Transforming Undergraduate Biology Education: A Vision for the Future

The undergraduate biology education is facing a critical juncture. A rising chorus of biology educators advocates for major changes in the teaching of undergraduate biology to bring undergraduate biology courses into the 21st century. Modern biology has undergone major transformations in recent years, with biologists using emerging technologies and interdisciplinary collaborations to rapidly open new areas of biological research and pioneer new approaches that enhance our understanding of living systems. Associated advancements in biology are helping society better address urgent problems involving climate, energy, food and health. At the same time, a communications revolution has created a hyper-connected world in which information flows fast and freely. Because of these trends, the ways in which we discover, understand and learn about biology have profoundly changed.

In response to these new realities, biology educators are considering ways to better prepare college students for careers in the life sciences and to promote biological literacy in our citizenry. In doing so, they have increasingly recognized that traditional undergraduate teaching approaches that aim to "cover it all" cannot accommodate the ongoing explosion of new information in biology.

The Vision and Change Initiative: A Call to Action

To help biology educators modernize undergraduate biology education, the National Science Foundation (NSF)--in partnership with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)--launched a national initiative in 2007 called Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology. This initiative was designed to distill a set of cutting-edge, 21st century approaches to undergraduate biology education from decades of conversations, reports and calls for change.

Steadily gaining momentum, the initiative has, thus far, culminated in:

A national conference, titled "Transforming Undergraduate Biology Education: Mobilizing the Community for Change," that was held in 2009 and attended by more than 500 biology faculty members, administrators, students and other stakeholders. The conference was hosted by AAAS with support from NSF and input from HHMI and NIH.
The release in 2011 of a final report, titled "Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: A Call to Action", which--based on the diverse insights expressed at the conference--provides a roadmap for the future of undergraduate biology education.

The final report's findings were summarized by a quote from Carol Brewer, professor emeritus of biological sciences at the University of Montana and the conference co-chair, that was included in a summary of the final report. Brewer said, "We all have work ahead of us to ensure that the transformations we make in biology classrooms around the country reflect the biology we do in the 21st century."

Core Concepts for Biological Literacy

To help guide this transformative effort, the final report identifies core concepts that students must understand in order to become biologically literate. These concepts are:

Evolution: The diversity of life-forms that have evolved over time through mutations, selection and genetic change.
Structure and Function: The basic units of biological structures that define the functions of all living things.
Information Flow, Exchange, and Storage: The influence of genetics on the control of the growth and behavior of organisms.
Pathways and Transformations of Energy and Matter: The ways in which chemical transformation pathways and the laws of thermodynamics govern the growth and change of biological systems.
Systems: The ways in which living things are interconnected and interact with one another.

Core Competencies for Practicing Science

Beyond the concepts identified above, the report also highlights core competencies that students must experience in order to become biologically literate and practice science. These competencies are:

The ability to apply the process of science.
The ability to use quantitative reasoning.
The ability to use modeling and simulation.
The ability to tap into the interdisciplinary nature of science.
The ability to communicate and collaborate with other disciplines.
The ability to understand relationships between science and society.

Facilitating Change in the Biology Classroom

Another critical aspect of the report is its emphasis on the importance of developing student-centered teaching approaches that actively engage students in interactive, inquiry-driven, cooperative and collaborative activities. According to the report, these approaches should convey to students the wonder of the natural world and the passion and curiosity of scientists, involve students in authentic research experiences, and teach students how to evaluate complex biological problems from varied perspectives without just reciting facts and terminology.

To promote the development of student-centered approaches, the report directs readers to practical resources to help them integrate student-centered learning throughout biology curriculums, relevant examples of successful models and approaches to student-centered learning, and practical advice on using assessment tools.

In addition, the report recommends designing and revising undergraduate biology courses to incorporate clearly defined, measurable goals; the latest insights into how people learn; and successful best practices in teaching that have been identified by science education researchers and practitioners.

