Is Support in the Anxiety of the Beholder? How Anxiety Interacts with Perceptions of Instructor Support in Introductory Biology Classes.

High levels of student anxiety are negatively related to degree persistence, academic achievement, and student perceptions of instructor support. Anxiety levels vary along many axes-among classes, within students in the same class, and over time-creating a dynamic emotional landscape in classrooms. In this study, we examined the relationship between student anxiety levels and perceptions of instructor support within three introductory biology classes at two timepoints during a semester. Data on student anxiety levels and perceptions of instructor support were supplemented by open-ended student explanations of instructor support characteristics. We found a significant negative correlation between student anxiety level and instructor support ratings at wk 4 for all three classes. By wk 14, this correlation persisted in classes 1 and 3 but not class 2, where support ratings no longer significantly varied with anxiety levels. Analyses of open responses revealed that lower-anxiety students in classes 1 and 3 were more positive about how the instructors answered questions and higher-anxiety students in class 2 were more positive about their instructor's pedagogical practices. We suggest that these instructor practices should be investigated as potential factors to equalize perceptions of instructor support by students with different anxiety levels in introductory biology.

Disrupting the Master Narrative in Academic Biology as LGBTQ+ Ph.D. Students: Learning, Teaching, and Conducting Research.

LGBTQ+ individuals face discrimination and stigma in academic biology. These challenges are likely magnified for graduate students. However, there have been no studies documenting the experiences of LGBTQ+ life sciences graduate students. To address this gap, we conducted an interview study of 22 biology PhD students from 13 universities across the United States who identify as LGBTQ+. We used the master narrative framework to interpret our findings. Master narratives are guidelines that dictate the "expected" and "normal" way one is supposed to navigate life. We considered how graduate students engage with the societal master narrative that treats cisheterosexuality as the norm, as well as the master narrative that expects biology to remain an objective, apolitical space. We found that LGBTQ+ PhD students recognize the anti-LBGTQ+ narratives in academic biology, which can result in instances of discrimination and encourage them to conceal their identities. However, participants pushed back against these master narratives. Graduate students described creating alternative narratives by highlighting how their LGBTQ+ identity has allowed them to become more inclusive instructors and better researchers. Some also purposely reveal their LGBTQ+ identity in academic biology, violating the master narrative that non-science identities should not be discussed in the life sciences.

Biology as a Construct: Universals, Historicity, and the Postmodern Critique.

The integration of postmodern thinking in the sciences, especially in biology, has been subject to harsh criticism. Contrary to Enlightenment ideals of objectivity and neutrality in the scientific method, the postmodern stance holds that truth is relative, not universal, and therefore progress is ambiguous. The effect of postmodern thought has ramifications that extend from the distrust of preexisting scientific conclusions to questions about the impact of progress in society. It also reflects skepticism about the scientific endeavor. Especially when postmodern ideas are considered to have gained traction, the anti-postmodern critique has become harsher. At stake is whether postmodern notions are indeed irrelevant, and-even more important-whether they compromise scientific progress. The conditional significance of universals in biology and the role of historicity in the evolutionary process makes biology different from the other natural sciences and subjects it to the postmodern critique. This article argues that rather than being viewed as a science that seeks universals, biology should be viewed as a construct, more relevant to a technology, aiming to attain functionalities. Such recognition may fuel progress and assist biology in attaining its ultimate goal, which is to address the most intricate questions about the living world.

Factors Influencing the Use of Evidence-based Instructional Practices by Community College Biology Instructors.

Evidence-based instructional practices (EBIPs) have been shown to benefit students in undergraduate biology, but little is known about the degree to which community college (CC) biology instructors use EBIPs or the barriers they encounter. We surveyed CC biology instructors to characterize how they use EBIPs, their capacity to use EBIPs, and perceived barriers to their use, and to explore which factors are associated with EBIP use. CC biology instructors report using EBIPs to a similar degree as other populations of undergraduate biology faculty; they generally believe EBIPs to be effective and are motivated to use EBIPs. Consistent with the theory of planned behavior, instructor belief in EBIP effectiveness, collegial support, and perceived knowledge of and skill in using EBIPs positively influence their use. The main barriers to using EBIPs reported by CC instructors included the need to cover large amounts of course content, lack of time to prepare for using EBIPs, and student resistance. Our findings point to a number of approaches that may promote the use of EBIPs by CC biology instructors, including professional development to increase instructor knowledge and skill, addressing tensions between content volume and the use of EBIPs, and providing resources to make implementing EBIPs time efficient.

