Student Perceptions of Instructor Supportiveness: What Characteristics Make a Difference?

The use of active learning in the undergraduate biology classroom improves student learning and classroom equity, but its use can lead to student anxiety. Instructors can reduce student anxiety through practices that convey supportiveness and valuing of students. We collected students' ratings of their classroom anxiety and perceptions of their instructors' supportiveness, as well as open-response reasons for their ratings, in six large introductory biology classes. These data confirmed a negative relationship between student anxiety and student perceptions of their instructors' support. We used qualitative analysis to identify themes of instructor support and how these themes varied between instructors rated as providing higher or lower support by their students. Two instructors with higher-support ratings and two with lower-support ratings were selected for analyses. Inductive qualitative coding identified five themes of instructor support: relational (perception of caring/approachability), instrumental (offering resources), pedagogical (quality of teaching), personality, and uncertain (not sure of support). Higher-support instructors had more positive relational themes and fewer negative pedagogical themes compared with lower-support instructors. These results can be used to enhance supportive classroom practices, which may be one mechanism to reduce student anxiety.

How do undergraduates cope with anxiety resulting from active learning practices in introductory biology?

Active learning pedagogies decrease failure rates in undergraduate introductory biology courses, but these practices also cause anxiety for some students. Classroom anxiety can impact student learning and has been associated with decreased student retention in the major, but little is known about how students cope with anxiety caused by active learning practices. In this study, we investigated student coping strategies for various types of active learning (clickers, volunteering to answer a question, cold calling, and group work) that were used in 13 introductory Biology courses at a large public university in 2016-2017. A survey asked students to rate their anxiety regarding the four active learning practices and over half of the students explained the coping strategies they used to manage their active learning anxieties. Coping responses from 880 students were sorted into pre-defined categories of coping strategies: problem solving, information seeking, self-reliance, support seeking, accommodation, helplessness, escape, delegation, and isolation. We found that a different category of coping was dominant for each type of active learning. The dominant coping strategies for anxiety associated with clickers, cold calling, and group work were adaptive coping strategies of information seeking, self-reliance, and support-seeking, respectively. The dominant coping strategy for volunteering to answer a question was escape, which is a maladaptive strategy. This study provides a detailed exploration of student self-reported coping in response to active learning practices and suggests several areas that could be foci for future psychosocial interventions to bolster student regulation of their emotions in response to these new classroom practices.

Student Anxiety and Perception of Difficulty Impact Performance and Persistence in Introductory Biology Courses.

Students respond to classroom activities and achievement outcomes with a variety of emotions that can impact student success. One emotion students experience is anxiety, which can negatively impact student performance and persistence. This study investigated what types of classroom anxiety were related to student performance in the course and persistence in the major. Students in introductory biology classes self-reported their general class, test, communication, and social anxiety; perceived course difficulty; intention to stay in the major; and demographic variables. Final course grades were acquired from instructors. An increase in perception of course difficulty from the beginning to the end of the semester was significantly associated with lower final course grades (N = 337), particularly for females, non-Caucasians, and students who took fewer Advanced Placement (AP) courses. An increase in communication anxiety slightly increased performance. Higher general class anxiety at the beginning of the semester was associated with intention to leave the major (N = 122) at the end of the semester, particularly for females. Females, freshmen, and those with fewer AP courses reported higher general class anxiety and perceived course difficulty. Future research should identify which factors differentially impact student anxiety levels and perceived difficulty and explore coping strategies for students.

Student anxiety in introductory biology classrooms: Perceptions about active learning and persistence in the major.

Many researchers have called for implementation of active learning practices in undergraduate science classrooms as one method to increase retention and persistence in STEM, yet there has been little research on the potential increases in student anxiety that may accompany these practices. This is of concern because excessive anxiety can decrease student performance. Levels and sources of student anxiety in three introductory biology lecture classes were investigated via an online survey and student interviews. The survey (n = 327) data revealed that 16% of students had moderately high classroom anxiety, which differed among the three classes. All five active learning classroom practices that were investigated caused student anxiety, with students voluntarily answering a question or being called on to answer a question causing higher anxiety than working in groups, completing worksheets, or answering clicker questions. Interviews revealed that student anxiety seemed to align with communication apprehension, social anxiety, and test anxiety. Additionally, students with higher general anxiety were more likely to self-report lower course grade and the intention to leave the major. These data suggest that a subset of students in introductory biology experience anxiety in response to active learning, and its potential impacts should be investigated.

Facilitating improvements in laboratory report writing skills with less grading: a laboratory report peer-review process.

Incorporating peer-review steps in the laboratory report writing process provides benefits to students, but it also can create additional work for laboratory instructors. The laboratory report writing process described here allows the instructor to grade only one lab report for every two to four students, while giving the students the benefits of peer review and prompt feedback on their laboratory reports. Here we present the application of this process to a sophomore level genetics course and a freshman level cellular biology course, including information regarding class time spent on student preparation activities, instructor preparation, prerequisite student knowledge, suggested learning outcomes, procedure, materials, student instructions, faculty instructions, assessment tools, and sample data. T-tests comparing individual and group grading of the introductory cell biology lab reports yielded average scores that were not significantly different from each other (p = 0.13, n = 23 for individual grading, n = 6 for group grading). T-tests also demonstrated that average laboratory report grades of students using the peer-review process were not significantly different from those of students working alone (p = 0.98, n = 9 for individual grading, n = 6 for pair grading). While the grading process described here does not lead to statistically significant gains (or reductions) in student learning, it allows student learning to be maintained while decreasing instructor workload. This reduction in workload could allow the instructor time to pursue other high-impact practices that have been shown to increase student learning. Finally, we suggest possible modifications to the procedure for application in a variety of settings.

