An official website of the United States government
Abstract Biology faculty have consensus-based guidelines based on Vision and Change principles about what to teach introductory biology majors. In contrast, faculty have not reached a consensus concerning the learning goals for introductory non-majors courses. Yet, more than 8 out of 10 undergraduates are not science majors. The goal of this study was to develop and evaluate learning objectives for non-majors introductory biology courses. We performed a modified-Delphi study of learning objectives (LOs) for non-majors biology. We engaged a total of 38 biology faculty experts from institutions across the US in three iterative rounds to identify, rate, discuss, and re-rate >300 LOs for non-majors biology courses. Faculty provided feedback to determine whether the LOs are critical for students to learn and if the LOs encompass what students need to learn about this issue, as well as if anything is missing. As a result of expert evaluation, 60.7% of LOs (164) were deemed critical. Experts also suggested 22 additional new LOs.
more »
« less
Nationally endorsed learning objectives to improve course design in introductory biology
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.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 2012362
- PAR ID:
- 10583069
- Editor(s):
- Vallespin, Mc_Rollyn Daquiado
- Publisher / Repository:
- PLOS
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- PLOS ONE
- Volume:
- 19
- Issue:
- 8
- ISSN:
- 1932-6203
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- e0308545
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
Student-instructor interactions have an influence on student achievement and perceptions of learning. In college and university settings, large introductory STEM courses are increasingly including Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL), an evidence-based technique associated with improved student achievement, recruitment, and retention in STEM fields, especially for underserved populations. Within this technique, peer leaders hold a unique position in a student’s education. Peer leaders have relevant experience in that they have had recent success in the courses in which they facilitate student learning, yet, compared to student-faculty or student-teaching assistant relationships, there is minimal imbalance of authority or power. Students might find their peer leaders to be more relatable than faculty or graduate teaching assistants, and may even consider them to be role models. We explored students’ perceptions of peer leader relatability and role model status in relation to students’ achievement and their perceived learning gains in the context of an introductory biology course with an associated PLTL program. The final course grades and self-assessed learning gains of PLTL students who felt they related to their peer leader were compared to those who did not. We also compared final course grades and self-assessed learning gains between PLTL students who viewed their peer leader as a role model versus those who did not. Self-reported learning gains were significantly higher for students who relate to their peer leader, as well as for students who viewed their peer leaders as a role model. There is some support that this trend is stronger for STEM majors versus those who are not enrolled in a STEM program, though the interaction is not significant. Significant differences in overall course grade were only observed between students who reported that they related to their peer leader versus those who did not relate to their peer leader.more » « less
-
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.more » « less
-
There have been many calls recently for computing for all across the nation. While there are many opportunities to study and use computing to advance the fields of computer science, software development, and information technology, computing is also needed in a wide range of other disciplines, including engineering. Most engineering programs require students take a course that teaches them introductory programming, which covers many of the same topics as an introductory course for computing majors (and at times may be the same course). However, statistics about the success of a course that is an introductory programming course are sobering; approximately half the students will fail, forcing them to either repeat the course or leave their chosen field of study if passing the course is required. This NSF IUSE project incorporates instructional techniques identified through educational psychology research as effective ways to improve student learning and retention in introductory programming. The research team has developed worked examples of problems that incorporate subgoal labels, which are explanations that describe the function of steps in the problem solution to the learner and highlight the problem-solving process. Using subgoal labels within worked examples, which has been effective in other STEM fields, students are able to see an expert's problem solving process, which helps students learn to solving problems before they can solve problem themselves. Experts, including instructors, teaching introductory level courses are often unable to explain the process they use in problem solving at a level that learners can grasp because they have automated much of the problem-solving processes after many years of practice. This submission will present the results of the first part of development of subgoals and will explain how to integrate them into classroom lessons in introductory computing classes.more » « less
-
The instructional practices used in introductory college courses often differ dramatically from those used in high school courses, and dissatisfaction with these practices is cited by students as a prominent reason for leaving science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors. To better characterize the transition to college course work, we investigated the extent to which incoming expectations of course activities differ based on student demographic characteristics, as well as how these expectations align with what students will experience. We surveyed more than 1500 undergraduate students in large introductory STEM courses at three research-intensive institutions during the first week of classes about their expectations regarding how class time would be spent in their courses. We found that first-generation and first-semester students predict less lecture than their peers and that class size had the largest effect on student predictions. We also collected classroom observation data from the courses and found that students generally underpredicted the amount of lecture observed in class. This misalignment between student predictions and experiences, especially for first-generation and first-semester college students and students enrolled in large- and medium-size classes, has implications for instructors and universities as they design curricula for introductory STEM courses with explicit retention goals.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0308545