Six personas to adopt when framing theoretical research questions in biology.

Theory is a critical component of the biological research process, and complements observational and experimental approaches. However, most biologists receive little training on how to frame a theoretical question and, thus, how to evaluate when theory has successfully answered the research question. Here, we develop a guide with six verbal framings for theoretical models in biology. These correspond to different personas one might adopt as a theorist: 'Advocate', 'Explainer', 'Instigator', 'Mediator', 'Semantician' and 'Tinkerer'. These personas are drawn from combinations of two starting points (pattern or mechanism) and three foci (novelty, robustness or conflict). We illustrate each of these framings with examples of specific theoretical questions, by drawing on recent theoretical papers in the fields of ecology and evolutionary biology. We show how the same research topic can be approached from slightly different perspectives, using different framings. We show how clarifying a model's framing can debunk common misconceptions of theory: that simplifying assumptions are bad, more detail is always better, models show anything you want and modelling requires substantial maths knowledge. Finally, we provide a roadmap that researchers new to theoretical research can use to identify a framing to serve as a blueprint for their own theoretical research projects.

Empowering Disabled Voices: A Practical Guide for Methodological Shifts in Biology Education Research.

Biology education research provides important guidance for educators aiming to ensure access for disabled students. However, there is still work to be done in developing similar guidelines for research settings. By using critical frameworks that amplify the voices of people facing multiple forms of marginalization, there is potential to transform current biology education research practices. Many biology education researchers are still in the early stages of understanding critical disability frameworks, such as Disability Critical Race Studies (DisCrit), which consists of seven tenets designed to explore the intersecting experiences of ableism and racism. Our Research Methods Essay uses DisCrit as a model framework and pulls from other related critical disability frameworks to empower disabled voices in biology education research. Drawing from existing scholarship, we discuss how biology education researchers can design, conduct, and share research findings. Additionally, we highlight strategies that biology education scholars can use in their research to support access for participants. We propose the creation and sharing of Access and Equity Maps to help plan-and make public-the steps researchers take to foster access in their research. We close by discussing frequently asked questions researchers may encounter in taking on critical frameworks, such as DisCrit.

Examining and Supporting Mechanistic Explanations Across Chemistry and Biology Courses.

Causal mechanistic reasoning is a thinking strategy that can help students explain complex phenomena using core ideas commonly emphasized in separate undergraduate courses, as it requires students to identify underlying entities, unpack their relevant properties and interactions, and link them to construct mechanistic explanations. As a crossdisciplinary group of biologists, chemists, and teacher educators, we designed a scaffolded set of tasks that require content knowledge from biology and chemistry to construct nested hierarchical mechanistic explanations that span three scales (molecular, macromolecular, and cellular). We examined student explanations across seven introductory and upper-level biology and chemistry courses to determine how the construction of mechanistic explanations varied across courses and the relationship between the construction of mechanistic explanations at different scales. We found non-, partial, and complete mechanistic explanations in all courses and at each scale. Complete mechanistic explanation construction was lowest in introductory chemistry, about the same across biology and organic chemistry, and highest in biochemistry. Across tasks, the construction of a mechanistic explanation at a smaller scale was associated with constructing a mechanistic explanation for larger scales; however, the use of molecular scale disciplinary resources was only associated with complete mechanistic explanations at the macromolecular, not cellular scale.

It's in the Syllabus: What Syllabi Tell us about Introductory Biology Courses.

Biology education researchers seek to improve biology education, particularly at the introductory level, yet there is little documentation about what is actually happening in introductory biology. To characterize the landscape of learning expectations for introductory biology, we analyzed course-level learning objectives (n = 1108) and course schedules from 188 nonmajor, mixed major, and major introductory biology syllabi. We analyzed syllabi collected from a diverse range of U.S. institution types to uncover insights about instructional design decisions for introductory biology. Our analysis revealed two distinct nonmajor course types: content and issues-based courses. We found syllabi tend to focus on low-cognitive skills and factual content that is essentially a march in step with a typical textbook table of contents, rarely including core competencies or socioscientific issues (SSIs) other than in nonscience major issues-based courses. Our work contributes more evidence that faculty struggle to write course-level learning objectives. Our findings suggest that there is much work to do if Vision and Change are to become more than simply a vision-to be actualized as change-including developing CLOs for introductory biology as a first step toward creating actionable instructional change.

