Vision and Change in Undergraduate General Education Biology Courses

COVID-19危机以及大流行期间传播的往往相互矛盾和误导性的科学相关信息表明，公众需要了解基本的生物学概念，科学是如何进行的，以及科学在哪些方面与他们的生活相关和重要。十年前，开创性的出版物《愿景与变革：行动呼吁》（AAAS, 2011）明确指出，美国的本科生物教育需要进行重大改革，以提高所有学生的本科生物教育质量。然而，目前还不清楚《愿景与变革》在生物学本科社区的渗透有多深，以及它对跨机构和课程类型的教育改革产生了什么全国性影响。一个基本上不发达的领域是通识教育生物学课程，这些课程被称为“非专业”课程。那些不是理科专业的学生，但是通过了生命科学入门课程作为他们本科经历的一部分，在未来的普通大众中占了很大的比例。这些学生和帮助他们学习的教师将是这个项目的重点。这些非专业课程可能是许多本科生接触生物学和生物学家的唯一机会。该项目将利用2020年底组织的国家努力“改善通识教育生命科学课程”（IGELS）。IGELS由多位科学家和科学教育工作者组成，他们教授通识教育生命科学（GELS）教师，进行研究和/或提供专业发展。IGELS指导委员会建议：1)调查美国目前的GELS课程讲师，以确定他们的知识水平和对V&amp；C原则的实施；2)使用收集到的信息创建一个BioLifeSkills指南，该指南可以作为课程修订的框架和模板，为GELS教师量身定制专业发展和指导活动，反映V&amp；C的相关方面；3)扩大国家IGELS网络的活动，这是一个由个人和团体组成的联盟，讨论和解决与GELS课程相关的问题，并协助教师教授GELS课程；4)修改现有有用的课程资源，并为GELS学生开发核心技能和基本概念框架，以提高科学素养。该项目将影响数百名通识教育生物学入门课程的讲师和数千名学生，然而，建立持续专业发展的基础，产生有用的课程框架，促进未来的合作，将大大增加受益人数。IGELS将利用其与多元化教师社区的联系，确定促进以证据为基础的教学和学习方法的最佳途径，以形成公平和包容的基础设施。IGELS的工作将集中在示范项目上，这些项目可以提高课程材料的相关性，提高学生的兴趣和记忆力，并促进所有学生提高自我效能和学习的元认知策略。对于对科学和生物学感兴趣，但无论出于何种原因，没有选择生物学作为专业的GELS学生，这个项目也可以帮助他们找到唯一的生物学入门，作为进入stem相关职业的另一条道路的第一步。本项目由项目说明21-7412“本科生物学教育的愿景与变化”资助。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The COVID-19 crisis, and the often contradictory and misleading science-related information distributed during the pandemic, demonstrates the need for the general public to understand basic biological concepts, how science is conducted, and in what ways science is relevant and important to their lives. A decade ago, the seminal publication, “Vision and Change: A Call to Action” (AAAS, 2011), articulated that undergraduate biology education in the United States needed to undergo a substantial overhaul to improve the quality of undergraduate biology education for all students. Yet, it is unclear just how deeply Vision and Change permeated the undergraduate biology community and what its national impact has been on education reform across institutions and types of courses. One area that is substantially underdeveloped is General Education Biology courses, those that are referred to as the ‘non-majors’ courses. Students who are not science majors, but who pass through introductory-level life science courses as part of their undergraduate experience, constitute a huge percentage of the future general public. These students, and the faculty that facilitate their learning, will be the focus of this project. These non-majors courses may be the only exposure to biology and biologists that many undergraduate students will have.This project will leverage the national effort, Improvement of General Education Life Science courses (IGELS), that was organized in late 2020. IGELS is comprised of multiple scientists and science educators who teach in, conduct research about, and/or provide professional development for General Education Life Science (GELS) instructors. The IGELS Steering Committee proposes to: 1) survey current instructors of GELS courses across the U.S. to determine the level of their knowledge and implementation of the V&C principles; 2) use the collected information to create a BioLifeSkills guide that can serve as a framework for course revision and a template for tailored professional development and mentoring activities for GELS faculty that reflect relevant aspects of V&C; 3) expand the activities of the national IGELS network, a coalition of individuals and groups to discuss and resolve issues related to GELS courses and to assist faculty teaching GELS courses; and 4) modify useful existing curricular resources and developing a framework of core skills and essential concepts for GELS students to promote scientific literacy. This project will impact several hundred instructors of introductory general education biology courses and thousands of students, however, the groundwork for building sustained professional development, producing a useful curriculum framework, and facilitating future collaborations will greatly multiply the number of those who benefit. IGELS will use its connections with a diverse community of faculty to identify the best ways to promote evidence-based teaching and learning methods for GELS courses that form an infrastructure of equity and inclusion. IGELS work will focus on exemplary programs that improve the relevance of course materials, increase student interest and retention, and promote metacognitive strategies for all students to improve self-efficacy and learning. For GELS students with an interest in science and biology but, for whatever reason, have not chosen biology as a major, this project also may help them find their sole introduction to biology as a first step in an alternative path into STEM-related careers. This project is funded by the Program Description 21-7412, Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education.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.