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The report also cites the need for institutions--including colleges, universities, professional societies and federal and private funding sources--to create environments that promote advances in biology education. The report advises institutions to do so by preparing and training future faculty members to create student-centered classrooms, offering professional development in teaching to all biology faculty members, hiring biologists who have education specialties, and devoting funds and resources to improving biology education.

Gaining Momentum: Next Steps for Vision and Change

To further energize biology educators, the next phases of the Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Initiative are currently being planned. These steps will involve engaging the biology community in the identification and dissemination of strategies for curricular reform at the departmental and institutional levels, and developing--in partnership with professional societies--a Web portal that features curricular resources for undergraduate biology courses that are based on the latest developments in scientific teaching.

A large, national meeting is currently being planned. This meeting will focus on updates to the initiative's progress and on methods used to achieve such progress.

The Importance of Scientific Inquiry

But it is not just about the content of biological science: A key recommendation is that biology courses and curricula must engage students in how scientific inquiry is conducted, including evaluating and interpreting scientific explanations of the natural world.

Connecting Teaching and Learning Through Assessment

The result of the 2009 Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education conference was a series of recommendations focused on core competencies and concepts that form the foundation of an undergraduate education in biology, strategies for creating a student-centered classroom, connecting teaching and learning through assessment, and a call for widespread opportunities for faculty to develop their teaching skills so that their courses will be more effective for all the students who enter their classrooms.

The Need for a Community Approach

âThe ultimate goal for biology departments should be to develop and grow communities of scholars at all levels of the educational processâfrom undergraduates to faculty to administratorsâall committed to creating, using, assessing, and disseminating effective practices in teaching and learning. This kind of department-wide implementation requires cultural changes by all stakeholders and a commitment to elevate the scholarship of teaching and learning within the discipline as a professional activity.â This need for a community approach, including senior research scientists and science educators, was echoed by Keith Yamamoto in his discussion of twenty-first century biology.

Integrating Research into the Classroom

âStudents should have opportunities to participate in authentic research experiences and learn how to evaluate complex biology problems from a variety of perspectives, not just recite facts and terminology.â Historically, research scientists have welcomed undergraduate students into their laboratories to be part of their research teams. Recently, these efforts have been expanded to serve more students by incorporating authentic research experiences directly into student laboratories (e.g., see Lopatto et al., 2008) or engaging students in both introductory and upper-division courses in an in-depth discussion of research articles (Hoskins and Stevens, 2009).

In the past 3 years, within its Transforming Undergraduate Education in STEM (formerly Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement Program), NSF has funded 29 classroom-centered undergraduate research projects. The institutions involved are as varied as Finger Lakes Community Colleges (Hewlett, 2008) and Stanford University (Simoni, 2009).

The Role of Modeling, Simulation, and Computation

âTo be current in biology, students should also have experience with modeling, simulation and computational and systems-level approaches to biological discovery and analysis, as well as with using large data bases.â A recently established NSF program (NSF, 2009a) supports projects that involve teams of mathematics and biology majors and their professors in courses and research projects that emphasize the application of mathematical techniques to the solution of biological problems. That program is beginning to reap results: in a cadre of students who are comfortable with interdisciplinary approaches to biology, a series of peer-reviewed articles describing research results, and a new approach to biology education on many of the participating campuses.

Faculty Development and Support

Several initiatives have emerged in response to the need to help present and future faculty develop effective approaches to undergraduate biology education. The Scientific Teaching Institutes at the University of WisconsinâMadison (UW) work with UW postdoctoral fellows and graduate students during the academic year and with teams of research university faculty during an intense 1-week summer institute for this purpose (Pfund et al., 2009). The Science Education Initiative at the University of Colorado, Boulder (www.colorado.edu/sei) uses Science Teaching Fellows as the vehicle to help interested and committed departments change their teaching approaches to be more student centered, interactive, and assessment-based (www.visionandchange.org/wp-content/themes/simplawidgetized/files/William%20WoodV&C%20PPT.ppt).

A Consolidated Resource for Effective Practices

âOne recommendation consistently emerged to help in this effort: the need for a consolidated resource of research and classroom experiences documenting what works and why." 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.

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