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Broadening Participation in Biology Education Research: Engaging Community College Students and Faculty.

ABSTRACT: Nearly half of all undergraduates are enrolled at community colleges (CCs), including the majority of U.S. students who represent groups underserved in the sciences. Yet only a small minority of studies published in discipline-based education research journals address CC biology students, faculty, courses, or authors. This marked underrepresentation of CC biology education research (BER) limits the availability of evidence that could be used to increase CC student success in biology programs. To address this issue, a diverse group of stakeholders convened at the Building Capacity for Biology Education Research at Community Colleges meeting to discuss how to increase the prevalence of CC BER and foster participation of CC faculty as BER collaborators and authors. The group identified characteristics of CCs that make them excellent environments for studying biology teaching and learning, including student diversity and institutional cultures that prioritize teaching, learning, and assessment. The group also identified constraints likely to impede BER at CCs: limited time, resources, support, and incentives, as well as misalignment between doing research and CC faculty identities as teachers. The meeting culminated with proposing strategies for faculty, administrators, journal editors, scientific societies, and funding agencies to better support CC BER.

SUBMITTER: Schinske JN

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5459264 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Broadening Participation in Biology Education Research: Engaging Community College Students and Faculty.

Schinske Jeffrey N JN Balke Virginia L VL Bangera M Gita MG Bonney Kevin M KM Brownell Sara E SE Carter Robert S RS Curran-Everett Douglas D Dolan Erin L EL Elliott Samantha L SL Fletcher Linnea L Gonzalez Beatriz B Gorga Joseph J JJ Hewlett James A JA Kiser Stacey L SL McFarland Jenny L JL Misra Anjali A Nenortas Apryl A Ngeve Smith M SM Pape-Lindstrom Pamela A PA Seidel Shannon B SB Tuthill Matthew C MC Yin Yue Y Corwin Lisa A LA

CBE life sciences education 20170101 2

Nearly half of all undergraduates are enrolled at community colleges (CCs), including the majority of U.S. students who represent groups underserved in the sciences. Yet only a small minority of studies published in discipline-based education research journals address CC biology students, faculty, courses, or authors. This marked underrepresentation of CC biology education research (BER) limits the availability of evidence that could be used to increase CC student success in biology programs. To ...[more]

PMID: 28450448

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Dataset Information

Broadening Participation in Biology Education Research: Engaging Community College Students and Faculty.

Publications

Broadening Participation in Biology Education Research: Engaging Community College Students and Faculty.

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