I-Corps L: B2 Scholars: A Professional Development Model from BioQUEST

通过NSF I-Corp for Learning计划，该项目将开发各种方法，以增加努力的规模和影响，帮助社区大学生物学教师应对这一部分高等教育面临的挑战。该计划名为B2学者计划，是一个模范的专业发展计划，旨在提供一个实践社区，以提高教学改革的采用率，并鼓励参与者保持在纪律和教育社区的活跃。该模式结合了教育和社会科学研究，关于采用教学改革，有效的教学方法，以及高危学生在学术上取得成功所需的额外技能。社区大学为数量庞大的本科生提供服务：2014年秋季的估计招生人数为1240万人。这些学生中有很大比例来自较低的社会经济背景，在STEM学科中代表不足，是非传统学生，在攻读学位的同时工作。与这些学生合作需要对学生如何学习、如何帮助学生克服认知和内容障碍以及如何发展最近的研究表明的专业技能有很强的理解，这些都是学术成功所必需的。不幸的是，大多数社区学院的教职员工在资金和时间方面几乎没有资源用于专业发展，这将帮助他们跟上当前的教育信息。B2奖学金计划旨在通过向生物科学社区学院教职员工提供提高学生成功的技能和资源，直接影响社区大学学生的成功。该计划对生物科学教师的重视反映了生物科学专业的受欢迎程度；在2007-08年度，健康科学是最受欢迎的STEM副学士学位，占STEM学位(1,627,000名学生)的21%，并且这一领域继续呈现出巨大的增长。B2学者计划将有助于提高社区学院教师在其学科范围内的教学技能，促进更广泛的参与学科和教育社区，并鼓励这些教师在设计中学后教育的未来中发挥领导作用。该模式是基于BioQUEST过去29年来在生物教育改革中的教育研究和经验教训而开发的。该计划利用面对面和虚拟社区的结合，使参与者能够发展有意义的关系，并在通过和实施教育改革的挑战中相互支持。这一模式有可能成为服务于其他教职员工社区的其他BioQUEST专业发展计划的有价值的模板。通过增加这些专业发展实践的广泛实施，该项目将有助于提高社区学院教育工作者的有效性。

Through the NSF I-Corp for Learning Program, this project will develop ways to increase the scale and impact of an effort to help community college biology faculty to meet the challenges facing this segment of higher education. The program, called the B2 Scholars program, is a model professional development program which is designed to provide a community of practice to increase the rate of adoption of pedagogical reforms, and encourage participants to remain active in disciplinary and education communities. The model combines education and social science research about adoption of instructional reform, effective pedagogical approaches, and additional skills needed by at risk students to succeed in academia. Community colleges serve an enormous number of undergraduates: estimated enrollment for Fall 2014 was 12.4 million students. High percentages of these students come from low socioeconomic backgrounds, are groups underrepresented in STEM disciplines, are non-traditional students, and work while pursuing degrees. Working with these students requires a strong understanding of how students learn, how to help students overcome cognitive and content barriers, and how to develop the professional skills recent research has demonstrated are necessary for academic success. Unfortunately, most community college faculty are provided few resources, both in terms of funding and time, for professional development that would help them keep abreast of current educational information. The B2 Scholars program is designed to directly impact the success of community college students by providing bioscience community college faculty with the skills and resources to enhance student success. The program's emphasis on bioscience faculty is a reflection of the popularity of bioscience majors; in 2007-08, health sciences was the most popular STEM Associate's degree at 21% of STEM degrees (1,627,000 students) and this area continues to show enormous growth.The B2 Scholars program will help enhance community college faculty pedagogical skills within their discipline, promote broader participation in disciplinary and educational communities, and encourage these faculty to assume leadership roles in designing the future of postsecondary education. The model has been developed based on educational research and lessons learned over BioQUEST's past 29 years in biology education reform. The program utilizes a combination of face-to-face and virtual communities to allow participants to develop meaningful relationships and support each other through the challenges of adopting and implementing educational reforms. This model has the potential to be a valuable template for additional BioQUEST professional development programs serving other faculty communities. By increasing the widespread implementation of these professional development practices, this project will help to improve the effectiveness community college educators.