An award has been made to Oberlin College to form two regional networks in support of the Partnership for Undergraduate Life Science Education (PULSE). Last September, the PULSE partners (HHMI, NIH, and NSF) appointed 40 Vision and Change Leadership Fellows to stimulate transformative changes in the undergraduate life science education community. Fellows from two-year colleges, liberal arts colleges, comprehensive universities and research universities were selected. All Fellows met in October, 2012 and organized into four working groups for developing approaches to help departments implement recommendations made in the Vision and Change report. Such improvements in how biology is taught at all types of undergraduate institutions should increase student learning of core concepts, should increase retention rates for students in the sciences, and should prepare all students to be more curious and scientifically literate citizens.
Although individual faculty have been very active in instituting reforms in their own courses, it is usually harder to transform an entire department. This proposal plans to address that challenge by continuing to develop regional networks of institutions so they can support and advise one another as each implements change. Tools and resources have been developed by the Leadership Fellows that will be field-tested by the different types of participating institutions in the Midwest/Great Plains and New England. For example, PULSE Rubrics for departmental self-assessment and visits by trained Ambassadors are available to assist departments in adopting evidence-based strategies to increase student engagement and enrich the learning experience for all students. The networks will also pilot a systems-based evaluation scheme designed to identify leverage points for systemic reform via tests of hypotheses on ingredients of successful reform strategies. The resulting insights and the scheme itself will inform and benefit other efforts to effect systemic change in higher education. Results from these regional activities and the evaluation will be shared with the life sciences community, primarily via the www.pulsecommunity.org website and by continued partnerships with other national organizations groups advocating for change in undergraduate life science education.
This project is being funded jointly by the Directorate for Biological Sciences and the Directorate of Education and Human Resources, Division of Undergraduate Education as part of their efforts to support Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education.
