Overview
Participants
Institutional commitment
Responsibilities of participants
Application Process
Overview
The National Academies Summer Institute on Undergraduate Education in
Biology will provide an environment for intensive learning and
conversation about biology teaching and learning in the context of the
research university. Through a mix of presentations, demonstrations,
discussions, and hands-on activities, participants will learn about
current research on undergraduate biology education and how to apply it to
their own classes. Institute sessions will focus especially on large,
introductory courses, but most of the messages will apply equally well to
courses of any size and at any level. Issues discussed will include
pedagogy, mentoring, laboratories, and assessment.
The theme for the Summer Institute is "Scientific Teaching."
Participants will be exposed to a number of practical strategies for
enhancing student learning and will work together to develop instructional
modules that they will implement in their own courses.
The Institute focuses on key themes in scientific teaching, including
active learning, assessment, and diversity. These themes are explicitly
integrated into all aspects of the Summer Institute experience, including
presentations, activities, and discussions. By the end of the Summer
Institute, participants will have experienced, evaluated, and collected a
portfolio of innovative teaching approaches and instructional materials
that are ready to be adopted and adapted to their own teaching
environments.
In addition, we will try to partner interested participants with
researchers on the host campus so that the Summer Institute may also
benefit participants' research as well as that of host faculty. For
example, we hope to provide opportunities for junior faculty participants
to present a research seminar to a host lab or department.
Participants
Participants in the Summer Institute will be drawn from colleges and
universities across the United States, including--but not limited
to--those classified as "Doctoral/Research Universities" in the
Carnegie
Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The Institute will
have a special emphasis on including pretenured faculty to assist them in
strengthening their knowledge and practice of teaching.
Participants will come to the Institute in teams so that collaboration can
continue afterward on the home campus. Having someone else on the same
campus is essential for the successful implementation of new approaches to
learning. Preference will be given to teams of two faculty members from a
single institution, though applications from teams of three will also be
considered.
While each team would generally include one or two faculty members in the
first several years of university teaching, the position of other team
member(s) would differ. Some examples might include a dean, department
chair, or other administrator; a junior or senior colleague in the same
department; or a junior or senior colleague in a different department to
encourage interdisciplinary teaching and student learning.
Applications from institutions which have previously participated in the
Summer Institute are welcome. They should describe how the 2008
participants will work with the previous team(s) and why an additional
team from the institution is warranted.
Institutional commitment
The support of senior-level administrators is essential for generating
collective faculty responsibility for change at the department or
institutional level and such educational leaders must be brought in as
partners for implementation and institutionalization. Thus, as part
of the application process, academic leaders of institutions that would
like to send a team to the Institute also must demonstrate their support
financially and in other substantive ways for the participation of their
team in the Institute.
Institutions will be expected to fund travel expenses for participants on
their campuses and to provide a minimum of $5000 to the team following
the Summer Institute to assist them in implementing new teaching
strategies, conducting follow-up activities in their classes, and
disseminating what they learned at the Summer Institute to their colleagues.
All other Institute expenses will be borne by the sponsors.
In addition to this financial support, deans or other appropriate
officials must explain the types of other support they will provide for
participating faculty members that will enable them to implement change on
their campuses.
Responsibilities of participants
Participation in the National Academies Summer Institute is a long-term
experience and commitment, beginning before the Institute and continuing
throughout the academic year following the Institute. We also foresee
that many participants and facilitators will want to remain involved
beyond this first year as members of a teaching and learning community in
the life sciences that will be established through the Institute.
Participants commit to maintain contact with each other and with the
Institute's instructors in the ensuring academic year. They are expected
to provide formal updates on the implementation of the plans developed at
the Institute. In particular, participants agree to cooperate with NRC
staff, facilitators, and outside evaluators who will assess the success of
the Summer Institute as a whole. The evaluators also assist participants
in developing and conducting formative assessment to help refine the use
of the new strategies participants will be implementing in their own
classrooms.
Application process
Applications include statements from the participating faculty or
instructional staff about their teaching enhancement goals, a rationale
for the composition of the team, and a demonstration of substantive
institutional support for the faculty or instructional staff who
participate in the Institute and for subsequent activities on their
campuses.
You are encouraged to also consult the agenda from previous Institutes
and the
2008 overview.
