IUSE-EHR Building Excellence with Scientific Teaching (BEST): Transforming the College of Biological Sciences with a Scientific Teaching Certification Series

University Of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Minneapolis MN

Investigators

Abstract

Many national reports have recommended that STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) educators incorporate evidence-based teaching practices into their courses, to better prepare future scientists, and to create a scientifically literate citizenry. Despite the demands for reform, many STEM faculty members are reluctant to change teaching practices, for reasons ranging from lack of institutional support to a concern over sacrificed time for covering content. Thus, it should come as no surprise that the teaching assistant-individuals in charge of many laboratory sections in introductory STEM courses-are similarly ill-prepared to use evidence-based teaching practices in their own teaching. The result is teaching assistants who are ill-equipped to facilitate inquiry in laboratory courses, which are the natural venues for beginning students to engage in scientific practices and acquire critical STEM competencies. Building Excellence with Scientific Teaching (BEST) is a three-year project that will train undergraduate teaching assistants to apply evidence-based principles to engage all undergraduate students in the process of science. BEST will promote evidence-based instruction through the use of Scientific Teaching (ST)-with its emphases on active learning, inclusive teaching, and assessment-and inquiry-based instruction in laboratory settings. As a result of BEST, several thousand introductory-biology students will learn science by doing science, facilitated by TAs who are trained to use evidence-based practices. The intellectual merit of this project rests on the goals to (1) implement a two-semester Scientific Teaching Certification Series for undergraduate teaching assistants leading labs that emphasize discovery-from open inquiry to course-based undergraduate research experiences (CURES); and (2) investigate which training elements are most effective in helping these teaching assistants facilitate inquiry. Project evaluation will include direct observations of the undergraduate teaching assistants while they are teaching, surveys of the undergraduate teaching assistants, and measures of learning by students taught by teaching assistants who received this training and those that did not. Both the trained undergraduate teaching assistants and their students will benefit from this project. Teaching assistants who complete the certification series will acquire increased knowledge about the core concepts of active learning, assessment, and inclusivity; will increase their use of evidence-based teaching practices in class; will develop increased confidence in their own science abilities; and will demonstrate increased acceptance of the Scientific Teaching model for teaching and learning. Students enrolled in lab sections taught by program participants will demonstrate greater acceptance of the ST model, along with the gains associated with inquiry-based laboratories and scientific teaching methods, such as increased confidence in their own science skills, and improvement in science competencies.