Changes In Undergraduate Education Research Articles

From Metaphor to Metonym: Shakespearean Recognition in the United States University

This essay historicizes the Shakespeare curriculum at UC Berkeley’s English department over the last one hundred years. An elite research university in the United States, UC Berkeley’s extensive course offerings have expanded due to changes in undergraduate education and external cultural shifts. With a growing number of courses on sexuality, race, gender, etc., that became part of the purview of an English department, the teaching of Shakespeare expanded as well. I demonstrate how the emphasis on Shakespeare in the U.S. undergraduate curriculum shifts over time from one form of recognition—an acknowledgement of his value or worth—to a recognition of identifying with his work based on prior experience. Distinguishing between courses that combine “Shakespeare and” and those that combine “Literature and,” I expose the consequences each has for the canonicity of both Shakespeare and subject fields with which his works are placed in conversation, explicitly and implicitly. I argue that the expansion of Shakespeare in the American undergraduate curriculum coincides with and depends on the compression of key aspects of interpretation that pose challenges for the new knowledges it seeks to create. I illuminate how an expanded Shakespeare curriculum saw a compression of Shakespeare into metonymic mythic status, which has implications for the teaching of literature from various identity and cultural groups. I demonstrate how the origins of an expansive undergraduate Shakespeare curriculum in the United States positions Shakespeare as the interlocutor for a wide range of topics.

Guiding principles for change in undergraduate education: An analysis of a departmental team’s change effort

Guiding principles for change in undergraduate education: An analysis of a departmental team’s change effort

An Instructional-Workforce Framework for Coordinated Change in Undergraduate Education

In Short The work of higher education instructors across many types of positions and institutions has been widely recognized as central to systemic change in undergraduate STEM education, and this work likely plays a strong role in other disciplines. The quality of instruction and other educational practices relates directly to the quality of student learning and to equitable and just outcomes for students. We propose an instructional-workforce framework that aligns and links three levers, key facets of organizations that, when applied appropriately, propel changes: the professional development leading to and throughout instructors’ careers, their roles in academic governance, and the evaluation and reward systems related to their work. This framework provides guidance for change agents and initiatives in departments, schools, institutions, and disciplinary and other organizations, as well as for funding agencies, on how to engage with, support, and seek to improve conditions and practices for and with those who teach undergraduates.

Investigating the Effect of the Organ Transplantation and Donation Education Given To Nursing Students

Objective: This study was carried out to investigate the effect of the education given to nursing students regarding organ transplantation and donation. Method: This study was carried out with second year students attending the health sciences faculty of a public university. The population of the study consisted of students attending the Internal Medicine Nursing course during the 2017-2018 academic year. Sample selection was not performed, and all the students who took this course were included into the study sample. The study was completed with 282 people. Results: The mean age of the students was 21.24 ± 13.04, and 72.4% were female. According to the pre-test results, it was found that 98.9% of the participants were not organ donors, with 30.2% of the students stating that their reason for not becoming donors was the fear of being killed/insecurity. There was a statistically significant difference in the level of knowledge and attitudes of the students about organ transplantation and donation before and after the education (p < 0.001), and it was determined that education increased their level of knowledge. Conclusion: Organ transplantation and organ donation are becoming a global issue due to the increase in chronic diseases. Appropriate curriculum changes in undergraduate education will ensure the training of healthcare professionals with sufficient knowledge and persuasiveness on this subject. Keywords : Organ transplantation, organ donation, nursing, student, education DOI : 10.7176/JSTR/5-6-10

Why wasn’t prevention included? Comment on the special issue on undergraduate education in psychology (2016).

In the February/March 2016 special issue, articles by Gurung et al. (2016) and Norcross et al. (2016) called for change in undergraduate education; however, the special issue failed to include prevention. This comment shows that undergraduate education should include a specialization in prevention, focusing on prevention groups. This could offer a new 4-year career path in psychology, expanding psychology student job opportunities. Prevention groups include health prevention, school-based prevention, violence and anger prevention, and bullying prevention. With many 4-year psychology majors looking for work, a 4-year specialization in prevention groups could help students secure psychology-related employment while meeting community needs. (PsycINFO Database Record

The Preparation-Practice Gap: An Integrative Literature Review.