Models of Disability as Research Frameworks in Biology Education Research.

Advancing equity and justice in undergraduate biology education requires research to address the experiences of disabled students. Scholars working in disability studies have developed models of disability that inform Discipline-Based Education Research (DBER). To date, DBER literature has been predominantly informed by the medical and social models of disability. The medical model focuses on challenges that affect people with disabilities on an individual basis, while the social model focuses on how one's surrounding environment contributes to the construction of disability. In this essay, we discuss past DBER research and opportunities for future research using each of these models. We will also discuss a third, less commonly used model that offers exciting opportunities to drive future research: complex embodiment. Complex embodiment positions disability as a social location that reflects a greater societal value structure. Further examining this value structure reveals how ability itself is constructed and conventionally understood to be hierarchical. Additionally, we explain epistemic injustice as it affects disabled people, and how future education research can both address and counteract this injustice. We discuss how expanding the frameworks that serve as lenses for DBER scholarship on disability will offer new research directions.

Nationally endorsed learning objectives to improve course design in introductory biology.

Introductory biology for majors is one of the most consequential courses in STEM, with annual enrollments of several hundred thousand students in the United States alone. To support increased student success and meet current and projected needs for qualified STEM professionals, it will be crucial to redesign majors biology by using explicit learning objectives (LOs) that can be aligned with assessments and active learning exercises. When a course is designed in this way, students have opportunities for the practice and support they need to learn, and instructors can collect the evidence they need to evaluate whether students have mastered key concepts and skills. Following an iterative process of review, revision, and evaluation, which included input from over 800 biology instructors around the country, we produced a nationally endorsed set of lesson-level LOs for a year-long introductory biology for major's course. These LOs are granular enough to support individual class sessions and provide instructors with a framework for course design that is directly connected to the broad themes in Vision and Change and the general statements in the BioCore and BioSkills Guides. Instructors can implement backward course design by aligning these community endorsed LOs with daily and weekly learning activities and with formative and summative assessments.

Teaching genetics with integrative thoughts of conservation biology.

Biodiversity losses along with the exponential growth of global human population and human-provoked over-exploitation of natural resources. Genetic factors played an important role in the conservation of endangered species. Conservation genetics is a cross-field disciplinary of genetics and conservation biology. The course of conservation genetics is not available in colleges and universities, and the course of genetics does not directly reflect the content of biological conservation. We have taught genetics with integrative thoughts of conservation biology. In the form of case studies, we have integrated recent advances of research and technology in the relevant fields into the genetics classroom. As a result, we improved the undergraduates' motivation and interest in active learning, provoked the mutual promotion of "basic knowledge of genetics, awareness of ecological protection, and cultivate interdisciplinary thinking", and set up the groundwork for cultivating interdisciplinary talents who not only master solid basic knowledge, but also have the concept of ecological civilization.

Editorial of Special Issue "Current Trends in Chemistry Towards Biology".

One of the definitions of chemical biology is that it is a scientific discipline spanning the fields of chemistry, biology, and physics; it primarily involves the application of chemical techniques, tools, analyses, and often compounds (also known as chemical probes), which are produced through synthetic chemistry, in order to study and manipulate biological systems [...].

Preparing the Next Generation of Integrative Organismal Biologists.

Pursuing cutting edge questions in organismal biology in the future will require novel approaches for training the next generation of organismal biologists, including knowledge and use of systems-type modeling combined with integrative organismal biology. We link agendas recommending changes in science education and practice across three levels: Broadening the concept of organismal biology to promote modeling organisms as systems interacting with higher and lower organizational levels; enhancing undergraduate science education to improve applications of quantitative reasoning and modeling in the scientific process; and K-12 curricula based on Next Generation Science Standards emphasizing development and use of models in the context of explanatory science, solution design, and evaluating and communicating information. Out of each of these initiatives emerges an emphasis on routine use of models as tools for hypothesis testing and prediction. The question remains, however, what is the best approach for training the next generation of organismal biology students to facilitate their understanding and use of models? We address this question by proposing new ways of teaching and learning, including the development of interactive web-based modeling modules that lower barriers for scientists approaching this new way of imagining and conducting integrative organismal biology.

