Vision and Change in Undergraduate General Education Biology Courses

本科通识教育生物学课程的愿景与变化

• 批准号: 2126154
• 负责人: Gordon Uno
• 金额: $ 83.61万
• 依托单位: University of Oklahoma Norman Campus
• 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: 2021-10-01 至 2024-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2126154&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Vision; Change; Undergraduate; General; Education

The COVID-19 crisis, and the often contradictory and misleading science-related information distributed during the pandemic, demonstrates the need for the general public to understand basic biological concepts, how science is conducted, and in what ways science is relevant and important to their lives. A decade ago, the seminal publication, “Vision and Change: A Call to Action” (AAAS, 2011), articulated that undergraduate biology education in the United States needed to undergo a substantial overhaul to improve the quality of undergraduate biology education for all students. Yet, it is unclear just how deeply Vision and Change permeated the undergraduate biology community and what its national impact has been on education reform across institutions and types of courses. One area that is substantially underdeveloped is General Education Biology courses, those that are referred to as the ‘non-majors’ courses. Students who are not science majors, but who pass through introductory-level life science courses as part of their undergraduate experience, constitute a huge percentage of the future general public. These students, and the faculty that facilitate their learning, will be the focus of this project. These non-majors courses may be the only exposure to biology and biologists that many undergraduate students will have.This project will leverage the national effort, Improvement of General Education Life Science courses (IGELS), that was organized in late 2020. IGELS is comprised of multiple scientists and science educators who teach in, conduct research about, and/or provide professional development for General Education Life Science (GELS) instructors. The IGELS Steering Committee proposes to: 1) survey current instructors of GELS courses across the U.S. to determine the level of their knowledge and implementation of the V&C principles; 2) use the collected information to create a BioLifeSkills guide that can serve as a framework for course revision and a template for tailored professional development and mentoring activities for GELS faculty that reflect relevant aspects of V&C; 3) expand the activities of the national IGELS network, a coalition of individuals and groups to discuss and resolve issues related to GELS courses and to assist faculty teaching GELS courses; and 4) modify useful existing curricular resources and developing a framework of core skills and essential concepts for GELS students to promote scientific literacy. This project will impact several hundred instructors of introductory general education biology courses and thousands of students, however, the groundwork for building sustained professional development, producing a useful curriculum framework, and facilitating future collaborations will greatly multiply the number of those who benefit. IGELS will use its connections with a diverse community of faculty to identify the best ways to promote evidence-based teaching and learning methods for GELS courses that form an infrastructure of equity and inclusion. IGELS work will focus on exemplary programs that improve the relevance of course materials, increase student interest and retention, and promote metacognitive strategies for all students to improve self-efficacy and learning. For GELS students with an interest in science and biology but, for whatever reason, have not chosen biology as a major, this project also may help them find their sole introduction to biology as a first step in an alternative path into STEM-related careers. This project is funded by the Program Description 21-7412, Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education.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.

2019冠状病毒病危机，以及在大流行期间传播的往往相互矛盾和误导的科学相关信息，表明公众需要了解基本的生物学概念，科学是如何进行的，以及科学在哪些方面与他们的生活相关和重要。十年前，开创性的出版物，“愿景和变化：呼吁采取行动”（AAAS，2011年），阐明了本科生物学教育在美国需要进行重大改革，以提高本科生物学教育的质量为所有学生。然而，目前还不清楚《愿景与变革》在本科生物学界的渗透程度有多深，以及它对各机构和各类课程的教育改革有何全国性影响。一个基本上不发达的领域是普通教育生物学课程，这些课程被称为“非专业”课程。不是科学专业的学生，但作为本科经历的一部分，通过入门级生命科学课程的学生，在未来的普通大众中占很大比例。这些学生，以及促进他们学习的教师，将是这个项目的重点。这些非专业课程可能是许多本科生唯一接触生物学和生物学家的机会。该项目将利用2020年底组织的国家努力，改善通识教育生命科学课程（IGELS）。IGELS由多名科学家和科学教育工作者组成，他们在普通教育生命科学（GELS）教师中授课，进行研究和/或提供专业发展。IGELS指导委员会建议：1）调查美国各地GELS课程的现任教师，以确定他们对V C原则的了解和实施水平&; 2）利用收集到的信息创建生物生活技能指南，该指南可作为课程修订的框架，以及为GELS教师量身定制的专业发展和指导活动的模板，以反映V C的相关方面&; 3）扩大国家IGELS网络的活动，这是一个由个人和团体组成的联盟，旨在讨论和解决与GELS课程有关的问题，并协助教授GELS课程;以及4）修改现有的有用课程资源，并为GELS学生制定一个核心技能和基本概念框架，以促进科学素养。该项目将影响数百名普通教育生物学入门课程的教师和数千名学生，然而，建立持续的专业发展，制定有用的课程框架和促进未来合作的基础将大大增加受益者的数量。IGELS将利用其与多元化教师社区的联系，确定促进GELS课程循证教学和学习方法的最佳方法，这些方法构成了公平和包容的基础设施。IGELS的工作将集中在提高课程材料的相关性，提高学生的兴趣和保留率，并促进所有学生的元认知策略，以提高自我效能和学习的示范计划。对于对科学和生物学感兴趣的GELS学生，但无论出于何种原因，没有选择生物学作为专业，这个项目也可以帮助他们找到他们唯一的生物学介绍，作为进入STEM相关职业的替代路径的第一步。该项目由计划说明21-7412资助，本科生物学教育的愿景和变化。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并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。