Transforming Introductory Biology at University of Alaska, Anchorage

阿拉斯加大学安克雷奇分校生物学入门课程的变革

• 批准号: 1823935
• 负责人: Sarah Gerken
• 金额: $ 30万
• 依托单位: University of Alaska Anchorage Campus
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-10-01 至 2022-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1823935&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Transforming; Introductory; Biology; University; Alaska

The general education biology course at the University of Alaska, Anchorage (UAA) enrolls a high proportion of first-time students, many of whom arrive underprepared for the rigors of college education. Thus, the pass rates for this course are consistently low. To improve student success, this project will redesign the course to include interactive practices such as instant responses, one-minute discussions and writing assignments, and rubrics to grade presentations by fellow students. Introduction of similar activities into an introductory course for biology majors improved the pass rates from 46% to 87%. Project personnel will identify what elements of the majors' course are particularly successful and will use that information, along with a survey of best practices in biology education, to revamp the curriculum for the general education course. UAA serves a diverse student population often underrepresented in STEM fields, including 81% who receive need-based financial aid. The project is designed to investigate what aspects of the new course will resonate most strongly with the diverse student population at UAA. Faculty at UAA will participate in workshops to improve their teaching and faculty incentives will promote implementation of best teaching practices. The planned course revisions are designed to increase course completion, increase science literacy, and improve quantitative reasoning skills. Additionally, it is envisioned that the revisions will encourage more students to pursue STEM majors and careers, helping to fill a national need for increasing the STEM workforce. Finally, approximately 7% of the students enrolled in the general education course are training to be K-12 teachers. Improving their college biology experience may have positive impacts on their future classrooms.This project will use a mixed methods approach to identify and quantify course elements that increase course completion, retention, science literacy, and quantitative reasoning in a diverse student body. Quantitative analysis will include a difference in differences (DiD) approach to mimic an experimental design and to isolate the impact of the intervention. The impact will be measured as changes in pre- and post-intervention scores for the treatment group (students who participate in the redesigned curriculum) and control group (students who took the course prior to the redesign). Literature relating to active learning strategies in STEM considers learning gains in a single setting that is already using active learning. This project incorporates a quasi-experimental DiD design using a large dataset and diverse student body with a range of academic and demographic characteristics and has the potential to make a significant contribution to the field. A qualitative analysis will supplement and add depth to the quantitative findings; axial coding of focus group interviews with majors, non-majors in the traditional course, and non-majors in the revised course will be analyzed using within-case analysis of each group. Comparative analysis with pattern matching will be used for a cross-case analysis to identify commonalities and differences between the groups. In addition to these empirical contributions, the analysis will support curriculum design, faculty development, and course assessment for the general education biology course. Professional development and faculty incentives have the potential to enhance teaching and learning throughout the courses offered by the Department of Biological Sciences and ensure implementation fidelity to the best practice pedagogical approaches. The findings of this project are expected to be especially informative for commuter colleges and other open-enrollment institutions with diverse student bodies, including indigenous student populations.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.

阿拉斯加大学安克雷奇大学（UAA）的普通教育生物学课程招收了很高的首次学生，其中许多人到达了大学教育的严谨性。 因此，本课程的通过率始终较低。 为了提高学生的成功，该项目将重新设计课程，以包括互动练习，例如即时响应，一分钟的讨论和写作作业，以及同学对等级演讲的专栏。 将类似的活动引入生物学专业的入门课程中，将通行率从46％提高到87％。 项目人员将确定专业课程的哪些要素特别成功，并将使用该信息以及对生物学教育的最佳实践的调查，以改进通识教育课程的课程。 UAA服务于STEM领域中通常不足的学生人数，其中包括获得基于需求的经济援助的81％。 该项目旨在调查新课程的哪些方面将与UAA的多样化学生群体产生最大的共鸣。 UAA的教师将参加研讨会，以改善其教学和教师激励措施将促进最佳教学实践的实施。 计划的课程修订旨在提高课程完成，提高科学素养并提高定量推理能力。 此外，可以预见的是，修订将鼓励更多的学生从事STEM专业和职业，从而满足了增加STEM劳动力的国家需求。 最后，参加通识教育课程的学生中，大约有7％的学生是K-12老师的培训。 改善他们的大学生物学经验可能会对他们的未来课堂产生积极影响。该项目将使用一种混合方法来识别和量化课程元素，以增加课程完成，保留，科学素养和在多样化的学生团体中的定量推理。 定量分析将包括模仿实验设计并隔离干预措施的差异方法的差异（DID）。 该影响将衡量为治疗组（参加重新设计课程的学生）和对照组（在重新设计之前上课程的学生）的干预前和干预后分数变化。 与STEM中积极学习策略有关的文献认为，在已经使用主动学习的单个环境中学习的收益。 该项目结合了一个准实验性的确实使用了一个大型数据集和具有一系列学术和人口特征的多元化学生团体设计，并有可能为该领域做出重大贡献。 定性分析将补充并为定量发现增加深度；将使用每个小组的案例分析分析焦点小组访谈，传统课程中的非裁判和非裁判的轴向编码。 与模式匹配的比较分析将用于跨案例分析，以确定两组之间的共同点和差异。 除了这些经验贡献外，该分析还将支持通识教育生物学课程的课程设计，教师发展和课程评估。 专业发展和教师激励措施有可能在生物科学系提供的整个课程中增强教学和学习，并确保实施最佳实践教学方法。 对于通勤学院和其他具有不同学生团体（包括土著学生人口）的通勤学院和其他开放式注册机构的发现，该项目的发现将特别有用。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛影响的审查标准来通过评估来通过评估来支持的。