Impact of contextual factors on the evaluation outcomes of national virtual simulation experimental teaching projects in biology and medicine.

The number of applications for National Virtual Simulation Experimental Teaching Projects (NVSETPs) in China has seen a significant increase. Consequently, the influence of contextual factors and their potential personal connections on the evaluation results, whether for national or non-national NVSETPs, has become a prominent concern. In this study, we employed a modified back-chaining method using logistic regression to examine whether contextual factors in NVSETP applications could explain the evaluation outcomes. Our analysis was based on data available on the open platform of China's Ministry of Education (MOE). We identified several significant influencing factors, including the score on a five-point rating system, the number of clicks on the application page, school quality, school region, and the gender, title, and position of the applicants. Our results shed light on the impact of contextual factors on the evaluation results of NVSETPs in the fields of biology and medicine, using a modified back-chaining method. We conclude that enhancing the transparency of the assessment process and implementing standardized, detailed scoring guidelines for NVSETPs would mitigate the negative influence of contextual factors.

Organisms have gravity: taking an organism-centered approach in experimental biology.

When you take the time to observe another organism, there is a sort of gravity that can take hold, a mixture of curiosity and connection that expands and strengthens the more you interact with that organism. Yet, in research, a connection with one's study organism can, at times, feel countercultural. Study organisms are sometimes viewed more as tools to conveniently study biological questions. Here, we explicitly highlight the importance of organism-centered research not only in scientific discovery, but also in conservation and in the communication and perception of science.

Digital morphology network for effective teaching of cytology, histology and histopathology for medical and biology curriculum. VM3.0 Erasmus+ project.

INTRODUCTION: Digital microscopy transformation, the basis for the virtual microscopy applications, is a challenge but also a requirement in modern Medical Education. This paper presents the scope, background, methods, and results of the project "Digital Transformation of Histology and Histopathology by Virtual Microscopy (VM) for an Innovative Medical School Curriculum", VM3.0, funded by the European Union under the Erasmus+ framework (ref.no.2022-1- RO01-KA220-HED-000089017). The project was initiated at Grigore T. Popa University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Iași, Romania, with the support of Euroed Foundation, Iași, and cooperation of University partners from Gdansk (Poland), Plovdiv (Bulgaria), Alicante (Spain), and Patras (Greece) aimed to implement digital histology and histopathology teaching in a common network. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The backbone of the project was the development of a Digital Slide Platform based on the scans of histological slides collected from all the partners of the participating universities and the creation of a simple and fast digital/internet communication tool that could be used to improve histology and histopathology teaching of medical and natural sciences students. The construction of a Virtual Microscopy Library (VML) has been based on the acquisition of whole scans of high-quality histological slides stained by hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) and other classical staining methods and description of various organs' details in English as well as respective languages of the project's partners. The VML can be used for different approches, both for students' instruction in classes as well as for individual students' work and self-testing. Universities from other countries could use the modal structure of the developed VML system on the condition that more slides are provided and the implementation of national language(s) is implemented. CONCLUSIONS: The combined efforts of all university partners allowed to establish the dynamic low-cost virtual microscopy educational system. The VM system could help unify the standards of cytology, histology, and histopathology teaching in a quest for the digital transformation of the European educational system.

Student Perspectives of Success and Failure in Biology Lecture: Multifaceted Definitions and Misalignments.

Investigating definitions of success and failure among introductory biology students is essential for understanding what underlies their self-efficacy; a student who gets a B on an exam may lose self-efficacy if they define failure as anything less than an A. Yet, whether students have the same definitions for success as they have for failure in these classes is unknown, nor how those definitions relate to course performance. To better understand student definitions for success and failure and their implications, this mixed-methods study collected survey data from students in two introductory biology courses about their definitions of success and failure and their self-reported grades. Coding of open-ended responses revealed four broad themes related to both success and failure: Performance, Content, Preparation, and Attitude. Although there were common themes in how students defined success and failure overall, individual students often (65%) described success or failure in relation to different standards. We also found some definitions of success and failure were predicted by grades. These results highlight the complexity of building self-efficacy in introductory biology and suggest the need for greater awareness and acknowledgment of the different standards students use to judge their success and failure.