Collaborative Research: Developing Biology Undergraduates’ Scientific Literacy and Identity Through Peer Review of Scientific Manuscripts

该项目旨在通过教育本科生同行评议来服务于国家利益。同行评议是科学家在发表研究论文之前对彼此的可信度进行评估的过程。开设同行评议课程是本科理科教育的一项重大创新。这样的课程有可能提高学生的科学素养，让他们更深入地了解实验结果如何转化为已发表的知识。此外，它可以通过给学生提供作为同行审稿人的真实机会，从而增加他们作为科学家的认同感。提高大学生的科学素养对于培养具有科学素养、重视并能够区分同行评议的科学文献和伪科学的公众至关重要。促进大学生科学认同的形成，可以增强大学生对科学共同体的归属感。这对于扩大学生参与STEM工作并为学生在STEM工作中取得成功做好准备至关重要。通过为生物学本科生提供在快速变化的科学同行评审和出版领域的真实体验，该项目将揭示部分隐藏的科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）课程，这些课程与学术界和STEM工作人员的反种族主义努力相一致。该项目旨在为创新的同行评议本科课程提供证据基础，以提高科学素养，并为扩大STEM的参与提供手段。该项目的目标是评估一种新的建构主义课程，在这种课程中，生物学本科生了解同行评议的重要性和机制，然后撰写并发表他们自己对预印本的评议。课程对学生科学素养和科学认同的影响将通过有效的前后调查和对学生写作的专题分析来衡量。本项目将把本科生的科学素养和身份形成的文献扩展到未被充分探索的论文同行评审主题，这是一种真实的学术实践，对本科生来说，比真实的实验室经验更不常见。该课程将在3所大学进行测试，以评估其有效性、对不同教师、学生群体（生物专业、非专业）、课程类型（入门、高级学科）和机构类型（私立、公立、学院、大学、2年制、4年制）的可移植性。它对教育工作者的效用也将通过一项对本科生物教师的调查来评估，该调查询问他们在课堂上使用真实的同行评议的经验和兴趣。本调查、本研究的结果以及本项目创建的以证据为基础的课程材料将在项目人员的教育和研究网络中传播。NSF IUSE: EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。通过参与学生学习轨道，该计划支持有前途的实践和工具的创建，探索和实施。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

This project aims to serve the national interest by educating undergraduates about peer review. Peer review is the process where scientists evaluate the credibility of each other's research articles before they are published. A course in peer review is a significant innovation in undergraduate science education. Such a course has potential to increase students’ scientific literacy by providing deeper understanding of how experimental results are translated into published knowledge. Additionally, it can lead to an increase in students’ sense of identity as a scientist by giving them authentic opportunities to act as a peer reviewer. Improving the scientific literacy of undergraduates is critical for creating a scientifically-literate public that values and can discriminate peer-reviewed scientific literature from pseudoscience. Facilitating undergraduates’ science identity formation will enhance their sense of belonging in the scientific community. This is critical for broadening participation and preparing students for success in the STEM workforce. By providing biology undergraduates with authentic experiences in the rapidly changing field of scientific peer review and publishing, this project will uncover part of hidden science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) curriculum aligned with anti-racism efforts within the academy and STEM workforce. This project seeks to provide an evidence base for an innovative undergraduate curriculum on peer review that increases scientific literacy and provides a means for broadening participation in STEM.The goal of this project is to evaluate a new, constructivist curriculum in which biology undergraduates learn about the importance and mechanisms of peer review, then write and publish their own reviews of preprints. Changes in students' scientific literacy and scientific identity as a result of the curriculum will be measured by validated pre-post surveys and thematic analysis of students’ writing. This project will extend the literature on undergraduates’ scientific literacy and identity formation to the underexplored topic of manuscript peer review, an authentic scholarly practice less commonly available to undergraduates than authentic laboratory experiences. The curriculum will be tested at 3 institutions to evaluate its efficacy, its transferability to different instructors, student populations (biology majors, non-majors), course types (introductory, advanced disciplinary), and institution types (private, public, college, university, 2-year, 4-year). Its utility for educators will also be assessed via a survey of undergraduate biology instructors that asks about their experience with and interest in using authentic peer review in the classroom. This survey, the results of this research, and the evidenced-based curricular materials created by this project will be disseminated across the education and research networks of the project personnel. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.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.