Literature Reviews, Theoretical Frameworks, and Conceptual Frameworks: An Introduction for New Biology Education Researchers.

To frame their work, biology education researchers need to consider the role of literature reviews, theoretical frameworks, and conceptual frameworks as critical elements of the research and writing process. However, these elements can be confusing for scholars new to education research. This Research Methods article is designed to provide an overview of each of these elements and delineate the purpose of each in the educational research process. We describe what biology education researchers should consider as they conduct literature reviews, identify theoretical frameworks, and construct conceptual frameworks. Clarifying these different components of educational research studies can be helpful to new biology education researchers and the biology education research community at large in situating their work in the broader scholarly literature.

Political affiliation dissimilarity: Exploring lone affiliate employees' work attitudes and experiences.

Political affiliation is an important demographic variable that has been relatively neglected in the organizational literature. At present, it is unclear how political dissimilarity between employees and their coworkers affects employees' attitudes and experiences, and whether traditional theories are applicable to this unique form of diversity. Based on time-lagged data from a sample of working Americans (N = 360), we found that lone affiliates (employees who work with coworkers who do not share the same political affiliation) experienced lower levels of positive attitudes than majority affiliates (employees who work with coworkers who do share the same political affiliation). Specifically, in Republican majority organizations, Democrats had lower job satisfaction and affective commitment compared to Republicans. This difference was not found in Democrat majority organizations. Interestingly, these trends were not found for negative experiences, such as incivility from coworkers and depletion. Unaffiliated employees had a unique set of attitudes and experiences in that they suffered the most in organizations with no clear affiliation. Theoretical and practical implications, limitations, and future directions are also discussed.

Student Thinking in the Professional Development of College Biology Instructors: An Analysis through the Lens of Sociocultural Theory.

An important facet of inclusive, student-centered science teaching is for college instructors to reveal and respond to student thinking. Professional development (PD) provides formal settings for instructors to develop skills attending and responding to student ideas in their teaching. Using the lens of sociocultural theory, the purpose of this study was to explore the learning experiences of college instructors in long-term faculty learning communities (FLCs) that focused on student thinking. This study employed a qualitative design using semistructured interviews, analyzed through qualitative thematic analysis. We investigated the ways that social interactions focused on artifacts of student learning facilitated college instructors' internalization of knowledge about teaching and learning. We found that participants valued the social space of the FLC for the camaraderie and diverse perspectives it facilitated and that participants internalized the discussions from their FLCs in the form of new insights into student thinking and plans for improving teaching. Our data support the idea that PD for college science teaching that includes social space focused on artifacts of student learning will lead to instructor learning. Further, our data point to the fruitfulness of new research to expand our knowledge of the implications of sociocultural theory for college science PD.

Local Reasons to Give Globally: Identity Extension and Global Cooperation.

Recent political events across the world suggest a retrenchment from globalization and a possible increase in parochialism. This inward-looking threat from parochialism occurs just as the global community faces growing challenges that require trans-national cooperation. In this research, we question if strong identification with an in-group necessarily leads to parochialism and ultimately is detrimental to global cooperation. Building on research on global social identification, we explore whether strong local identification can expand in inclusiveness to global identification, and among whom this is likely to happen. The results of our global public goods study - conducted in South Korea and the United States - show that high levels of social identification with a local group can extend to the global collective, particularly for individuals who are also high in concern-for-others. Furthermore, this identification translates into behavior that benefits the global, anonymous group at a cost to oneself. These results shed light on how to avoid the trap of parochialism and instead engender cooperative behavior with the broader global community.

Paying you back or paying me forward: understanding rewarded and unrewarded organizational citizenship behavior.

The definition of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) has evolved from one in which the behavior is unrewarded to one in which rewards play a significant role. As a result, little is known about mechanisms that sustain unrewarded OCB. We used the theory of other orientation to examine 2 mechanisms based on the norm of reciprocity: the obligation to reciprocate the benefits already received from another ("paying you back") and the expected reciprocity that one's actions will stimulate future benefits from another ("paying me forward"). We propose that these mechanisms are more or less influential depending on one's motivational orientation. In 3 experiments using both trait and state indicators of other orientation, we found that the prosocial behavior of individuals higher in other orientation was more strongly influenced by the obligation to reciprocate and less affected by the expectation of reciprocity.