The purpose of this integrative literature review was to evaluate and synthesize the evidence regarding the existence, extent, and significance of a preparation-practice gap-namely, the deficits in knowledge and skills that novice nurses may demonstrate on entry into the clinical setting and the identified best practices to narrow this gap. An integrative literature review was performed. A final set of 50 articles were included in the review. Three main themes permeate the evidence: a preparation-practice gap exists; this gap is costly; and closing the preparation-practice gap will likely rely on changes in undergraduate education and on-the-job remediation (i.e., nurse residency or preceptor programs). The preparation-practice gap is a challenge that has faced the nursing profession for years. Efforts to close this gap can be justified on the hopes of decreasing turnover (and its attendant costs), boosting morale of novice nurses and their preceptors, decreasing stress among the novice nurses, and improving patient safety.

Addressing Core Competencies in Vision and Change : Use of a General Physiology Course to Reinforce Quantitative and Interdisciplinary Approaches

The recommendations for undergraduate biology training outlined in the NSF/AAAS report, Vision and Change in Undergraduate Education, include the development of critical core competencies. Many biology programs struggle to encourage the “ability to use quantitative reasoning” and the “ability to tap into the interdisciplinary nature of science” in a curriculum dominated by descriptive courses. While at the US Air Force Academy (USAFA), I explored the use of a general physiology course to address these competencies. The quantitative analysis of topics such as electrochemical gradients would allow cadets to apply their training in mathematics and engineering to biological problems. Moreover, the small class sizes at USAFA facilitated the use of peer-to-peer learning strategies. Accordingly, a general physiology course was conducted in the spring of 2012 and 2013 with 9 and 7 cadets, respectively. During the course, a total of eleven topics were discussed with three class periods dedicated to each topic. For each topic, the first period was a formal introductory lecture. A second period was devoted to a cadet-led analysis of a classic scientific paper in that topic. Finally, the third period consisted of assessment and review. Each assessment was taken independently, and then teams of two or three cadets would discuss and submit consensus responses to the same questions. Feedback suggests that cadets enjoyed the chance to learn from each other. More importantly, the outcomes suggest that cadets finished the course with an understanding of both the quantitative basis and the interdisciplinary nature of modern biology. [Supported by the Visiting Professor program at USAFA]

Hormones and Antibiotics in Nature: A Laboratory Module Designed to Broaden Undergraduate Perspectives on Typically Human-Centered Topics

Bringing discovery-based research into undergraduate laboratory courses increases student motivation and learning gains over traditional exercises that merely teach technique or demonstrate well-documented phenomena. Laboratory experiences are further enhanced when they are designed to challenge student perspectives on topics relevant to their lives. To this end, a laboratory module on antibiotics and hormones, which are generally discussed in the context of human health, was developed for students to explore the multifaceted roles of antibiotics and hormones in nature (e.g. interspecies communication) via reading primary scientific literature and performing discovery-based experiments. The main objective of this module was to increase the general biological literacy of students as determined by their ability to connect the Five Core Concepts of Biological Literacy (American Association for the Advancement of Science, Vision and Change in Undergraduate Education: A Call to Action, 2011) to the topics “hormones” and “antibiotics” in pre- and postmodule surveys. After discussing unpublished research findings, cell biology students performed experiments demonstrating that: 1) fungi may promote fern growth via hormone production, 2) novel bacterial isolates in the genus Streptomyces produce antifungal compounds, and 3) subinhibitory antibiotic concentrations may enhance soil bacterial growth. The third finding provided evidence supporting a hypothesis framed in a scientific article that students read and discussed. Student perspectives on premodule surveys focused on roles of hormones and antibiotics in the human body (e.g. development, fighting infection), but their broadened postmodule perspectives encompassed the roles of these molecules in organismal communication and possibly the evolution of multicellularity.

Growth of a community: ASBMB project to create resources to support the biochemistry and molecular biology community and education (348.1)

A consortium of federal and private foundations with biological scientific community resulted in the creation of the strategic document/plan “Vision and Change in Undergraduate Education, a Call to Action”. Principle findings of the plan include a need for core concepts and competencies, building communities for cultural change to develop educational scholars. In support of the key points of “Vision”, the National Science Foundation established the Research Coordination Networks‐Undergraduate Biology Education program to support such collaborations. The ASBMB has been a participant in both programs and in 2010 was funded an NSF RCN‐UBE to engage the BMB community to create core concepts in the field, generate a central resource to support the concepts and their assessment. The initial phase of the project involved starting the BMB community to ask key questions about core concepts and unpack the important components of each concept. Using surveys, small, regional and national meetings a series of core concepts have been developed resulting in a series of publications disseminating the results in the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education Journal. The current phase of the project is to transition to build assessment toolkits for faculty to use as they align the foundational concepts. The first of several meeting have already begun to create specific learning objectives, goals, assessments and teaching stratagies that will be used by and for the BMB scientific community. This presentation will provide the history and evolution of the ASBMB project. NSF RCN‐UBE 0957205.

