进不同机构的持续生物教育改革。Palm将允许教师和博士后研究员获得实践经验和至少一学期的指导，将基于证据的、有效的积极学习策略带入他们的课堂。棕榈树研究员将与改革了教学的导师结对，拜访他们的导师观察和参与重新设计的课程，在导师的指导下为他们的一个班级开发积极学习模块，展示他们如何调整自己的做法以使用主动学习，并在他们的家庭机构和专业学会会议上以及同行审查的科学教育文献中传播他们的工作。该计划的评估将包括分析Palm Flowers在指导前后的教学实践，并在指导后3-5年进行年度跟踪调查，以确定长期影响。一个由来自七个生命科学专业学会的教育代表和来自不同机构类型的教师组成的指导委员会将监督该计划，筛选导师资格的申请者，提供导师指导和定期跟进，并协调每年研究员和导师的信息共享会议。通过利用指导委员会与少数族裔和部落服务机构、代表性不足的科学家协会和社区大学的联系，Palm将为那些在过去的教学改革计划中没有突出考虑的教职员工和本科生带来愿景与变革改革。该项目由生物科学局和本科教育司教育和人力资源局联合资助，作为他们应对《本科生物学教育的愿景与变革：行动呼吁》(http://visionandchange/finalreport/).)中提出的挑战的努力的一部分

The Promoting Active Learning & Mentoring (PALM) Research Coordination Network focuses on providing sustained mentoring in active learning, a practice shown to be highly effective in increasing success and retention of diverse STEM students. The project is open to current faculty and postdoctoral fellows and is coordinated through several life sciences professional societies and faculty at a range of educational institutions. Network coordinators will recruit participants and provide venues for sharing of their achievements in enhanced active learning. Special efforts will be made to include instructors at minority-serving institutions and community colleges, where many under-served students begin their college careers. The outcome will be an expanding national network of undergraduate instructors who practice effective active learning methods, thus enhancing the quality of undergraduate STEM education. Short-term exposure to principles of active learning is often not sufficient to promote significant change in teaching practices from lecture-dominated to a more effective learning format. The goal of the PALM Network is to provide long-term, hands-on mentoring experiences that will allow PALM Fellows to experience the scope of pedagogical and cultural changes needed to achieve effective change, and thus lead to change that will positively influence the teaching culture at each PALM Fellow's institution. PALM brings together stakeholders to support teaching mentorships to promote sustained biology education reform at diverse institutions. PALM will allow faculty and postdoctoral fellows to gain hands-on experience and at least one semester of mentorship in bringing evidence-based, effective active learning strategies into their classrooms. PALM Fellows will pair with mentors who have reformed their teaching, visit their mentors to observe and participate in redesigned classes, develop an active learning module for one of their classes with guidance from their mentors, demonstrate how they have adjusted their practice to use active learning, and disseminate their work at their home institutions and at professional society meetings and in the peer-reviewed science education literature. Evaluation of the program will involve analysis of PALM Fellows' teaching practices before and after mentorship and annual follow-up surveys for 3-5 years afterwards to determine long-range impact. A Steering Committee consisting of educational representatives from seven life sciences professional societies and faculty from a variety of institutional types will oversee the program, screen applicants for mentorships, provide mentor orientation and regular follow-up, and coordinate information sharing meetings of Fellows and mentors each year. By capitalizing on Steering Committee links to minority- and tribal-serving institutions, societies of underrepresented scientists, and community colleges, which educate over half the minority students in the U.S., PALM will bring Vision and Change reforms to faculty and undergraduate students who have not factored prominently into past pedagogical reform plans. This project is being jointly funded by the Directorate for Biological Sciences and the Directorate for Education and Human Resources, Division of Undergraduate Education as part of their efforts to address the challenges posed in Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: A Call to Action (http://visionandchange/finalreport/).