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Abstract There is a clear demand for quantitative literacy in the life sciences, necessitating competent instructors in higher education. However, not all instructors are versed in data science skills or research-based teaching practices. We surveyed biological and environmental science instructors (n = 106) about the teaching of data science in higher education, identifying instructor needs and illuminating barriers to instruction. Our results indicate that instructors use, teach, and view data management, analysis, and visualization as important data science skills. Coding, modeling, and reproducibility were less valued by the instructors, although this differed according to institution type and career stage. The greatest barriers were instructor and student background and space in the curriculum. The instructors were most interested in training on how to teach coding and data analysis. Our study provides an important window into how data science is taught in higher education biology programs and how we can best move forward to empower instructors across disciplines.
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Dimensions for Development and Implementation of Active Learning in Higher Education
This chapter focuses on accessible active learning (AL) strategies that promote equitable and effective student-centered instruction for higher education. Although there is not a consensus definition of AL across disciplines, principles of AL include attention to student engagement with content, peer-to-peer interactions, instructor uses of student thinking, and instructor attention to equity. A variety of AL strategies vary in complexity, time, and resources, and instructors can build up repertoires of such teaching practices. The field needs cultural change that moves away from lecture and toward AL and student engagement as the norm for equitable and effective teaching. Although such cultural change needs to include instructor professional learning about AL strategies, it also needs attention to collective beliefs, power dynamics, and structures that support (or inhibit) equitable AL implementation. This chapter provides frameworks for sustainable change to using AL in higher education, as well as research-based findings around which AL strategies are easy on-ramps for novice instructors. This chapter also provides a few specific examples of structures that support AL—course coordination and peer mentoring—and provides questions one may pose in attempting to spur cultural change that centers AL.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2021139
- PAR ID:
- 10635618
- Editor(s):
- Carbonneau, Kira; Meltzoff, Katherine
- Publisher / Repository:
- IntechOpen
- Date Published:
- ISSN:
- 2755-9513
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Abstract BackgroundThe University of California system has a novel tenure-track education-focused faculty position called Lecturer with Security of Employment (working titles: Teaching Professor or Professor of Teaching). We focus on the potential difference in implementation of active-learning strategies by faculty type, including tenure-track education-focused faculty, tenure-track research-focused faculty, and non-tenure-track lecturers. In addition, we consider other instructor characteristics (faculty rank, years of teaching, and gender) and classroom characteristics (campus, discipline, and class size). We use a robust clustering algorithm to determine the number of clusters, identify instructors using active learning, and to understand the instructor and classroom characteristics in relation to the adoption of active-learning strategies. ResultsWe observed 125 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) undergraduate courses at three University of California campuses using the Classroom Observation Protocol for Undergraduate STEM to examine active-learning strategies implemented in the classroom. Tenure-track education-focused faculty are more likely to teach with active-learning strategies compared to tenure-track research-focused faculty. Instructor and classroom characteristics that are also related to active learning include campus, discipline, and class size. The campus with initiatives and programs to support undergraduate STEM education is more likely to have instructors who adopt active-learning strategies. There is no difference in instructors in the Biological Sciences, Engineering, or Information and Computer Sciences disciplines who teach actively. However, instructors in the Physical Sciences are less likely to teach actively. Smaller class sizes also tend to have instructors who teach more actively. ConclusionsThe novel tenure-track education-focused faculty position within the University of California system represents a formal structure that results in higher adoption of active-learning strategies in undergraduate STEM education. Campus context and evolving expectations of the position (faculty rank) contribute to the symbols related to learning and teaching that correlate with differential implementation of active learning.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Book Chapter:
- https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.114345
