Biotechnology in American High Schools: Continuing Research

美国高中的生物技术：持续研究

• 批准号: 1839544
• 负责人: David Micklos
• 金额: $ 5万
• 依托单位: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
• 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: 2018-09-01 至 2019-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1839544&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Biotechnology; American; Schools; Continuing; Research

The Cold Spring Harbor DNA Learning Center (DNALC) conducted a nationwide survey of high school biology teachers in 1998 to collect data on the penetration of biotechnology/molecular genetics in American High Schools. The DNALC possesses other related unique datasets that represent biology teachers who have since retired. The proposed survey provides an opportunity to compare two generations of biology teachers with respect to laboratory instruction and students exposure to four major techniques: bacterial transformation, DNA restriction analysis, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and DNA sequencing. The 1998 study showed that the early adoption of biotechnology lab instruction was concentrated in schools located in high wealth, suburban zip codes. It is important to see if, today, hands-on biotechnology instruction has broadened to include economically challenged and more diverse urban populations. It may also be possible to correlate changes in teacher attitudes and behavior with funding and educational trends over this period of time, including NSF's and HHMI's shift away from teacher professional development institutes and the increased standardized testing under No Child Left Behind. In this way, the study results may provide insights for educational policy and future efforts in teacher professional development.In the first quarter of 2018 an email survey was conducted with the goal of reproducing the sample size, number of respondents, and response rate from the 1998 study. Although the sample size was comparable (approximately 12,000 teachers), the email-based method yielded a much lower response rate (10% in 2018 versus 30% in 1998). To ensure that the study will capture a representative snapshot of U.S. biology teachers, this project will re-administer the survey via the U.S. Postal Service, with the objective of improving the response rate, and increasing the sample size to confirm the initial findings from the email survey. Initial findings include: laboratory teaching in biotechnology has been brought "to scale" in a number of U.S. schools over the last 20 years, the two cohorts of biology teachers have different perceptions of constraints that limit their ability to incorporate new concepts and techniques into their classes, relatively few schools that currently offer molecular biology electives seem to be involved in the school-to-work movement advocated by the ATE program, the current cohort appears to be less professional and less involved than the 1998 cohort, and summer institutes and workshops remain the most important contributors to teacher expertise; however, formal education is much more significant for the current cohort. The project will re-administer the survey using letters and reminders sent by U.S. Postal Service to increase number of respondents and collect retrospective data on the numbers of teachers trained in intensive workshops from 1988 to 2018 to analyze the impact of the reduced numbers of teacher professional development workshops supported by the NSF and HHMI since 2012.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.

1998年，冷泉港DNA学习中心（DNALC）对美国高中生物教师进行了一次全国性的调查，以收集生物技术/分子遗传学在美国高中的渗透率数据。DNALC拥有其他相关的独特数据集，这些数据集代表了已经退休的生物学教师。拟议的调查提供了一个机会，比较两代生物教师的实验室教学和学生接触到四个主要技术：细菌转化，DNA限制性分析，聚合酶链反应（PCR）和DNA测序。1998年的研究表明，生物技术实验室教学的早期采用集中在位于高财富的郊区邮政编码的学校。重要的是要看看，今天，动手生物技术教学已经扩大到包括经济困难和更多样化的城市人口。也可能将教师态度和行为的变化与这一时期的资金和教育趋势联系起来，包括NSF和HHMI从教师专业发展机构的转变以及“不让一个孩子掉队”下增加的标准化测试。研究结果将为教育政策和未来的教师专业发展提供启示。2018年第一季度，我们进行了一次电子邮件调查，目的是重现1998年调查的样本量、受访者人数和回复率。虽然样本量相当（约12，000名教师），但基于电子邮件的方法产生的回复率要低得多（2018年为10%，而1998年为30%）。为了确保这项研究将捕捉美国生物教师的代表性快照，本项目将通过美国邮政重新管理调查，目的是提高回复率，并增加样本量，以确认电子邮件调查的初步结果。初步调查结果包括：在过去的20年里，生物技术的实验室教学在许多美国学校已经“成规模”，两批生物学教师对限制他们将新概念和技术纳入课堂的能力的限制有不同的看法，目前提供分子生物学选修课的学校似乎很少参与ATE计划倡导的学校到工作场所的运动，与1998年的学生相比，目前这批学生的专业性和参与程度似乎较低，暑期研究所和讲习班仍然是教师专业知识的最重要贡献者;然而，正规教育对目前这批学生的意义要大得多。该项目将重新-使用美国邮政局发送的信件和提醒来管理调查，以增加受访者的数量，并收集1988年至2018年期间接受强化讲习班培训的教师数量的回顾性数据，以分析自2012年以来NSF和HHMI支持的教师专业发展讲习班数量减少的影响。通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。