How Kindling Catches Flame: UMD Transforming Undergrad Biology Education

A t lunchtime, during a busy fallsemester day at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMD), a conference room is soon filled with research and teaching faculty, laboratory instructors, postdoctoral scholars, graduate students, and education specialists. The diverse group gathers in the Biosciences Research Building on a regular basis to focus on one thing: improving students’ conceptual understanding of host–pathogen interactions. They have worked together for 10 years on multiple initiatives, sharing evidencebased teaching techniques, developing and testing a concept inventory, examining students’ exam responses, and collaborating to write papers for education journals. The group’s efforts are among many innovative strategies being implemented, giving UMD faculty members a prominent role at national conferences on undergraduate biology education transformation. Change did not take place overnight on the UMD campus. Since 1992, UMD has received a succession of Undergraduate Science Education Program grants given by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). In 2004, the dean of the UMD College of Chemical and Life Sciences, Norma Allewell, issued a call for proposals and used the HHMI grant to award small pockets of funding to groups of faculty members. Ann Smith, former instructor in UMD’s Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics, now assistant dean in the Office of Undergraduate Studies, was at the time implementing evidence-based pedagogical strategies in her own courses but was not well connected to others in her department who taught the same students. She and others heard students complaining about having to repeat content in multiple courses. “Faculty were saying they did so because students failed to understand those topics,” explains Smith. She and her colleagues realized that they needed to take a large-scale approach. The call for proposals issued by her dean inspired action. “We wrote a proposal to develop a community to foster curriculum development around a core concept common to multiple course syllabi,” says Smith. Their proposal was funded, their Host–Pathogen Interactions (HPI) Teaching Group was born, and the learning community that grew out of it is now thriving. A year later, UMD conducted an external review, explains Kaci Thompson, associate director of UMD’s HHMI Programs. “The [review] panel gave us the idea to couple our curriculum initiatives with comprehensive professional development,” she explains. In 2006, UMD established the Teaching and Learning Center (TLC) within the College of Chemical and Life Sciences and hired Gili Marbach-Ad as director. “The TLC created an opportunity for HPI and other faculty to increase their knowledge about pedagogy through workshops, seminars by research scholars, and individualized support,” says Marbach-Ad. This unique response to a pervasive issue has proved very successful. Most centers for teaching and learning are housed within departments of education or are more centralized. “Disciplinary teaching and learning centers can play a key role in faculty professional development, since they use the language of the faculty members. They are in a position to offer more specialized training with an emphasis on pedagogical content knowledge rather than generalized pedagogical knowledge,” says Marbach-Ad. The college has since expanded to include computer, mathematical, and physical sciences, but the TLC retains a disciplinary focus, which is important for engaging faculty members. UMD is one of the long-term grantees that HHMI has, says Cynthia Bauerle, HHMI’s assistant director for undergraduate and graduate science education. Although it primarily funds research, the HHMI invests $40 million annually to prepare the next generation of scientists through its undergraduate science education programs. “We invite institutions to apply which seek to engage students in research experiences and propose strategies that have the potential to move the institution to the next level in the transformation process,” explains Bauerle. By building on past successes and having a solid model for improving teaching, UMD has earned long-term support from HHMI. “Establishing the TLC and bringing in Gili [Marbach-Ad] was a significant development toward creating professional learning communities that encourage faculty to work together over a long period,” Bauerle adds. The sparks for broader-scale improvements were able to catch flame with the fuel provided by HHMI, along with the National Science Foundation funding that followed, because of UMD’s creative, dedicated faculty and its committed administrative leaders. “These grants have provided the infrastructure to push us to the next level, achieve the large-scale changes you now see on campus, and continue our transformative work,” Thompson explains. Adds Smith, “As more faculty got involved, the sophistication of the projects increased, and collectively, it has really raised the ante of the kind of work that we do.”