Teaching nature of science in introductory biology: Impacts on students' acceptance of biological evolution.

The present study investigates the impact of explicit, reflective Nature of Science instruction on students' evolution acceptance, understanding of evolution as a theory, and understanding of Nature of Science in an introductory biology course. Results revealed similar improvement in evolution acceptance in both the treatment and control groups, but also that Nature of Science instruction had disproportionately large impacts on evolution acceptance for women and individuals who already had high acceptance. We also found evidence of relationships between understanding and acceptance of evolution and Nature of Science understanding, particularly the creativity aspect of Nature of Science. Together, these results suggest that targeted Nature of Science instruction can have differential impacts on students with particular characteristics, such as women and individuals with high acceptance, but also point to the need to consider additional interventions that can reach men and individuals with low acceptance.

Peer-led team learning in an undergraduate biology course: Impacts on recruitment, retention, and imposter phenomenon.

OBJECTIVES: The data presented in this note were collected during a multi-year project conducted in the context of large-enrollment introductory biology course at a large private R-1 research institution in the Northeastern United States. The project aimed to examine the impact of Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) on the recruitment and retention of marginalized groups in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) majors. While several results from the project have been published, additional data of interest have yet to be reported. This data note reports on additional associations between PLTL participation and improved outcomes for students from groups that have historically been excluded in STEM. Additional data reported herein were collected to determine if students in the course experienced imposter phenomenon, and whether PLTL may be associated with reduced levels of imposter feelings. DATA DESCRIPTION: The data in this note includes academic information such as final course grades and academic level; socio-demographic information such as gender identity, minority status, and first-generation status; and information on student recruitment, retention, imposter feelings, and participation in Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL). These data might be useful and of value to education researchers and undergraduate STEM instructors who are interested in improving equity in STEM education.

Communicating the consensus on climate change to college biology majors: The importance of preaching to the choir.

College and university biology majors who are not climate change deniers may yet be unaware of the degree of scientific consensus on climate change and unprepared to communicate about climate science to others. This study reports on a population of climate change accepting biology majors at a large, private research university in the American northeast. Our students tended to greatly underestimate the degree of scientific consensus around climate change, to be only moderately worried about climate change, and to be unconfident in their ability to communicate about the state of the scientific consensus around climate change. After an introduction to the scholarly literature that substantiates and quantifies the scientific consensus on climate change in the context of a course on biological research literature, our students showed significant increases in their estimates of the consensus on climate change, and their estimates were more accurate. Additionally, they became more worried about climate change as well as more confident in their ability to communicate about the scientific consensus to others. These results are in line with the Gateway Belief Model, which positions perception of scientific agreement on climate change as an important driver of acceptance and motivation toward action.

Peer-Led Team Learning Helps Minority Students Succeed.

Active learning methods have been shown to be superior to traditional lecture in terms of student achievement, and our findings on the use of Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) concur. Students in our introductory biology course performed significantly better if they engaged in PLTL. There was also a drastic reduction in the failure rate for underrepresented minority (URM) students with PLTL, which further resulted in closing the achievement gap between URM and non-URM students. With such compelling findings, we strongly encourage the adoption of Peer-Led Team Learning in undergraduate Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) courses.