The JMBE live session I watched tonight was about Getting Started in Biology Education. I was able to participate in the course and today worked with Jeremy! Jeremy Hsu and Stanley Lo shared the open access article published in JMBE that describes biology education research (BER). Lo shared quotes from JMBE and SABER about how they share BER. Lo spoke about their analysis of BER literature and conferences published in CBE-LSE highlighting changing trends in articles published. They described BER as including “a growing number of practitioners who may not publish in the field” and that “it is still important to include their voices.” Hsu mentioned that they had observed the top-down approaches coming from journals and societies and wanted to hear from the community about “what they perceive as the goals, questions, and scholarship (in) the field?” Hsu described this as a “bottom-up” approach. Their methods included surveying attendees at the in-person SABER plenary conference (194/284 responses, 63.4% response rate). In the survey they asked participants how they define BER, its purpose, and their perceptions of scholarship in BER. For this last question, they asked about current work and future themes. Hsu explained that they then coded responses with high interrater reliability (Cohen’s kappa = 0.84). Hsu noted that most responses view BER as largely defined by biology, learning, and classroom practices. The themes biology, learning, classroom and scholarship were the top codes. In the second question, respondents were asked what they view as the purpose of BER. The most common response was that BER is about improving teaching and student learning and that this is consistent with a top-down characterization of the field. Current scholarship was described by respondents as developing classroom interventions and assessing student learning and outcomes. Respondents identified a different set of themes for BER in the future: studying mechanisms of learning and how students learn. Respondents also wanted to focus on expanding the field and student voices to be more inclusive. Respondents also mentioned the need for longitudinal studies that span beyond a course. Hsu explained that they used these responses and themes to develop a series of recommendations:
- A need for resources to support expanding approaches and interdisciplinary work.
- To expand study populations
- To increase scholarship that centers diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice.
After the presentation, the speakers explained how they started their journeys in BER. They both had different trajectories and worked with mentors and teaching and learning centers. Lo spoke about having dedicated time for students to complete activities and surveys. Hsu recommended reaching out to the IRB early. Hsu shared how they implemented the survey study. Hsu suggested diving in and talking to members of the BER community.
