RCN-UBE Incubator: Transforming Assessment and Feedback in Undergraduate Biology Education

国家需要更多的STEM毕业生，以满足劳动力需求和应对气候变化和新的传染病等社会挑战。学生开始学习这些领域的课程后突然离开这些领域是很常见的，这种自然减员对已经很少代表的学生，如女性和有色人种学生，造成了不成比例的影响。一种可能的解释是，本科生的生物教育在很大程度上依赖于高风险的测验和考试，学生们认为这些测试和考试令人泄气，创造了一种令人生畏的“淘汰”文化。这令人沮丧，但与此同时，这些学生必须掌握高度的内容，才能成功地从社区大学过渡到四年制课程，然后进入学士学位后的科学课程或职业生涯。这个研究协调网络将通过创建一个不仅来自生物学而且来自教学学术(SoTL)领域的学者网络来推动本科生物学教育，以确定和促进教育者使用更有效的、非传统的方法进行评估、评分和反馈，但这些方法仍然尊重综合生物教育带来的限制。这个项目的目标是改进本科生物学教育中的评估和反馈，以便我们在不牺牲优秀标准的情况下，扩大和多样化在这些领域学习的学生。一个多元化的网络将代表从社区学院到主要是本科文科学院的机构，到HBCU，再到专注于研究的大型大学，将追求以下目标：建立研究网络；在这些不同的机构中使用定量和定性设计来确定有问题的评估和反馈的来源，使用新方法，以及实施创新的障碍；在几个领先的生物学和教学会议上展示对当前本科生生物学评估和反馈的障碍和挑战的见解；并使用收集的数据来制定一个全面的提案，以实施和测试新方法的有效性。目前的孵化器的目的是澄清本科生生物学教育的现状-仍在使用的传统方法，正在尝试的新方法及其相对的成败，以及在开发任何新工具时应牢记的生物学研究的特殊限制和障碍。这一结果将成为一项更大规模研究的基础，该研究将开发和测试新的评估和反馈工具的有效性，这些工具鼓励而不是阻碍广泛参与生物学研究，从而改善学生的学习和表现，并产生更好的准备和更多样化的STEM工作队伍。该项目由生物科学局资助，生物基础设施部作为应对《本科生物学教育的愿景与变革：行动号召》中提出的挑战的努力的一部分(http://visionandchange/finalreport/).This奖反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并已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。

The Nation needs more STEM graduates in order to meet workforce needs and address societal challenges such as climate change and new infectious diseases. It is very common for students to begin study in these fields only to abruptly leave after a few courses, and this attrition disproportionately affects already underrepresented students such as women and students of color. One possible explanation is that undergraduate biology education largely relies on high-stakes quizzes and exams that students find demotivating, creating an intimidating “weed out” culture. This is dismaying but at the same time, these students must master a high degree of content to successfully transition from community colleges to four-year programs and then to post-baccalaureate science programs or careers. This Research Coordination Network will advance undergraduate biology education by creating a network of scholars not only from biology but also from the field of the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) to identify and facilitate educator use of more effective, nontraditional approaches to assessment, grading, and feedback that nonetheless respect the constraints presented by a comprehensive biology education. The goal of this project is to improve assessment and feedback in undergraduate biology education such that we expand and diversify students studying in these fields while not sacrificing standards of excellence. A diverse network representing institutions ranging from community colleges to primarily undergraduate liberal arts colleges to HBCUs to large research-focused universities will pursue the following aims: establish the research network; use quantitative and qualitative designs within these diverse range of institutions to identify sources of problematic assessments and feedback, use of novel approaches, and barriers to implementation of innovations; present at several leading biology and teaching conferences the insights on current barriers and challenges to undergraduate biology assessment and feedback; and use data gathered to formulate a full proposal that will implement and test effectiveness of novel approaches. The purpose of the current incubator is to clarify the current state in undergraduate biology education—the traditional methods still being used, new methods being attempted and their relative successes and failures, and the constraints and barriers particular to the study of biology that should be kept in mind in the development of any new tools. The results will form the basis for a larger study which will develop and test the effectiveness of new tools for assessment and feedback that encourage rather than discourage wide participation in the study of biology, thereby improving student learning and performance and producing a better prepared and more diverse STEM workforce.This project is being funded by the Directorate for Biological Sciences, Division of Biological Infrastructure as part of efforts to address the challenges posed in Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: A Call to Action (http://visionandchange/finalreport/).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.