RCN-UBE Incubator: Transforming Assessment and Feedback in Undergraduate Biology Education

RCN-UBE 孵化器：改变本科生物教育的评估和反馈

• 批准号: 2120375
• 负责人: Sarah Cavanagh
• 金额: $ 7.5万
• 依托单位: Assumption College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-09-15 至 2022-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2120375&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RCN; UBE; Incubator; Transforming; Assessment

The Nation needs more STEM graduates in order to meet workforce needs and address societal challenges such as climate change and new infectious diseases. It is very common for students to begin study in these fields only to abruptly leave after a few courses, and this attrition disproportionately affects already underrepresented students such as women and students of color. One possible explanation is that undergraduate biology education largely relies on high-stakes quizzes and exams that students find demotivating, creating an intimidating “weed out” culture. This is dismaying but at the same time, these students must master a high degree of content to successfully transition from community colleges to four-year programs and then to post-baccalaureate science programs or careers. This Research Coordination Network will advance undergraduate biology education by creating a network of scholars not only from biology but also from the field of the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) to identify and facilitate educator use of more effective, nontraditional approaches to assessment, grading, and feedback that nonetheless respect the constraints presented by a comprehensive biology education. The goal of this project is to improve assessment and feedback in undergraduate biology education such that we expand and diversify students studying in these fields while not sacrificing standards of excellence. A diverse network representing institutions ranging from community colleges to primarily undergraduate liberal arts colleges to HBCUs to large research-focused universities will pursue the following aims: establish the research network; use quantitative and qualitative designs within these diverse range of institutions to identify sources of problematic assessments and feedback, use of novel approaches, and barriers to implementation of innovations; present at several leading biology and teaching conferences the insights on current barriers and challenges to undergraduate biology assessment and feedback; and use data gathered to formulate a full proposal that will implement and test effectiveness of novel approaches. The purpose of the current incubator is to clarify the current state in undergraduate biology education—the traditional methods still being used, new methods being attempted and their relative successes and failures, and the constraints and barriers particular to the study of biology that should be kept in mind in the development of any new tools. The results will form the basis for a larger study which will develop and test the effectiveness of new tools for assessment and feedback that encourage rather than discourage wide participation in the study of biology, thereby improving student learning and performance and producing a better prepared and more diverse STEM workforce.This project is being funded by the Directorate for Biological Sciences, Division of Biological Infrastructure as part of efforts to address the challenges posed in Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: A Call to Action (http://visionandchange/finalreport/).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.

国家需要更多的STEM毕业生才能满足劳动力需求并应对社会挑战，例如气候变化和新的传染病。对于学生来说，只有在几门课程后突然离开这些领域，这是非常普遍的，并且这种属性不成比例地影响已经代表性不足的学生，例如女性和有色人种的学生。一种可能的解释是，本科生物学教育在很大程度上依赖于学生认为丧气的高风险测验和考试，从而创造了一种令人生畏的“除草”文化。这很令人沮丧，但与此同时，这些学生必须掌握高度的内容，以成功地从社区大学过渡到四年制课程，然后再进行后洞穴后的科学计划或职业。该研究协调网络将不仅从生物学中，而且还从教学和学习奖学金领域（SOTL）建立一个学者网络来促进本科生物学教育，以识别和促进教育使用更有效，非传统的评估，评估方法和反馈，这些方法仍然尊重全面的生物学教育所呈现的约束。该项目的目的是改善本科生物学教育的评估和反馈，以便我们扩大和多样化在这些领域学习的学生，而不是牺牲卓越标准。代表机构的潜水网络从社区学院到小学的文科学院再到HBCU，再到以研究为重点的大学的大型大学实现以下目标：建立研究网络；在这些不同的机构中使用定量和定性设计来确定有问题的评估和反馈，新方法的使用以及实施创新的障碍；在几种领先的生物学和教学会议上，就当前的障碍和本科生物学评估和反馈挑战的见解；并使用收集的数据来制定一个完整的建议，该建议将实施和测试新方法的有效性。当前的孵化器的目的是阐明本科生物学教育中的当前状态 - 仍在使用的传统方法，尝试的新方法以及其相对的成功和失败，以及对生物学研究的限制和障碍，应在开发任何新工具的开发中要牢记生物学研究。结果将构成更大的研究的基础，该研究将开发和测试新工具的评估和反馈有效性，而不是鼓励人们广泛参与生物学研究，从而改善了学生的学习和表现，并产生了一个更好的准备和更多样化的STEM劳动力。该项目是由生物学科学，挑战的挑战委员会资助的，以构建生物学的挑战，以构成一部分，这些挑战既然是在某种程度上努力，又是一部分，部分是部分，部分是一部分，部分是部分，部分是部分，部分是部分，部分是一部分，部分是一部分，部分是一部分。行动呼吁（http：// visionandchange/finalreport/）。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响标准来评估，被视为珍贵的支持。