AIBS Study on Leading Change in Undergraduate Education

AIBS Study on Leading Change in Undergraduate Education

The Vision Is Set, Now Help Chronicle the Change

The Vision and Change effort to explore and implement needed changes in undergraduate biology education has been ongoing since 2006. It is now time to take stock of changes that have occurred at the faculty and single-course levels, and to consider how to accomplish the larger-scale changes needed at departmental and institutional levels. This article is a continuation of our efforts to keep people informed about the next steps for Vision and Change, in particular ongoing activities that need community (your) input, and what resources are available to support the Vision stated in 2009: “the biology we teach should reflect the biology we do” (American Association for the Advancement of Science [AAAS], 2011 ).

Next Steps for Vision and Change: Moving from Setting the Vision to Change

Next Steps for <i>Vision and Change</i>: Moving from Setting the Vision to Change

Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research (SABER).

Biology education research (BER) can be a major contributor to the herculean task of modernizing and transforming biology education. However, as researchers in a relatively young and still small field, BER practitioners now find themselves fragmented across 64 biology-related societies and lacking agreement on a core research agenda, a convenient professional network, and venues of dissemination. To begin addressing these needs, the newly formed Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research (SABER) held an inaugural meeting in September 2010 at the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities. The 29 participants (Figure 1) included faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students engaged in empirical research and professional development, as well as journal editors, textbook writers, and a textbook editor. The diversity of this group contributed to a thoughtful, reflective, and productive meeting, whose major goals were to 1) define BER, 2) identify challenges to its practice, 3) formulate overarching research questions, and 4) outline the role of SABER in supporting the BER community. The consensus views of the participants on each of these goals are described in the paragraphs below. Figure 1: SABER Founding Members: Teri Balser, Clarissa Dirks, Mary Pat Wenderoth, Janet Branchaw, Rob Brooker, Peggy Brickman, Malcolm Campbell, Mark Connelly, Erin Dolan, Scott Freeman, Mark Hens, Jenny Knight, Kathryn Miller, Jennifer Momsen, Lisa Montplaisir, ... The outcomes of this meeting are timely in the context of the recently released summary report Vision and Change in Undergraduate Education, A Call to Action, which charged the biology community with “creating, using, assessing, and disseminating effective practices in teaching and learning” (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2010 ). By providing the infrastructure needed to create a vibrant network of practitioners, SABER is well positioned to support biology education researchers in generating empirical evidence that can effect meaningful changes in undergraduate biology education.

Vision and Change in Biology Undergraduate Education, A Call for Action—Initial Responses

The executive summary provides an overview of some of V&C's key recommendations regarding next steps in the effort to mobilize the biology community. It is, in essence, a call for national service. A publication discussing these recommendations and action items in more depth will be available later this year. Meanwhile, we highly recommend reading the Executive Summary of V&C, the NAS report (NAS, 2010), and a seminal article by Labov et al. (2010) summarizing the synergy created by these several reports on the changing nature of studies in biology and concomitant need to change biology education. Then, take action! Our hope is to see the formation of a community of biologists, similar to that forming in geology (Manduca et al., 2010): one that will advance biology undergraduate education so it truly reflects the discipline it serves.

Transforming Undergraduate Biology Education for All Students: An Action Plan for the Twenty-First Century

On July 15–17, 2009, 544 biology faculty from 2- and 4-year colleges and universities, along with researchers, administrators, students, and other educational stakeholders from around the country, met in Washington, DC, to help create a blueprint for the future of undergraduate biology education (Summers, 2009 ). Hosted by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), with support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the meeting set out to mobilize the nation's undergraduate biology educators to ensure that the biology they teach in their classrooms reflects the biology they practice in the lab and field, and that all students—majors and nonmajors alike—gain a better understanding of the nature of science and the natural world (Mervis, 2009 ). The charge for the meeting (Transforming Undergraduate Education in Biology: Mobilizing the Community for Change) noted that the need for change reflects the radical changes in the science itself as well as the knowledge we are gaining about how people learn and the best ways to ensure that learning takes place. The meeting concentrated on how people have effected change, the results when they did so, and how the attendees and their colleagues could most effectively incorporate this knowledge and understanding into their own approaches to undergraduate education in biology. Videos, slides, and other materials from the meeting are posted at the conference website (AAAS, 2009a ). A culminating summary publication is anticipated in spring 2010.

