C.R.E.A.T.E’ing shifts in first year students’ science efficacy that are independent of instructor rank and experience in a large, multi-section online introductory course

Abstract

AbstractWhile the remote working and learning environment overwhelmed instructors of all courses throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, it presented an especially unique challenge to instructors of laboratory courses designed to engage students through a “hands-on” curriculum. With a primary objective to engage students in the process of science throughout the COVID19 pandemic, we transformed a long-standing laboratory course for first year science students into a more accessible, immersive experience of current biological research using a narrow and focused set of primary literature and the C.R.E.A.T.E pedagogy. The efficacy of the C.R.E.A.T.E approach has been demonstrated in a diversity of higher education settings and courses. It is however not yet known if C.R.E.A.T.E can be successfully implemented online with a large, diverse team of faculty untrained in the pedagogy. Here we present the transformation of a large-enrollment, multi-section, multi-instructor course for first-year students in which instructors are following different biological research questions but working together to reach shared goals and outcomes. We used a mixed-methods approach to collect data and assess students’: (1) science self-efficacy and (2) epistemological beliefs about science throughout an academic year that was fully administered online as a result of ongoing threats posed by the COVID19 pandemic. Our findings demonstrate that novice C.R.E.A.T.E instructors with varying levels of teaching experience and ranks (research faculty, teaching faculty, and postdoctoral research fellows) can achieve comparable outcomes and improvements in students’ science efficacy in the virtual classroom as a teaching team. This study extends the use of the C.R.E.A.T.E strategy to large, team-taught, multi-section courses and shows its utility in the online teaching and learning environment.Take home messageNovice C.R.E.A.T.E instructors successfully shift first year student’s science efficacy in an introductory biology course independent of teaching experience.