Collaborative Research: Developing Biology Undergraduates’ Scientific Literacy and Identity Through Peer Review of Scientific Manuscripts

该项目旨在通过教育大学生同行评议来服务于国家利益。同行评议是科学家在发表研究文章之前评估彼此研究文章可信度的过程。在本科理科教学中开设互评课是一项重大的改革。这样的课程有可能提高学生的科学素养，通过提供更深入的了解如何将实验结果转化为出版的知识。此外，它可以通过给学生真正的机会担任同行评审员来增加学生作为科学家的认同感。提高大学生的科学素养对于创造一个有科学素养的公众至关重要，他们重视并能够区分同行评议的科学文献和伪科学。促进大学生科学身份的形成，有助于增强他们对科学共同体的归属感。这对于扩大参与和培养学生在STEM劳动力中取得成功至关重要。通过为生物学本科生提供科学同行评审和出版领域快速变化的真实经验，该项目将揭示隐藏的科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）课程的一部分，与学院和STEM劳动力中的反种族主义努力保持一致。该项目旨在为一个创新的本科生课程同行评议，提高科学素养，并提供了一种手段，扩大参与STEM的证据基础。该项目的目标是评估一个新的，建构主义的课程，生物本科生学习同行评议的重要性和机制，然后写和出版自己的评论预印本。学生的科学素养和科学身份的变化，作为课程的结果将通过验证前后调查和学生的写作主题分析来衡量。这个项目将扩大文献对本科生的科学素养和身份的形成，以unexplored主题的手稿同行评审，一个真实的学术实践，比真实的实验室经验，不太常见的本科生。该课程将在3个机构进行测试，以评估其有效性，可转移到不同的教师，学生群体（生物专业，非专业），课程类型（入门，高级学科）和机构类型（私立，公立，学院，大学，2年，4年）。它对教育工作者的效用也将通过对本科生物学教师的调查进行评估，调查询问他们在课堂上使用真实同行评议的经验和兴趣。这一调查、研究结果以及该项目编制的循证教材将在项目人员的教育和研究网络中传播。NSF IUSE：EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。该奖项反映了NSF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。

This project aims to serve the national interest by educating undergraduates about peer review. Peer review is the process where scientists evaluate the credibility of each other's research articles before they are published. A course in peer review is a significant innovation in undergraduate science education. Such a course has potential to increase students’ scientific literacy by providing deeper understanding of how experimental results are translated into published knowledge. Additionally, it can lead to an increase in students’ sense of identity as a scientist by giving them authentic opportunities to act as a peer reviewer. Improving the scientific literacy of undergraduates is critical for creating a scientifically-literate public that values and can discriminate peer-reviewed scientific literature from pseudoscience. Facilitating undergraduates’ science identity formation will enhance their sense of belonging in the scientific community. This is critical for broadening participation and preparing students for success in the STEM workforce. By providing biology undergraduates with authentic experiences in the rapidly changing field of scientific peer review and publishing, this project will uncover part of hidden science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) curriculum aligned with anti-racism efforts within the academy and STEM workforce. This project seeks to provide an evidence base for an innovative undergraduate curriculum on peer review that increases scientific literacy and provides a means for broadening participation in STEM.The goal of this project is to evaluate a new, constructivist curriculum in which biology undergraduates learn about the importance and mechanisms of peer review, then write and publish their own reviews of preprints. Changes in students' scientific literacy and scientific identity as a result of the curriculum will be measured by validated pre-post surveys and thematic analysis of students’ writing. This project will extend the literature on undergraduates’ scientific literacy and identity formation to the underexplored topic of manuscript peer review, an authentic scholarly practice less commonly available to undergraduates than authentic laboratory experiences. The curriculum will be tested at 3 institutions to evaluate its efficacy, its transferability to different instructors, student populations (biology majors, non-majors), course types (introductory, advanced disciplinary), and institution types (private, public, college, university, 2-year, 4-year). Its utility for educators will also be assessed via a survey of undergraduate biology instructors that asks about their experience with and interest in using authentic peer review in the classroom. This survey, the results of this research, and the evidenced-based curricular materials created by this project will be disseminated across the education and research networks of the project personnel. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.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.