Biological sex is a complex and highly variable trait; however, overly simplistic explanations are common in undergraduate biology classrooms. Here, we test the impact of an accurate approach to teaching about the diversity of biological sex in organismal biology ("treatment" lecture) and compare this approach to a "traditional" lecture section of the same introductory biology course. We show that (1) the treatment lecture has a positive impact on feelings of inclusion for LGBTQIA+ students, (2) the treatment lecture had a positive impact on LGBTQIA+ and TGNC (transgender and gender nonconforming) student experiences in the course compared to other students, (3) after the treatment lecture students were able to more accurately define sex and gender compared to the control section, and (4) regardless of treatment students reject the naturalistic fallacy. Results highlight the importance of teaching the diversity of biological sex in an accurate way and distinguishing sex from gender.

Ideological biases influence how we perceive, conduct, and teach science, yet traditional science education often neglects inherent sociocultural dimensions of scientific knowledge. Ideological awareness as pedagogy remedies this by acknowledging and accepting ideological influences, enabling students to make these connections and challenge prevailing worldviews. Given recent legislation in the United States that has prohibited instructors from teaching 'divisive concepts' in higher education, it is valuable to understand biology instructors' perspectives on teaching about ideological influences on science, their motivation and value behind this practice, and how they integrate ideological awareness in science education. Participants in the current study included biology instructors across the United States who implemented ideologically aware modules within their courses. Through a mixed-method analysis of questionnaire and interview responses, we found the educators strongly valued the content and were intrinsically motivated to implement modules featuring ideologically aware topics. Instructors reported that identifying and addressing prevalent ideological influences has implications for future scientists and citizens. However, they believed additional opportunities for reflection, interaction, and collaboration among faculty are necessary to facilitate implementation. We conclude with recommendations for pedagogical change based on their insights and advice for instructors.

Recent efforts to make undergraduate biology more inclusive include developing content that explores how human values and priorities impact science, and previous work documents how instructors value an "ideologically aware" biology curriculum that highlights these themes. Here, we surveyed a national sample of undergraduate students in biology classes to explore student perceptions of Ideological Awareness via a mixed-methods investigation. Through quantitative analyses, we found that women students, transgender or gender nonconforming students, and students majoring in biology or another science field were more likely to support the inclusion of Ideological Awareness in the biology classroom. We used expectancy value theory to guide our qualitative interpretations of student survey responses. Specifically, students' expectancy of success and the intrinsic value they attach to ideologically aware content influenced their overall acceptance and advocacy for its integration into the curriculum. Students reported valuing Ideological Awareness because it can increase awareness and decrease biases. The most frequently cited cost was the potential for Ideological Awareness to elicit negative emotions. We compared results with similar or identical questions on a national survey distributed to biology instructors, which showed general alignment between students and instructors. These results support the incorporation of Ideological Awareness in biology education, emphasizing the need for more research on the implementation of inclusive content to address potential challenges.

Increasingly, curricular materials for undergraduate life science courses are designed to highlight scientists with identities and backgrounds that counter historical and stereotypical representation in science. In this essay, we characterize the wide variation in the development and implementation of these curricular materials featuring counterstereotypical scientists. Applying the Social Ecological Model of Behavior Change as a framework, we examine both personal and social elements of the benefits and costs related to designing and implementing curricula featuring counterstereotypical scientists from the perspective of three groups: students, instructors, and the featured scientists. The benefits of these materials for students are well documented, and we consider how these materials may likewise benefit instructors and the featured scientists themselves. However, we emphasize that, if not developed and implemented with attention to the diversity of personal, social, and contextual factors, such well-intentioned efforts may be ineffective or impact groups in inadvertent ways. Finally, we offer recommendations for highlighting counterstereotypical scientists in curricula. We call for additional research to effectively develop and implement materials featuring counterstereotypical scientists in ways that maximize benefits and limit possible costs to students, instructors, and the featured scientists.

Since first appearing in the literature in the 1980s, concept inventories have grown in popularity and are used across science fields. This review serves to identify trends in existing biology concept inventories and to identify areas of future development. We address the following research questions: What biology concept inventories have been developed and across which content areas? What development procedures were used in creating these biology concept inventories? We gathered a comprehensive sample of 49 biology concept inventories developed between 1987 and 2021. Most of these inventories were in the subdisciplines of molecular and cellular biology or evolution. We also summarize the development and evaluation procedures we found across biology concept inventories, highlighting areas for growth. We also found that most biology concept inventories tend to be cited modestly but regularly across their lifespans. This review is intended to serve as a resource for those using biology concept inventories and future developers of novel biology concept inventories.

