RCN-UBE:Biology Teaching Assistant Project (BioTAP 2.0): Advancing Research, Synthesizing Evidence

University Of Tennessee Knoxville, Knoxville TN

Investigators

Abstract

The PI team from the University of Tennessee Knoxville, the University of Maryland College Park, Middle Tennessee State University, University of Georgia, and Ohio State University has received a Research Coordination Network - Undergraduate Biology Education (RCN-UBE) award for their project entitled Biology Teaching Assistant Project (BioTAP 2.0): Advancing Research, Synthesizing Evidence. The project is building a sustainable collaborative network to support, synthesize, and disseminate biology Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) Teaching Professional Development (TPD) research results and to advocate for community TPD standards with the potential to increase the effectiveness of GTA TPD nationwide. BioTAP 2.0 is improving undergraduate biology education by expanding the network of 80 institutions developed during their RCN-UBE Incubator project. In that way the project is increasing the number and diversity of institutions involved in GTA TPD, both practice and research. BioTAP 2.0 also is creating and implementing Research Development Sessions and Virtual Learning Communities to foster collaborative research on biology GTA TPD. These are inter- and intra-institutional collaborative teams to develop TPD research projects using common research tools and methods. BioTAP 2.0 is also synthesizing, disseminating, and advocating for research to identify empirically-based best practices in GTA TPD. By developing standardized TPD research practices and innovative face-to-face and virtual sessions to guide research practitioners, the project is fulfilling the potential to synthesize research results that will improve undergraduate biology education across the nation. This project is funded jointly by the Directorate for Biological Sciences, Division of Biological Infrastructure and the Directorate for Education and Human Resources, Division of Undergraduate Education in support of efforts to address the challenges posed in Vision and Change in Undergraduate Education: A Call to Action http://visionandchange.org/finalreport/.