Human Anatomy and Physiology (A&P) is a required course for nearly half a million undergraduate students, many of whom enroll in community colleges (CCs). Averaging 29 years of age, these students hope to transform their lives by entering allied health care careers such as nursing or dental assisting. Yet, accompanying this culture of hope are stark social and economic realities. Many students are military veterans and receive financial support from the GI Bill, many work as well as attend school, and many are raising families. These burdens result in heightened levels of student anxiety. While CCs are known for their focus on teaching, CC instructors are burdened with heavy workloads and few opportunities for professional development. The result is predictable: an environment where there is high instructor burnout and high student failure rates. The Community College Anatomy and Physiology Education Research (CAPER) project addresses this issue by taking a novel approach to instructor professional development. Specifically, CC instructors will become co-investigators in research studies investigating changes in student performance and anxiety following implementation of evidence-based instructional practices (EBIPs). Introducing practices such as guided inquiry and cooperative group learning into science classrooms has been shown to promote student learning and to foster a more equitable learning environment for students of color and women. By participating in this project, CC instructors will contribute new data to the field as well as change their own practices. These instructors will then act as leaders in A&P education within their schools and their professional communities.
The CAPER project takes an evidence-based approach to fostering transformation. Community College A&P instructors will combine a professional development course with the design and implementation of a small-scale educational research project investigating the impact of a student-centered teaching strategy. They will also participate in a larger scale study examining the affective impact of different pedagogies. The individual research projects will use validated instruments to detect changes in student success measures resulting from EBIP implementation. The results will refine our understanding of EBIP effectiveness in the diverse student populations found at community colleges. In addition to their individual projects, instructors will collaborate in a multi-institutional effort examining the hypothesis that EBIPs could alleviate the negative impacts of anxiety on student performance and retention by improving learning and building community. The instructors' contributions to this project will be foundational to the increasingly relevant topic of student stress. Finally, the research team will monitor instructor perceptions and practices using a combination of validated survey instruments, interviews, and classroom observation protocols. Using a pre-/post- research design will reveal if the CAPER project was able to promote transition to more student-centered instructional practices. A dissemination strategy of conference presentations, blogs, and articles will ensure that the information reaches the end users, the first step in promoting change. In particular, the instructors will be well-situated to influence the practices of other CC instructors, both within their institutions and within professional organizations such as the Human Anatomy and Physiology Society, the Community College Biology Education Research network, and the Physiology Educators Communities of Practice.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
