Conference: Building Departmental Capacity for Best Practices in Undergraduate Life Sciences Education in the Southeastern US; June, 2019; North Carolina A&T State University

美国东南部在教育程度和经济表现方面一直落后于其他地区，这突出表明需要在各级教学中传播和实施最佳实践。2011年美国科学促进会出版物《本科生物学教育的愿景和变革：行动呼吁》为内容、技能和教学实践提供了全面的指导方针，这些指导方针仍然被认为是本科生命科学教育的“黄金标准”。本科生生命科学教育合作伙伴关系（SERP）的东南地区将于2019年夏季在北卡罗来纳州农业技术大学校园内举办一个专业发展研究所，并在2020年春季与东南生物学家协会年会一起举办后续活动。研究所将根据“愿景和变革”中的建议，让16个小组参与评估和改革的良性循环。“小组将包括来自所有机构类型的代表，从社区学院到研究密集型大学，以及少数民族服务机构的重要代表。该项目有两个主要目标：（1）发展一个生命科学系网络，使其参与一个不断改进的循环;（2）对本科生生命科学改革的系统模式进行循证评估。研究所将采用共同愿景战略，这需要所有利益攸关方之间进行大量沟通、学习和协作。议程旨在帮助团队建立共同语言，以便讨论重要问题（例如，课程嵌入式研究、元认知等），确定在学院、系和机构层面共同的优先改进事项，并起草短期和长期改革工作的行动计划。该项目侧重于系一级的改革，建设能力，以便对教育实践进行长期系统的改革，并改善学生的学习。由于这些努力的公众传播和形成性评估对于验证团队的努力至关重要，并为机构团队提供问责，因此将与东南部生物学家协会2020年会议一起举行后续活动。所有团队都将公开展示他们的行动计划、迄今为止的努力和初步评估结果。在ASB会议期间将举行一个单独的研讨会，从每个小组收集更详细的评估数据，并为小组间分享成功和挑战提供时间。最后，我们会举办一个公开工作坊，向咨询及法定组织的一般成员介绍《展望与改革》的建议。“这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得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的支持。

The Southeastern US consistently lags other regions in educational attainment and economic performance, highlighting the need for dissemination and implementation of best practices in teaching and learning at all levels. The 2011 AAAS publication, "Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: A Call to Action," provides comprehensive guidelines for content, skills, and teaching practices that are still considered the "gold standard" for undergraduate life sciences education. The Southeast Region of the Partnership for Undergraduate Life Science Education (SERP) will host a professional development institute on the campus of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical University in summer 2019, with a follow-up event hosted in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Association of Southeastern Biologists in spring 2020. The Institute will engage sixteen teams in a virtuous cycle of assessment and reforms based on the recommendations in "Vision and Change." Teams will include representatives from all institution types, from community colleges to research-intensive universities, as well as significant representation of Minority Serving Institutions. Institutional teams will be comprised of both faculty and administrators to ensure representation of both grassroots and institutional stakeholders.The project has two primary objectives: (1) to develop a network of life sciences departments engaged in a cycle of continual improvement; and (2) to conduct an evidence-based assessment of a systems model for undergraduate life sciences reform. The Institute will employ a strategy of shared-visioning, which requires substantial communication, learning, and collaboration among all stakeholders. The agenda is designed to help teams build a common language to enable discussion of important issues (e.g., course-embedded research, metacognition, etc.), identify shared priorities for improvement at the level of faculty, department, and institution, and draft an action plan for short-term and long-term reform efforts. By focusing on department-level transformation, the project builds capacity for long-term systemic changes to educational practice and improved student learning. Because public dissemination and formative assessment of these efforts are critical to validating team efforts and as providing accountability for institutional teams, a follow-up event will be held in conjunction with the 2020 meeting of the Association of Southeastern Biologists. All teams will make a public poster presentation of their action plan, efforts to date, and initial assessment results. A separate workshop during the ASB meeting will be used to collect more detailed assessment data from each team, as well as provide time for inter-team sharing of successes and challenges. Finally, a public workshop will be conducted to introduce the general ASB membership to the recommendations of "Vision and Change."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.