Student understanding of climate change is an active and growing area of research, but little research has documented undergraduate students' knowledge about the biotic impacts of climate change. Here, we address this literature gap by presenting the Inventory of Biotic Climate Literacy (IBCL), a concept inventory developed to assess undergraduate biology student knowledge of how climate change impacts living things. We developed the IBCL through literature review, student and expert interviews, student field tests, and expert review. We implemented two large nationwide field tests and conducted multiple psychometric analyses on these datasets. These analyses resulted in a final tool of 30 items measuring 16 constructs related to the biotic impacts of climate change. We discovered that the final IBCL does not represent a single, simple construct but rather the complicated and interactive concepts that comprise this topic. We suggest that sum scores are still a valuable measure, as certain groups (upperclassmen and politically liberal individuals) scored significantly higher. We also found value in analyzing individual student performance on the IBCL by developing student profiles. The IBCL represents an important tool in assessing student understanding of the complex and growing problem of climate change and its impact on the living world.

Cisheteronormative ideologies are infused into every aspect of society, including undergraduate science. We set out to identify the extent to which students can identify cisheteronormative language in biology textbooks by posing several hypothetical textbook questions and asking students to modify them to make the language more accurate (defined as "correct; precise; using language that applies to all people"). First, we confirmed that textbooks commonly use language that conflates or confuses sex and gender. We used this information to design two sample questions that used similar language. We examined what parts of the questions students modified, and the changes they recommended. When asked to modify sample textbook questions, we found the most common terms or words that students identified as inaccurate were related to infant gender identity. The most common modifications that students made were changing gender terms to sex terms. Students' decisions in this exercise differed little across three large biology courses or by exam performance. As the science community strives to promote inclusive classrooms and embrace the complexity of human gender identities, we provide foundational information about students' ability to notice and correct inaccurate language related to sex and gender in biology.

Hundreds of studies have explored student evolution acceptance because evolution is a core concept of biology that many undergraduate biology students struggle to accept. However, this construct of “evolution acceptance” has been defined and measured in various ways, which has led to inconsistencies across studies and difficulties in comparing results from different studies. Many studies and essays have offered evaluations and perspectives of evolution acceptance instruments, but publications with a focus on consensus building across research teams is still needed. Further, little attention has been paid to how evolution acceptance instruments may be interpreted differently by students with varied religious backgrounds. Funded by a Research Coordination Network in Undergraduate Biology Education grant from the National Science Foundation, we gathered 16 experts from different disciplinary and religious backgrounds to review current evolution acceptance instruments and create a guide to the strengths and weaknesses of these instruments, including appropriate contexts for using these instruments and their potential weaknesses with different religious populations. Finally, in an attempt to move the field forward, we articulated a consensus definition of evolution acceptance that can be used to guide future instrument development.

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.

Addressing the challenges facing society and the world will require an understanding of the biases and limitations of science. To combat these challenges, here, we advocate for the incorporation of ideologically aware (IA) material into postsecondary biology curricula. IA materials communicate to students how biases, assumptions, and stereotypes inform approaches to and outcomes of science. By engaging with IA materials, student awareness of the impact of science on social problems is expected to increase. In this paper, we situate this IA approach with two other pedagogical approaches that incorporate societally relevant content: culturally relevant pedagogy and socioscientific issues. We then call for research to test ways of supporting instructor implementation of IA material, to evaluate the impact of IA topics on student academic and sociopsychological outcomes, and to explore how to implement IA material in different cultural and social settings. Throughout, we focus on IA topics in the context of postsecondary biology classrooms but encourage the incorporation of IA materials across scientific disciplines and educational settings. Our hope is that greater inclusion of IA materials will create more transparent, scientifically accurate, and inclusive classrooms.

The ability of living organisms to respond and adapt to a changing climate is an urgent concern. However, current educational efforts aimed at increasing US undergraduate student climate literacy primarily focus on the causes of, and abiotic responses to, climate change, mostly neglecting the biotic impacts. Here, we present a new framework, the Biotic Impacts of Climate Change Core Concepts (BIC4), which provides context for addressing student understanding of how climate change will impact the living environment. The BIC4 consists of 7 Core Concepts arranged into 3 overarching themes: Species Outcomes, Systems Outcomes, and Scale of Outcomes. This framework was developed through literature review, expert and novice surveys and interviews, and expert review. We show how the BIC4 is well suited to support educational efforts developed with other frameworks (most notably the 4DEE), and we discuss future use of the BIC4 as an education research tool.

