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1. Nationally endorsed learning objectives to improve course design in introductory biology

   https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0308545  

   Hennessey, Kelly M; Freeman, Scott (August 2024, PLOS ONE)

   Vallespin, Mc_Rollyn Daquiado (Ed.)

   Introductory biology for majors is one of the most consequential courses in STEM, with annual enrollments of several hundred thousand students in the United States alone. To support increased student success and meet current and projected needs for qualified STEM professionals, it will be crucial to redesign majors biology by using explicit learning objectives (LOs) that can be aligned with assessments and active learning exercises. When a course is designed in this way, students have opportunities for the practice and support they need to learn, and instructors can collect the evidence they need to evaluate whether students have mastered key concepts and skills. Following an iterative process of review, revision, and evaluation, which included input from over 800 biology instructors around the country, we produced a nationally endorsed set of lesson-level LOs for a year-long introductory biology for major’s course. These LOs are granular enough to support individual class sessions and provide instructors with a framework for course design that is directly connected to the broad themes inVision and Changeand the general statements in the BioCore and BioSkills Guides. Instructors can implement backward course design by aligning these community endorsed LOs with daily and weekly learning activities and with formative and summative assessments. 

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2. What Do Students in Biology Courses Understand and Appreciate About Statistics

   https://doi.org/10.52041/iase.icots11.t7b2  

   Tintle, Nathan; McGaughey, Karen; Chance, Beth (December 2022, Bridging the Gap: Empowering and Educating Today's Learners in Statistics. Proceedings of the Eleventh International Conference on Teaching Statistics)

   Learning standards for biology courses have called for increasing statistics content. Little is known, however, about biology students’ attitudes towards statistics content and what students actually learn about statistics in these courses. This study aims to uncover changes in attitudes and content knowledge in statistics for students in biology courses. One hundred thirty-four introductory biology students across five different instructors participated in a pre-post study of statistical thinking and attitudes toward statistics. Students performed better on the statistics conceptual inventory at the end of a biology course compared to the beginning. Student attitudes showed no change. These preliminary results suggest the potential importance for laying a conceptual foundation in statistics prior to taking biology courses with little formal statistical instruction. 

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3. Am I getting through? Surveying students on what messages they recall from the first day of STEM classes

   https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-021-00306-y  

   Meaders, Clara L.; Senn, Lillian G.; Couch, Brian A.; Lane, A. Kelly; Stains, Marilyne; Stetzer, MacKenzie R.; Vinson, Erin; Smith, Michelle K. (August 2021, International Journal of STEM Education)

   Abstract BackgroundThe first day of class helps students learn about what to expect from their instructors and courses. Messaging used by instructors, which varies in content and approach on the first day, shapes classroom social dynamics and can affect subsequent learning in a course. Prior work established the non-content Instructor Talk Framework to describe the language that instructors use to create learning environments, but little is known about the extent to which students detect those messages. In this study, we paired first day classroom observation data with results from student surveys to measure how readily students in introductory STEM courses detect non-content Instructor Talk. ResultsTo learn more about the instructor and student first day experiences, we studied 11 introductory STEM courses at two different institutions. The classroom observation data were used to characterize course structure and use of non-content Instructor Talk. The data revealed that all instructors spent time discussing their instructional practices, building instructor/student relationships, and sharing strategies for success with their students. After class, we surveyed students about the messages their instructors shared during the first day of class and determined that the majority of students from within each course detected messaging that occurred at a higher frequency. For lower frequency messaging, we identified nuances in what students detected that may help instructors as they plan their first day of class. ConclusionsFor instructors who dedicate the first day of class to establishing positive learning environments, these findings provide support that students are detecting the messages. Additionally, this study highlights the importance of instructors prioritizing the messages they deem most important and giving them adequate attention to more effectively reach students. Setting a positive classroom environment on the first day may lead to long-term impacts on student motivation and course retention. These outcomes are relevant for all students, but in particular for students in introductory STEM courses which are often critical prerequisites for being in a major. 

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4. Understanding Expert Perceptions of PBL Integration in Introductory Aerospace Engineering Courses: Thematic Analysis of Focus Groups with PBL and Aerospace Engineering Instructors

   Olewnik, A.; Schrewe, L.; Ferguson, S. (January 2023, ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition)

   Problem-based learning (PBL) is gaining momentum in engineering education as a student-centered teaching approach that engages students in problems that mirror realities of practice. While the goal of this pedagogical approach is to more authentically prepare and train students for success in the field, it can be both challenging and frustrating for faculty to effectively implement. In this research paper, the opinions of faculty experts from aerospace engineering and PBL are considered. Data were collected through two structured focus groups to identify areas deemed critical for the transition of an introductory, second-year aerospace engineering course to PBL at an R1 university on the East Coast of the United States. Four different dimensions of PBL integration were considered: design, learning objectives, implementation/facilitation, and assessment. Through a thematic analysis of focus group transcripts, results showed that while the experts identified many areas that were critical to consider during this transition, there are important areas of divergence among the expert groups. In fact, areas of distinct opposition were exposed. This study highlights the importance of considering feedback from both content/technical experts and pedagogical design experts during the development and integration of PBL and lays the groundwork for further exploration of if and how consensus between these two groups can be found to support improved curriculum development. 

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5. What influences students’ abilities to critically evaluate scientific investigations?

   https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0273337  

   Heim, Ashley B.; Walsh, Cole; Esparza, David; Smith, Michelle K.; Holmes, N. G. (August 2022, PLOS ONE)

   Pamucar, Dragan (Ed.)

   Critical thinking is the process by which people make decisions about what to trust and what to do. Many undergraduate courses, such as those in biology and physics, include critical thinking as an important learning goal. Assessing critical thinking, however, is non-trivial, with mixed recommendations for how to assess critical thinking as part of instruction. Here we evaluate the efficacy of assessment questions to probe students’ critical thinking skills in the context of biology and physics. We use two research-based standardized critical thinking instruments known as the Biology Lab Inventory of Critical Thinking in Ecology (Eco-BLIC) and Physics Lab Inventory of Critical Thinking (PLIC). These instruments provide experimental scenarios and pose questions asking students to evaluate what to trust and what to do regarding the quality of experimental designs and data. Using more than 3000 student responses from over 20 institutions, we sought to understand what features of the assessment questions elicit student critical thinking. Specifically, we investigated (a) how students critically evaluate aspects of research studies in biology and physics when they are individually evaluating one study at a time versus comparing and contrasting two and (b) whether individual evaluation questions are needed to encourage students to engage in critical thinking when comparing and contrasting. We found that students are more critical when making comparisons between two studies than when evaluating each study individually. Also, compare-and-contrast questions are sufficient for eliciting critical thinking, with students providing similar answers regardless of if the individual evaluation questions are included. This research offers new insight on the types of assessment questions that elicit critical thinking at the introductory undergraduate level; specifically, we recommend instructors incorporate more compare-and-contrast questions related to experimental design in their courses and assessments. 

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