Collaborative Research: Opening the Pathway to Technician Careers: A Conference for Biology Teachers of Deaf Students

本次专业发展会议名为“开启技师职业发展之路：聋哑生生物教师会议”，将通过专门针对一群具有独特学习和交流特点的学生的教育需求，解决美国对多样化劳动力的迫切需求。这次会议将汇集高中教师、社区大学生物学教师和美国手语(ASL)翻译，以改善聋哑人和重听学生的生物学教育。通过重点关注通用学习设计(UDL)原则和基于案例的识字学习教学法，会议将不仅改善聋人/HH学生的学习，而且还将改善生物课堂上所有学生的学习。生物课程影响了大量学生，因为高中或大学入门课程往往是非理科专业学生接触科学的唯一机会。在技术员教育中，生物学是对农业技术、生物技术和环境科学等技术领域感兴趣的学生的门户课程，在这些领域，聋人/HH人口的代表性不足。本次会议将为与会者提供：1)基于案例的教学及其在学习生物学的背景下提高学生识字能力和世界知识的潜力的教育；2)在生物课堂上实施UDL原则的多种方式；3)向聋人/HH学生教授生物学的最佳实践；4)关于需要生物学基础的技术员职业的信息；5)聋人/HH学生的生物教师社区；6)较强的生物内容知识。这次会议的预计成果包括收集和传播使用UDL原则、案例教学法和扫盲改进做法向聋人/HH学生教授生物学的最佳做法。会议设计将支持在会议社区内外共享有效的教育资源，与会者继续合作，并促进与更广泛的生物教育工作者社区的联系。会议的结果将以白皮书的形式呈现，以便更广泛地了解聋人/HH社区在生物教育方面的最佳实践和需求。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This professional development conference, "Opening the Pathway to Technician Careers: A Conference for Biology Teachers of Deaf Students" will address the compelling need for a diverse workforce in the United States by specifically targeting the educational needs of a group of students with unique learning and communication characteristics. The conference will bring together high school teachers, community college biology faculty, and American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters to improve biology education for deaf and hard-of-hearing (deaf/hh) students. Through a focus on Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles and literacy-building case-based learning pedagogy, the conference will improve learning not only for deaf/hh students but for all students in the biology classroom. Biology courses impact large numbers of students because high school or introductory college biology courses are often the only exposure of non-science majors to science. In technician education, biology serves as a gateway course for students interested in technical fields such as agricultural technology, biotechnology, and environmental sciences, where the deaf/hh population is underrepresented.This conference will provide participants with: 1)Education in the use of case-based pedagogies and their potential for enhancing literacy and world knowledge for students within the context of learning biology; 2) Multiple ways to implement principles of UDL in biology classrooms; 3) Best practices for teaching biology to deaf/hh students; 4)Information about technician careers requiring a biology foundation; 5) A community of biology instructors of students who are deaf/hh; and 6) A stronger biology content knowledge. The projected outcomes of this conference include the collection and dissemination of best practices for teaching biology to deaf/hh students using UDL principles, case-based pedagogies, and literacy improvement practices. The conference design will support sharing effective educational resources within and beyond the conference community, continued collaboration of participants, and promoting connections to the broader community of biology educators. Findings from the conference will be presented in a white paper so that best practices and the needs of the deaf/hh community with regards to biology education will be more broadly understood.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.