Collaborative Research: Uncovering Biology Department Cultural Commitments to Graduate Student Teaching Professional Development

美国需要一支强大的科学队伍，然而只有大约50%的寻求生物学学位的本科生完成了该专业的学习。学生离开生物学专业的一个主要原因是他们认为入门课程的教学质量很差。在许多情况下，研究生是记录讲师，特别是在讨论和实验部分。尽管研究生扮演着重要的教学角色，但有证据表明，研究生课程缺乏教学专业发展。这个试点项目将利用专家的共识调查来确定与研究生教师培训有关的生物学领域的院系文化方面。这个试点项目的研究结果将成为未来研究的基础，并为研究生提供更高质量的培训和教学支持。本研究将利用德尔菲法来确定生物系文化承诺与支持或挑战研究生教学专业发展相关的共识方面。研究的核心问题是：什么是生物学系的一致价值观和信念，专家将其与支持或反对教学专业发展联系起来？多轮德尔菲研究将使项目团队能够聘请来自生物系的40名专家作为样本。该项目旨在迭代生成文化承诺列表，并根据对教学专业发展的重要性对列表进行排名。结果分析将被项目团队用来发展和提出一个变化理论，以提高生物学系研究生教学的质量。本项目由美国国家科学基金会EDU核心研究（ECR）项目支持。ECR项目强调在该领域产生基础知识的基础STEM教育研究。投资在至关重要、广泛和持久的关键领域：STEM学习和STEM学习环境，扩大STEM参与，以及STEM劳动力发展。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 United States needs a strong scientific workforce, yet only about 50% of undergraduate students seeking a degree in Biology complete that major. One of the main reasons students leave the Biology major is their perception that instruction in introductory courses is of poor quality. In many cases, graduate students are the instructors of record, especially for discussion and laboratory sections. Despite the significant instructional role that graduate students play, there is a documented lack of teaching professional development in graduate programs. This pilot project will use consensus surveys with experts to identify aspects of departmental cultures in biology fields associated with graduate student teacher training. Findings from this pilot project will be the basis for future research and for supporting higher quality training of and teaching by graduate students. This study will utilize a Delphi methodology to identify consensus aspects of biology departmental cultural commitments associated with support for or challenges to graduate student teaching professional development. The central research question is: What are the consensus biology departmental values and beliefs that experts associate with departmental support for or resistance to teaching professional development? The multi-round, Delphi study will enable the project team to engage a sample of 40 experts from biology departments. The project is designed to iteratively generate a list of cultural commitments and rank the list in terms of importance to teaching professional development. The resulting analysis will be used by the project team to develop and propose a change theory for improving the quality of graduate student teaching professional development in biology departments. This project is supported by NSF’s EDU Core Research (ECR) program. The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that generates foundational knowledge in the field. Investments are made in critical areas that are essential, broad, and enduring: STEM learning and STEM learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development.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.