RCN-UBE: CC Bio INSITES: Community College Biology Instructor Network to Support Inquiry into Teaching and Education Scholarship

生物教育研究（BER）是生物学教师在自己的学科范围内研究教学和学习的领域，被认为是改变本科生物教育和提高学生成功的重要工具。然而，尽管大约一半的生物学专业学生完成了社区大学的课程，包括不成比例的服务不足的学生，但最近的BER论文中只有3%包含了社区大学的作者或研究背景。这引起了人们的关注，即现有的BER可能未能描述相关本科生人口的一半的教育经历，并且源于BER的创新可能无法达到cc。这个项目是由一个强大的全国性CC教师团体推动的基层努力，旨在促进、实施和发布CC BER。该网络将动员CC环境中的各种利益相关者，包括学生、教师和管理人员，期刊编辑和国家协会领导人，以增强CC在BER中的代表性。基于CC独特的价值观和文化，它将提供智力支持、基础设施支持和社会支持的机会，以减轻先前对CC BER的假设限制，并授权CC教师参与和发布BER。因此，该项目将解决CC背景下缺乏BER的问题，并提供见解，可以改善所有机构背景下服务不足群体的学生的生命科学教学。该项目的智力价值在于解决有关社会、基础设施和智力支持CC BER类型的研究问题。这些网络将建立在已建立的变化模型上，为有关CC BER假设约束的研究问题提供答案，并与现有网络集成。这一国家努力的核心将是20个地理上分散的区域性CC BER网络。这些区域网络由代表CC教师、管理人员、学生、未来CC教师和CC BER倡导者的大约五个人组成，他们将定期会面，并在一个或多个协作CC BER项目上取得实质性进展。全国网络的工作将提供智力资源，包括在全国会议上的BER教师发展经验，对区域网络的持续指导，以及参加全国BER会议的旅行。此外，该网络还将提供cc通常缺乏的关键资源，例如访问机构审查委员会和期刊文章。该项目最后将由各区域小组在国家BER会议上介绍情况，并编写与区域努力有关的手稿。因此，新的CC BER网络将对目前关于CC生物学教学的知识体系做出实质性的、新颖的贡献，并将为网络如何支持CC创新和广泛的教育研究提供见解。该项目由生物基础设施司生物科学理事会和本科教育司教育和人力资源理事会共同资助，作为其应对《本科生物学教育的愿景与变革：行动呼吁》（http://visionandchange.org/finalreport/）所提出的挑战的努力的一部分。

Biology education research (BER), where biology faculty investigate teaching and learning within their own discipline, is considered a vital tool for transforming undergraduate biology education and enhancing student success. However, even though approximately half of biology majors complete coursework at community colleges (CCs), including disproportionate numbers of under-served students, only 3% of recent BER papers included a CC author or CC study context. This raises concerns that existing BER may have failed to characterize the educational experiences of half of the relevant undergraduate population and that innovations stemming from BER might not be reaching CCs. This project is a grassroots effort driven by a strong nationwide group of CC faculty to promote, conduct, and publish CC BER. The network will mobilize diverse stakeholders from CC settings including students, faculty and administrators to journal editors and national society leaders to enhance the representation of CCs in BER. Grounded in the unique values and cultures of CCs, it will provide opportunities for intellectual support, infrastructure support, and social support to mitigate previously hypothesized constraints on CC BER and empower CC faculty to engage in and publish BER. The project will thus address the paucity of BER from CC contexts and contribute insights that can improve life science instruction for students from underserved groups across all institutional contexts. The intellectual merit of the project is to address research questions about the types of social, infrastructure and intellectual support CC BER. These networks will build on established models of change, provide answers to research questions regarding hypothesized constraints to CC BER, and integrate with existing networks. At the core of this national effort will be 20 geographically dispersed, regional CC BER networks. These regional networks, consisting of approximately five individuals representing CC faculty, administrators, students, future CC faculty, and CC BER advocates, will meet regularly and make substantial progress on one or more collaborative CC BER projects. The national network effort will provide intellectual resources in the form of faculty development experiences in BER at an opening national meeting, ongoing mentorship for regional networks, and travel to national BER conferences. Additionally, the network will provide critical resources often absent at CCs, such as access to an Institutional Review Board and journal articles. The project will culminate with presentations by regional teams at a national BER meeting and preparation of manuscripts related to regional efforts. As a result, the new CC BER network will make substantial, novel contributions to the present body of knowledge regarding CC biology teaching and learning and will provide insights into how networks can support innovation at CCs and in education research broadly.This project is being jointly funded by the Directorate for Biological Sciences, Division of Biological Infrastructure and the Directorate for Education and Human Resources, Division of Undergraduate Education as part of their efforts to address the challenges posed in Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: A Call to Action (http://visionandchange.org/finalreport/).