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ERIC Number: EJ1439696
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024-Sep
Pages: 10
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: EISSN-1931-7913
It's in the Syllabus: What Syllabi Tell Us about Introductory Biology Courses
Austin Heil; Joshua Olaniran; Cara Gormally; Marguerite Brickman
CBE - Life Sciences Education, v23 n3 Article 37 2024
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.
American Society for Cell Biology. 8120 Woodmont Avenue Suite 750, Bethesda, MD 20814-2762. Tel: 301-347-9300; Fax: 301-347-9310; e-mail: ascbinfo@ascb.org; Website: https://www.lifescied.org/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: National Science Foundation (NSF), Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: 1950528