Pheromone responsiveness is regulated by components of the Gpr1p-mediated glucose sensing pathway in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Many fungi have evolved mechanisms to assess environmental nutrient availability prior to the energy-intensive process of mating. In this study, we examined one such system in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, involving a glucose-sensing pathway mediated by Gpr1p and the pheromone-induced mating pathway. Initially we observed that the mating pathway in MATa cells is sensitive to environmental glucose depletion. This phenomenon can be partially reversed with a high glucose spike, but not with the addition of low levels of glucose. Deletion of the low-affinity glucose receptor, Gpr1p, eliminated this glucose-induced recovery of pheromone responsiveness. We then determined the impact of GPR1 deletion on the mating pathway and observed that, in all end points studied, the mating pathway response to pheromone is reduced in the absence of Gpr1p. Similarly, elimination of the Gα for Gpr1p, Gpa2p, resulted in reduction in pheromone sensitivity in all assays studied. The negative effect of removing Gpr1p on mating pathway activation could be recovered by overexpressing the mating receptor, Ste2p. Furthermore, Ste2p levels are reduced in the absence of glucose and GPR1. These data suggest that activity of the GPCR-mediated mating pathway in S. cerevisiae is modulated by extracellular glucose concentrations through the only other GPCR in MATa cells, Gpr1p.

Phage display for generating peptide reagents.

This unit presents detailed protocols for selection and propagation of landscape phages, which are fusions of filamentous phage fd (or its close relatives M13 and f1) and foreign DNA that result in chimeric phage virions with foreign peptides (8 to 9 amino acids long) covering the entire surface of the phage particles. These landscape phages bind specifically to mammalian and bacterial cells, spores, or discrete molecular targets.

Bacteriophage-amplified bioluminescent sensing of Escherichia coli O157:H7.

Escherichia coli O157:H7 remains a continuous public health threat, appearing in meats, water, fruit juices, milk, cheese, and vegetables, where its ingestion at concentrations of perhaps as low as 10 to 100 organisms can result in potent toxin exposure and severe damage to the lining of the intestine. Abdominal pain and diarrhea develop, which in the very young or elderly can progress towards hemolytic uremic syndrome and kidney failure. To assist in the detection of E. coli O157:H7, a recombinant bacteriophage reporter was developed that uses quorum sensing (luxI/luxR) signaling and luxCDABE-based bioluminescent bioreporter sensing to specifically and autonomously respond to O157:H7 serotype E. coli. The bacteriophage reporter, derived from phage PP01, was tested in artificially contaminated foodstuffs including apple juice, tap water, ground beef, and spinach leaf rinsates. In apple juice, detection of E. coli O157:H7 at original inoculums of 1 CFU mL(-1) occurred within approximately 16 h after a 6-h pre-incubation, detection of 1 CFU mL(-1) in tap water occurred within approximately 6.5 h after a 6-h pre-incubation, and detection in spinach leaf rinsates using a real-time Xenogen IVIS imaging system resulted in detection of 1 CFU mL(-1) within approximately 4 h after a 2-h pre-incubation. Detection in ground beef was not successful, however, presumably due to the natural occurrence of quorum sensing autoinducer (N-3-(oxohexanoyl)-L: -homoserine lactone; OHHL), which generated false-positive bioreporter signals in the ground beef samples.

Bacteriophage-based bioluminescent bioreporter for the detection of Escherichia coli 0157:H7.

The rapid detection of pathogenic bacteria in food and water is vital for the prevention of foodborne illness. In this study, the lux reporter genes were used in a new bioassay that allows pathogen monitoring without multiple sample manipulations or the addition of exogenous substrate. A recombinant phage specific for Escherichia coli 0157:H7 was constructed that, upon infection, catalyzes the synthesis of N-(3-oxohexanoyl)-L-homoserine lactone (OHHL). This phage PP01 derivative carries the luxI gene from Vibrio fischeri under the control of the phage promoter PL. OHHL produced by infected E. coli 0157:H7 induces bioluminescence in bioreporter cells carrying the V. fischeri lux operon. The ability of phage PP0-luxl to detect several strains of E. coli 0157:H7 was confirmed in a 96-well plate assay. In this assay, luxCDABE bioreporter cells capable of detecting OHHL were mixed with phage PPOI-luxl and E. coli 0157:H7, and luminescence was monitored. Reporter phages induced light in bioreporter cells within I h when exposed to 10(4) CFU/ml of E. coli 0157:H7 and were able to detect 10 CFU/ml in pure culture with a preincubation step (total detection time, 4 h). The detection method was also applied to contaminated apple juice and was able to detect 10(4) CFU/ml of E. coli 0157:H7 in 2 h after a 6-h preincubation.

Thermostability of landscape phage probes.

Immunoassays have traditionally relied on antibodies as diagnostic probes. Their use outside of a laboratory, however, may be problematic because antibodies are often unstable in severe environmental conditions. Environmental monitoring requires thermostable probes, such as landscape phage, that carry thousands of foreign peptides on their surfaces, are superior to antibodies, and can operate in non-controlled conditions. While parent wild-type phage are known to be extremely stable in various media at high temperatures, no work has been done to demonstrate the stability of landscape phage probes. We examined the thermostability of a landscape phage probe and a monoclonal antibody specific for beta-galactosidase in parallel in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) format. They were both stable for greater than six months at room temperature, but at higher temperatures the antibody degraded more rapidly than the phage probe. Phage retained detectable binding ability for more than six weeks at 63 degrees C, and three days at 76 degrees C. The activation energy of phage degradation was determined to be 1.34 x 10(5) J/mol. These results confirm that phage probes are highly thermostable and can function even after exposure to high temperatures during shipping, storage and operation.