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

美国需要一支强大的科研队伍，然而，只有大约50%的本科生在攻读生物学学位时完成了该专业。学生们离开生物专业的主要原因之一是他们认为入门课程的教学质量很差。在许多情况下，研究生是记录的指导者，特别是讨论和实验部分。尽管研究生发挥着重要的指导作用，但有证据表明，研究生课程缺乏教学专业发展。这一试点项目将利用与专家的共识调查，确定与研究生教师培训相关的生物学领域的部门文化方面。这一试点项目的结果将成为今后研究和支持研究生更高质量的培训和教学的基础。这项研究将利用德尔菲方法来确定生物学系文化承诺的共识方面，这些承诺与支持或挑战研究生教学专业发展有关。中心的研究问题是：专家们认为生物学系支持或抵制教学专业发展的共识、系价值观和信念是什么？这项多轮的德尔福研究将使项目团队能够聘请来自生物部门的40名专家作为样本。该项目旨在迭代生成一份文化承诺清单，并根据对教学专业发展的重要性对该清单进行排名。分析结果将被项目组用来开发和提出一种变革理论，以提高生物系研究生教学专业发展的质量。该项目得到了NSF的EDU核心研究(ECR)计划的支持。ECR计划强调基础STEM教育研究，以产生该领域的基础知识。这一奖项反映了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，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.