Tomorrow’s nurse graduate, today: the change in undergraduate education

This article argues for a new kind of nurse graduate, equipped for the global challenges to health in the 21st century. The author points to the correlation between the public health role of a nurse in the 19th century and community health patterns of modern times to justify the shape of a recently installed undergraduate nursing studies programme at the University of Lincoln. The universal adoption of a public health philosophy by nurses is shown to be mutually advantageous to practitioners, to practice and to service users alike. In addition to research into the health inequalities and the patient experience, theoretical frameworks of learning and social policy are resourced to give direction to future nurse education and leadership among vulnerable individuals, communities and groups.

Changes in Undergraduate Clinical Psychiatry Teaching in Scotland since “Tomorrow's Doctors”

This paper reviews the factors which have driven changes in undergraduate education in psychiatry since the 1993 publication of "Tomorrow's Doctors",' after which it describes current undergraduate curricula in the four Scottish medical schools teaching clinical psychiatry. Reasons underlying the differences between curricula are discussed. The authors suggest that research in medical education, alongside communication and debate between medical schools and across specialties, would lead to more uniform and evidence-based curricula.

Understanding Change in the Academy

Change—everyone in the academy is in favor of it when it is directed at the improvement of others and other areas. Similarly, we like change for ourselves and in our activities when we believe modifications will cause little inconvenience and bring about a more desirable state of affairs personally and professionally. Post-secondary education is a frequent focus (some would say target) of calls for change both from within and outside of the academy. Since 1983, when the (U.S.) National Commission on Excellence in Education issued the report A Nation at Risk, numerous commissions, agencies, and associations have evaluated higher education in the U.S. and declared that it falls short of many desirable goals and objectives. Even when there is broad agreement on the problems and the need for change in higher education, the “how” often alludes us. As pointed out in the article by Lee and colleagues in this issue, the academy is largely organized around departments which house faculty in specific fields and disciplines. And, departmental “readiness” for change is affected by disciplinary characteristics, the relative strength of basic academic values, the existence of protected subunits or subcultures in the department, departmental leadership, the reward structure, external support, and the general support of undergraduate education. The important life and workplace related learning outcomes of general education (e.g. communication, writing, critical thinking) receive the most criticism. Faculty members tend to think in terms of “courses” and think less so about learning across courses, let alone across the curriculum. General education is the crossroads where we encounter difficulty in setting curricular goals, agreeing on pedagogies, and negotiating the structure for “general” learning; it is the place where consensus and change are so difficult. Disciplinary differences create different views of the world—what is important to know, how one approaches knowing, and what stands as “truth.” While disciplinary diversity and loose coupling of departments and faculty fuel innovation, discovery, and application of knowledge within specific areas, this organizational structure makes fundamental change in undergraduate education and overarching student learning outcomes (i.e., general education) exceedingly difficult. Innov High Educ (2007) 32:1–2 DOI 10.1007/s10755-007-9038-8

The Concept of Readiness in the Academic Department: A Case Study of Undergraduate Education Reform

While there has been emphasis on the institution and individual classroom as loci of learning and reform, less attention has been paid to the academic department. However, precisely because its structure is so endemic to institutions of higher education, the academic department may be the most logical and potent site for change. Using a case study approach, this paper examines the conditions under which change in undergraduate education takes hold and flourishes in the academic department, advances the concept of readiness, and explores its implications for those who wish to promote change in the department.

Masters of theory: Cambridge and the rise of mathematical physics

When Isaac Newton published the Principia three centuries ago, only a few scholars were capable of understanding his conceptually demanding work. Yet this esoteric knowledge quickly became accessible in the 19th and early 20th centuries, when Britain produced many leading mathematical physicists. In this book, Andrew Warwick shows how the education of these masters of theory led them to transform our understanding of everything from the flight of a boomerang to the structure of the universe. Warwick focuses on Cambridge University, where many of the best physicists trained. He begins by tracing the dramatic changes in undergraduate education there since the 18th century, especially the gradual emergence of the private tutor as the most important teacher of mathematics. Next he explores the material culture of mathematics instruction, showing how the humble pen and paper so crucial to this study transformed everything from classroom teaching to final examinations. Balancing their intense intellectual work with strenuous physical exercise, the students themselves - known as the Wranglers - helped foster the competitive spirit that drove them in the classroom and informed the Victorian ideal of a manly student. Finally, by investigating several historical cases, such as the reception of Albert Einstein's special and general theories of relativity, Warwick shows how the production, transmission and reception of new knowledge was profoundly shaped by the skills taught to Cambridge undergraduates. Drawing on a wealth of new archival evidence and illustrations, Master of Theory examines the origins of a cultural tradition through which the complex world of theoretical physics was made commonplace.