ASPB EDUCATION FORUM

Fostering Change in Undergraduate Biology Education—What Can ASPB Do?

Last year in Chicago at Plant Biology 2007, representatives from the National Science Foundation hosted a discussion of the topic “Vision and Change in Biology Undergraduate Education: A View for the 21st Century.” An article describing this standing-room-only session was published in the September/October 2007 issue of ASPB News.

Participants in this discussion were divided into small groups and asked to define curricular goals, course designs, and delivery options, as well as the related faculty preparation and institutional structures needed to create effective change for the future of undergraduate biology education. Over the past year, NSF has led a series of similar conversations with key scientists, life science organizations, and biology educators to identify and prioritize goals.

In May this year, NSF, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) gathered representatives from more than 60 professional societies in Washington to continue this discussion and to present some findings from the conversations with scientists and biology educators held over the past year. NSF also asked these representatives to identify possible strategies professional societies could use to foster change in undergraduate biological sciences education.

In her summary of findings, Penny Firth of NSF described three components of what NSF called “A Shared Vision” and possible strategies for professional societies:

1. Concept Literacy

• Students need to read, write, and apply what they learn.
• The “process of science” should be taught. Faculty need to realize that they cannot teach all the material in biology.
• Students need to understand that science is “evidence based” and “evolution based.”
• Faculty members need to remember to “teach the science” and convey that science is a “way of knowing.”
• Some follow-up with students is needed once they leave the classroom, course, and institution.

2. Active and Experiential Learning

• Students need real-world problems to analyze.
• Students must be able to understand and analyze controversies.
• Students need to experience the way scientists “do” science.
• Students must develop critical thinking skills.
• Faculty members have to look at their own teaching methods and develop ways to address these student needs.

3. Broad Career Horizons

• For the majority of students, their terminal course in science is undergraduate introductory biology. This is the students’ “gateway to science” and educators’ last chance to enhance their understanding of science.
• Students come from diverse backgrounds and will go into a broad range of careers. They will be the K–8 teachers, politicians, lawyers, and business leaders of the future.
• Students need to be prepared to make future decisions on scientific issues.

What can professional societies do to help?
Use meetings, journals, and websites as clearinghouses for material to support concept literacy, active or experiential learning, and broad career horizons.

• Encourage the integration of their roles with those of educational societies.
• Provide help in assessing and institutionalizing “good ideas” and “feedback loops” for good science.
• Encourage faculty development and provide faculty with support.
• Become resource stewards by creating, consolidating, and disseminating materials.

What resources are available?
Providing resources can be the role of funding agencies. It is understood now that great scholarship is rewarded, but there is a need to bring provosts and administrators into the conversation to support educational scholarship.

What is the next step?
NSF plans to continue the conversations and discussions while ramping up for a “Vision of Change” conference, at which societies will be asked how they are contributing to the vision. At a minimum, this is a decade-long plan with shared visions and partners. Add your expertise to the conversation. Submit your specific successes in fostering change in undergraduate biology education to katie@aspb.org.

Jane Ellis
jellis@mail.presby.edu