A Vision for Change: Using ATP (Ambassador Training Program) to Energize Departmental Transformation

朗伍德大学被授予为大使组织培训计划，以支持实施愿景与变革报告中提出的建议，这是本科生生命科学教育伙伴关系(PULSE)使命的一部分。2012年9月，PULSE合作伙伴(HHMI、NIH/NIGMS和NSF)任命了40名愿景与变革领导力研究员，以推动本科生物教育的变革。研究员从两年制学院、文理学院、综合性大学和研究型大学中挑选出来。研究员们组成了四个工作组，总体目标是帮助生命科学系转变他们的项目，在全国范围内努力增加学生对核心概念的学习，增加学生对科学的保留，并为所有学生培养更具好奇心和科学素养的公民做好准备。《展望与变革》报告载有改进本科生生命科学教育的若干建议，但没有提出实施战略。目前的奖项是培训一批研究员成为外部推动者或“大使”，他们将访问学院和大学的生命科学系，并协助当地的规划和实施。在顾问的支持下，PULSE传播工作组将制定、测试和实施一项大使培训计划。最初的大使队伍稍后将培训其他研究员，随着计划的发展，更广泛的社区成员将成为大使。由Take the Pulse工作组开发的V&amp；C Rubrics将作为各部门评估其在采纳V&amp；C建议方面的进展情况的蓝图。在进行自我评估的同时，有关部门可要求一组受过训练的大使到访校园，以促进有关教育转型的丰富对话，并为推行改革提供指引和资源。PULSE传播工作组正在建立一个资源的“工具包”，各部门在改革本科生教学方法时可以使用这些资源。从一开始，对这一组织变革努力的评估将是一个中心考虑因素，这种评估的方法和结果的传播将为寻求促进部门一级创新和转型的其他项目服务。关于Rubrics、大使计划和工具包的信息可在www.Pulsecomomity.org网站上查阅；所有项目将在未来一到两年内随着更多部门的实地测试而更新。PULSE项目的结果将在PulsecCommunity网站上公布，并在专业会议上与生命科学界分享。该项目由生物科学局和本科教育司教育和人力资源局联合资助，作为他们支持本科生物学教育愿景与变革的努力的一部分。

An award has been made to Longwood University to organize a training program for Ambassadors to support implementation of recommendations made in the Vision and Change report as part of the mission of the Partnership for Undergraduate Life Sciences Education (PULSE). In September 2012, the PULSE partners (HHMI, NIH/NIGMS, and NSF) appointed 40 Vision and Change Leadership Fellows to stimulate transformative changes in undergraduate biology education. Fellows were selected from two-year colleges, liberal arts colleges, comprehensive universities, and research universities. The Fellows organized into four working groups with the overarching goal of helping life science departments transform their programs in a national effort to increase student learning of core concepts, increase student retention in the sciences, and prepare all students to be more curious and scientifically literate citizens. The Vision and Change report contained a number of recommendations for improving undergraduate life sciences education but did not furnish an implementation strategy. The current award is to train a cadre of Fellows to become external facilitators or "Ambassadors" who will visit college and university life science departments and assist with local planning and implementation. With support from a consultant, the Spreading the PULSE Working Group will develop, test, and implement an Ambassador training program. The initial cohort of Ambassadors will later train other Fellows and, as the program grows, members of the broader community to become Ambassadors. The V&C Rubrics, developed by the Taking the PULSE Working Group, will serve as a blueprint for departments to evaluate their own progress in adopting the V&C recommendations. In conjunction with this self-assessment, a department may request an on-campus visit by a team of trained Ambassadors to facilitate rich dialog about educational transformation and provide guidance and resources for moving forward with the implementation of reforms. The Spreading the PULSE Working Group is building a "Toolkit" of resources that departments can use when reforming their approach to teaching undergraduates. From its beginning, assessment of this organizational change effort will be a central consideration, and the dissemination of the methods and outcomes of that assessment will serve other projects seeking to foster department-level innovation and transformation. Information about the Rubrics, Ambassadors program, and Toolkit is available on the www.pulsecommunity.org website; all items will be updated as more departments field-test them over the next one to two years. Results from the PULSE project will be posted on the pulsecommunity website and shared with the life sciences community at professional meetings. This project is being funded jointly by the Directorate for Biological Sciences and the Directorate of Education and Human Resources, Division of Undergraduate Education as part of their efforts to support Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education.