Background Instructors can teach evolution using any number of species contexts. However, not all species contexts are equal, and taxa choice can alter both cognitive and affective elements of learning. This is particularly true when teaching evolution using human examples, a promising method for evolution instruction that nevertheless comes with unique challenges. In this study, we tested how an evolution lesson focused on a human example may impact students’ engagement, perceived content relevance, learning gains, and level of discomfort, when compared to the same lesson using a non-human mammal example. We use this isomorphic lesson and a pre-post study design administered in a split-section introductory biology classroom to isolate the importance of the species context. Results For two of the four measurements of interest, the effect of using human examples could not be understood without accounting for student background. For learning gains, students with greater pre-class content knowledge benefited more from the human examples, while those with low levels of knowledge benefited from the non-human example. For perceived relevance, students who were more accepting of human evolution indicated greater content relevance from the human example. Regardless of condition, students with lower evolution acceptance reported greater levels of discomfort with the lesson. Conclusions Our results illustrate the complexities of using human examples to teach evolution. While these examples were beneficial for many students, they resulted in worse outcomes for students that were less accepting of evolution and those who entered the course with less content knowledge. These findings demonstrate the need to consider diverse student backgrounds when establishing best practices for using human examples to teach evolution.

Postsecondary science faculty often hope to help students to better understand science through engagement with primary research literature. Undergraduates in courses focused on reading and discussion of research literature, along with interactions with scientists, encounter many of the major elements of the Nature of Science (NOS). We explored whether participation in such a course may impact students’ (N = 12) NOS understandings, even though the course did not include explicit, intentional NOS instruction. Students’ qualitative responses to questions from the VNOS-C administered before and after the course suggested that participation in this course was associated with shifts in students’ NOS perceptions in three areas: (1) from the idea that science is universal to the idea that science is influenced by society and culture; (2) in students’ self-definition of science—from a single linear process to a more iterative field of shared, varied methodologies; and (3) in what ways they viewed science to be creative—from experimental design only to also including interpretation and communication of results. Results suggest that engaging with primary research literature and interacting with scientists fosters development of students’ understandings of the tools and products and the human elements of science, but development of other elements may require targeted instruction. Additional informationNotes on contributorsKelly M. SchmidKelly M. Schmid is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.Ryan D. P. DunkRyan D. P. Dunk is a postdoctoral researcher in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, Colorado.Jason R. WilesJason R. Wiles (jwiles01@syr.edu) is a professor in the Department of Biology at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York.

The tragic murder of Mr. George Floyd brought to the head long-standing issues of racial justice and equity in the United States and beyond. This prompted many institutions of higher education, including professional organizations and societies, to engage in long-overdue conversations about the role of scientific institutions in perpetuating racism. Similar to many professional societies and organizations, the Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research (SABER), a leading international professional organization for discipline-based biology education researchers, has long struggled with a lack of representation of People of Color (POC) at all levels within the organization. The events surrounding Mr. Floyd’s death prompted the members of SABER to engage in conversations to promote self-reflection and discussion on how the society could become more antiracist and inclusive. These, in turn, resulted in several initiatives that led to concrete actions to support POC, increase their representation, and amplify their voices within SABER. These initiatives included: a self-study of SABER to determine challenges and identify ways to address them, a year-long seminar series focused on issues of social justice and inclusion, a special interest group to provide networking opportunities for POC and to center their voices, and an increase in the diversity of keynote speakers and seminar topics at SABER conferences. In this article, we chronicle the journey of SABER in its efforts to become more inclusive and antiracist. We are interested in increasing POC representation within our community and seek to bring our resources and scholarship to reimagine professional societies as catalyst agents towards an equitable antiracist experience. Specifically, we describe the 12 concrete actions that SABER enacted over a period of a year and the results from these actions so far. In addition, we discuss remaining challenges and future steps to continue to build a more welcoming, inclusive, and equitable space for all biology education researchers, especially our POC members. Ultimately, we hope that the steps undertaken by SABER will enable many more professional societies to embark on their reflection journeys to further broaden scientific communities.

