CITRAL Resource Library

The goal of this paper is to connect what is known in neurobiology to what is known from science education research about how innovative teaching is effective at promoting learning. Article seeks to understand biological learning processes in the context of think-pair-share and how teachers can harness neurological mechanisms to improve learning.

Through a narrative review of the literature, this paper revealed 10 salient practices which form a pedagogy of mentored undergraduate research. At their core, these practices corroborate the three-pronged focus of UR mentoring described by Thiry and Laursen (2011), which highlighted the need for facilitating intellectual support, personal/emotional support, and professional socialization throughout the research experience.

TAs may not necessarily grade in a manner that encourages students to provide evidence of understanding in their solutions. Study assesses how TAs’ grading criteria changed after discussing the benefits of a well-designed rubric emphasizes problem-solving. TAs written responses, class discussions, and individual interviews suggest that the instructional activities involving the grading rubrics in this study were not sufficient to change their grading practices.

This article reports a synthesis and meta-analysis of intervention studies investigating the effects of team-based learning on content knowledge outcomes. Studies find that team-based learning improves students’ end of course grades, test performance, and classroom engagement. In addition, the analysis indicated that group size moderated the magnitude of effect to a statistically significant degree, with smaller group sizes contributing to additional effects.

Collaborative testing has been shown to enhance student performance compared to individual testing. This study explores the benefits of collaborative testing on overall performance, as well as performance on higher order thinking questions. Students performed better overall on the collaborative test, with the exception of upper performers. Additionally, regardless of their academic abilities, students performed better on the higher order thinking questions under collaborative conditions.

Study investigates a program at Stanford University that allows undergraduates in an introductory biology course to explore specialized topics in the biological sciences while providing graduate students and postdoctoral scholars the unique opportunity to develop and teach single-session, research-focused classes. Most students reported that the program had a positive impact on their undergraduate careers and positively influenced their decision to participate in scientific. Research. In addition, undergraduates who participated were more likely to complete an honors thesis. Finally, Instructors reported that the program provided a valuable opportunity to develop their teaching skills.

The Fisk-Vanderbilt Masters-to-Ph.D. Bridge Program is a model for substantially increasing the number of underrepresented minority students earning doctoral degrees in the physical sciences. The two of its core strategies of the program are partnering a minority-serving  institution and a major research  university through collaborative research, and using the master’s degree as a pathway to the Ph.D.

Can active learning activities reduce students’ anxiety? The study investigated how three active learning practices, clicker questions, group work, and cold call/random call, increase and decrease student’ anxiety. Students reported that clicker questions and group work had the potential to both increase and decrease their anxiety. Conversely, students reported that cold call and random call only increased their anxiety.

Social science theory and research provide evidence that social contextual variables—specifically kindness cues affirming social inclusion— influence chronic underrepresentation of some groups within STEM career pathways. The current STEM academic context does not consistently provide cues that affirm social inclusion to all members of the academic population, and that policies that address this disparity are essential to broadening STEM workforce development in the United States.

Study examines pedagogical behaviors through a cultural evolutionary model that stresses the global nature of the issue, the generational time that change requires, and complications introduced by academic career trajectories. Cultural evolutionary theory focuses on how cultural transmission processes and selection events at different career phases shape not only who teaches in higher education, but also how they choose to teach. Change in higher education requires reforming pedagogy in departments that produce PhD students with the greatest chance of obtaining tenure-track positions.

This chapter critiques the stereotype of the AWOL black father, or common refrain “where have all the black men gone?” because this type of stereotype or common refrain does not acknowledge a major cause, the mass incarceration of black men. Argues that mass incarceration of black men has been normalized through an entire system that allows it to occur and compares and contrasts mass incarceration to the Jim Crow era.

This study is a meta-analysis of previous studies that examine whether or not the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) predicts the performance of students in master’s programs as well as the performance of doctoral students. Across nearly 100 studies and 10,000 students, this study found that GRE scores predict first year grade point average (GPA), graduate GPA, and faculty ratings well for both master’s and doctoral students, with differences that ranged from small to zero.

Asai details his personal experiences with learning inclusion skills, arguing that diversity without inclusion is an empty gesture. Inclusion is a feeling of belonging, and creating an empowering, embracing, egalitarian environment starts with the heart.

Through a Critical Race Theory framework, this study highlights five elements of a transfer receptive culture and its connection to the Summer Transfer Enrichment Program (STEP) administered by the Community College Outreach Center (CCOC) at Best Coast University (all pseudonyms).

The purpose of this chapter is to focus on teaching practices that go beyond inclusive intentions, and instead focus on pedagogy that is truly responsive to diverse groups of students, especially in terms of the most prominent cultural aspects, such as race, gender, and nationality.