skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Explore Research Products in the PAR
It may take a few hours for recently added research products to appear in PAR search results.


Title: Supporting biology education research at community colleges: Implementing and adapting evidence‐based practices
Abstract Biology education research (BER), currently conducted mostly at four‐year colleges and universities, is changing the culture of teaching biology and improving student success. We are community college faculty participating in the NSF‐funded CC Bio INSITES network, getting training and support in BER to ask questions to improve student success in our highly diverse classes. Our research adapts and validates existing BER surveys and interventions in Hispanic‐serving college settings, with pre‐health professions’ students, and with traditionally underserved populations in STEM. BER projects serve assessment and program review goals common across many community colleges, and when implemented with high‐impact practices, BER measures the gains in student retention and success. We call for support to continue changing the culture of discipline‐based education research at community colleges.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1730130
PAR ID:
10368430
Author(s) / Creator(s):
 ;  ;  ;  
Publisher / Repository:
Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
Date Published:
Journal Name:
New Directions for Community Colleges
Volume:
2022
Issue:
199
ISSN:
0194-3081
Format(s):
Medium: X Size: p. 201-213
Size(s):
p. 201-213
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. ; ; ; ; (, CBE—Life Sciences Education)
    Andrews, Tessa C. (Ed.)
    In an effort to increase community college (CC) biology education research (BER), an NSF-funded network called CC Bio INSITES (Community College Biology Instructor Network to Support Inquiry into Teaching and Education Scholarship; INSITES for short) was developed to provide intellectual, resource, and social support for CC faculty (CCF) to conduct BER. To investigate the efficacy of this network, we asked about the barriers and supports INSITES CCF have experienced when conducting BER and how specific INSITES supports have mitigated barriers and provided support for network members to engage in BER. We conducted interviews and focus groups with 17 network participants, representing 15 different CCs. Qualitative thematic analysis revealed six main barriers that INSITES CCF experience when conducting BER: time constraints, knowledge, incentives or rewards, administrative or peer support, infrastructure, and stigma or misconceptions associated with being CCF. Participants indicated how the supports provided by INSITES helped to mitigate each barrier. Social support was especially critical for CCF to develop a sense of belonging to the CC BER community, though that did not extend to the broader BER community. We describe how these supports function to support BER and recommend four actions for future support of CCF conducting BER. 
    more » « less
  2. ; ; ; ; ; ; (, Interdisciplinary Journal of Partnership)
    Since 2002, the National Center for Earth-Surface dynamics has collaborated with the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, the Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College, the University of Minnesota, and other partner institutions to develop programs aimed at supporting Native American participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, and especially in the Earth and Environmental Sciences. These include the gidakiimanaaniwigamig math and science camps for students in kindergarten through 12th grade, the Research Experience for Undergraduates on Sustainable Land and Water Resources, which takes place on two native reservations, and support for new majors at tribal colleges. All of these programs have a common focus on collaboration with communities, place-based education, community-inspired research projects, a focus on traditional culture and language, and resource management on reservations. Strong partnerships between university, tribal college, and Native American reservation were a foundation for success, but took time and effort to develop. This paper explores steps towards effective partnerships that support student success in STEM via environmental education. 
    more » « less
  3. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; et al (, CBE—Life Sciences Education)
    Tanner, Kimberly (Ed.)
    This paper examines the extent to which community college biology education research (CC BER) has progressed since initial calls for broadening participation by comparing the number of CC BER publications, identifies barriers to and opportunities for community college faculty BER participation, and highlights the importance of institutional networks as a driver for incorporating CC faculty in BER. 
    more » « less
  4. ; (, Education Finance and Policy)
    Abstract Developmental education (dev-ed) aims to help students acquire knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in college-level coursework. The traditional prerequisite approach to postsecondary dev-ed—where students take remedial courses that do not count toward a credential—appears to stymie progress toward a degree. At community colleges across the country, most students require remediation in math, creating a barrier to college-level credits under the traditional approach. Corequisite coursework is a structural reform that places students directly into a college-level course in the same term they receive dev-ed support. Using administrative data from Texas community colleges and a regression discontinuity design, we examine whether corequisite math improves student success compared with traditional prerequisite dev-ed. We find that corequisite math quickly improves student completion of math requirements without any obvious drawbacks, but students in corequisite math were not substantially closer to degree completion than their peers in traditional dev-ed after 3 years. 
    more » « less
  5. ; ; ; ; (, CBE—Life Sciences Education)
    Alvares, Stacy M. (Ed.)
    Learning about evolution is a foundational part of biology education, but most current studies that explore college student evolution education are conducted at universities. However, community college students tend to be more diverse in characteristics shown to be related to evolution education outcomes. To explore how studies involving university students may generalize to community college students, we surveyed students from seven community college ( n = 202) and nine university ( n = 2288) classes. We measured students’ evolution interest, acceptance, and understanding, and for religious students, we measured their perceived conflict between their religions and evolution. Controlling for state and major, we found that community college students had similar levels of evolution interest as university students but perceived greater conflict between their religions and evolution. Further, community college students had lower evolution understanding and acceptance compared with university students. Religiosity was a strong factor predicting community college and university students’ evolution acceptance. However, unique to community college students, evolution understanding was not related to their macroevolution or human evolution acceptance. This indicates that, although some results between community college and university students are similar, there are differences that have implications for evolution instruction that warrant the need for more evolution education research at community colleges. 
    more » « less
  • Citation Formats
  • MLA
  • APA
  • Chicago
  • BibTeX
  • Save / Share this Record
  • Send to Email