Student-instructor interactions have an influence on student achievement and perceptions of learning. In college and university settings, large introductory STEM courses are increasingly including Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL), an evidence-based technique associated with improved student achievement, recruitment, and retention in STEM fields, especially for underserved populations. Within this technique, peer leaders hold a unique position in a student’s education. Peer leaders have relevant experience in that they have had recent success in the courses in which they facilitate student learning, yet, compared to student-faculty or student-teaching assistant relationships, there is minimal imbalance of authority or power. Students might find their peer leaders to be more relatable than faculty or graduate teaching assistants, and may even consider them to be role models. We explored students’ perceptions of peer leader relatability and role model status in relation to students’ achievement and their perceived learning gains in the context of an introductory biology course with an associated PLTL program. The final course grades and self-assessed learning gains of PLTL students who felt they related to their peer leader were compared to those who did not. We also compared final course grades and self-assessed learning gains between PLTL students who viewed their peer leader as a role model versus those who did not. Self-reported learning gains were significantly higher for students who relate to their peer leader, as well as for students who viewed their peer leaders as a role model. There is some support that this trend is stronger for STEM majors versus those who are not enrolled in a STEM program, though the interaction is not significant. Significant differences in overall course grade were only observed between students who reported that they related to their peer leader versus those who did not relate to their peer leader.

Researchers in various contexts have long struggled with an apparent disconnect between an individual’s level of understanding of biological evolution and their acceptance of it as an explanation for the history and diversity of life. Here, we discuss the main factors associated with acceptance of evolution and chart a path forward for evolution education research.

Recent research has identified many factors influencing student acceptance of biological evolution, but few of these factors have been measured in a longitudinal context of changing knowledge and acceptance of evolution over a period of instruction. This study investigates factors previously associated with evolution acceptance as well as other potential factors among students over the course of a year-long majors and non-majors introductory biology sequence at a private, research-intensive university in the northeastern United States. Acceptance of evolution was measured using the Measure of Acceptance of the Theory of Evolution (MATE) instrument, and other factors were measured using well-established instruments and a demographic survey. As expected given the context, evolution was widely accepted among the population (71% of our sample scored in the “high” or “very high” acceptance range), but 160 students were in the very low to moderate acceptance range. Over the course of the academic year, regressions on measures of normalized change revealed that as knowledge of the Nature of Science (NOS) increased, evolution acceptance increased ( R 2 = .378, p << 0.001). Increasing levels of genetic literacy ( R 2 = .214, p << 0.001) and Evolutionary Knowledge ( R 2 = .177, p << 0.001) were also significantly associated with increases in acceptance of evolution. We also examined the longitudinal effect of combining various factors into unified working models of acceptance of evolution, and this is the first study by our knowledge to do so. From fall to spring, the influence of student knowledge of NOS on evolution acceptance increased, as did the influence of genetic literacy. Conversely, the influence of religious variables decreased, as did the influence of political inclinations and race/ethnicity. Our results indicate that as students learn more about the nature of science, they may rely more on scientific explanations for natural phenomena. This study also underscores the importance of using longitudinal, multifactorial analyses to understand acceptance of evolution.

Book Review| September 01 2017 Human Evolution The Creative Spark: How Imagination Made Humans Exceptional. By Agustín Fuentes. 2017. Dutton. (ISBN 9781101983942). 352 pp. Hardcover. $28.00. Ryan Dunk Ryan Dunk 1PhD Student Biology Department Syracuse University 110 Life Sciences Complex, Syracuse, NY 13244 rddunk@syr.edu Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar The American Biology Teacher (2017) 79 (7): 598–599. https://doi.org/10.1525/abt.2017.79.7.598b Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Ryan Dunk; Human Evolution. The American Biology Teacher 1 September 2017; 79 (7): 598–599. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/abt.2017.79.7.598b Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentThe American Biology Teacher Search Amongst life on earth, humans are undeniably exceptional. We write symphonies and plays, paint and sculpt. We create vehicles that can transport us underground, under water, in air, or even into space. We have multiple complex, symbolic languages that allow us to communicate abstract thoughts and emotions. And we have created tools that could lead to the utter destruction of ourselves and possibly all life on Earth, or at least a significant portion of it. In this book, Agustín Fuentes asks: What truly makes humans unique? Is it our capacity for exploitation? Or cooperation? Our biological history, or perhaps our ability to use our intelligence to overcome biological limitations? Fuentes argues that these descriptions are all incomplete; instead, it is our creativity that sets us apart from other animals. The book is formally split into four sections that seem to divide neatly into two halves, first focusing on prehistorical human... You do not currently have access to this content.

Despite decades of education reform efforts, the percent of the general US population accepting biological evolution as the explanation for the diversity of life has remained relatively unchanged over the past 35 years. Previous work has shown the importance of both educational and non-educational (sociodemographic and psychological) factors on acceptance of evolution, but has often looked at such factors in isolation. Our study is among the first attempts to model quantitatively how the unique influences of evolutionary content knowledge, religiosity, epistemological sophistication, and an understanding of the nature of science collectively predict an individual’s acceptance or rejection of evolution.