como parte dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do título de Mestre em Ensino de Biologia.O ensino de Botânica na Educação Básica tem sido caracterizado como desestimulante para os alunos no Brasil, sobretudo devido às metodologias tradicionais de ensino praticadas pelos professores. Discute-se o papel de abordagens pré-aula utilizadas por professores, envolvendo as relações entre o objeto de estudo e o cotidiano do educando, como estratégia de atração da atenção dos alunos para um conteúdo específico. Desta forma, este trabalho teve como objetivo avaliar o processo de "sensibilização inicial do aluno", através da utilização de métodos que visam estimular o interesse dos alunos por Botânica, antes de uma aula nesta área. Em uma primeira etapa, listou-se estratégias já descritas juntamente com o desenvolvimento de novas estratégias relacionadas aos conceitos abordados no ensino médio, no âmbito do ensino regular, de acordo com as competências e habilidades exigidas pelo Exame Nacional do Ensino Médio (ENEM) e também do Exame Nacional para Certificação de Competências de Jovens e Adultos (Encceja), ambos oferecidos pelo Ministério da Educação (MEC). Na segunda etapa, avaliou-se algumas Estratégias de Sensibilização em uma turma do Ensino Médio, obtendo-se dados qualitativos e quantitativos a partir da comparação com grupos controlados. Os resultados encontrados demonstraram um aumento no interesse dos alunos por assuntos botânicos nas turmas que passaram pelas estratégias. A partir destas experiências, o trabalho apresenta um guia de estratégias simples para serem utilizadas por professores de Botânica no inicio de cada aula relativa aos conceitos de Botânica do currículo exigido pelo ENEM e Encceja.

Many researchers have called for implementation of active learning practices in undergraduate science classrooms as one method to increase retention and persistence in STEM, yet there has been little research on the potential increases in student anxiety that may accompany these practices. This is of concern because excessive anxiety can decrease student performance. Levels and sources of student anxiety in three introductory biology lecture classes were investigated via an online survey and student interviews. The survey (n = 327) data revealed that 16% of students had moderately high classroom anxiety, which differed among the three classes. All five active learning classroom practices that were investigated caused student anxiety, with students voluntarily answering a question or being called on to answer a question causing higher anxiety than working in groups, completing worksheets, or answering clicker questions. Interviews revealed that student anxiety seemed to align with communication apprehension, social anxiety, and test anxiety. Additionally, students with higher general anxiety were more likely to self-report lower course grade and the intention to leave the major. These data suggest that a subset of students in introductory biology experience anxiety in response to active learning, and its potential impacts should be investigated.

Faculty and staff were surveyed to assess the professional development (PD) for teaching provided to biology graduate students at academic institutions. Although more than 90% of institutions provided PD, it was most often presemester and less than 10 h. Respondents most satisfied with their PD had programs with greater breadth and institutional support.

Graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) are used extensively as instructors in higher education, yet their status and authority as teachers may be unclear to undergraduates, to administrators, and even to the GTAs themselves. This study explored undergraduate perception of classroom instruction by GTAs and professors to identify factors unique to each type of instructor versus the type of classes they teach. Data collection was via an online survey composed of subscales from two validated instruments, as well as one open-ended question asking students to compare the same class taught by a professor versus a GTA. Quantitative and qualitative results indicated that some student instructional perceptions are specific to instructor type, and not class type. For example, regardless of type of class, professors are perceived as being confident, in control, organized, experienced, knowledgeable, distant, formal, strict, hard, boring, and respected. Conversely, GTAs are perceived as uncertain, hesitant, nervous, relaxed, laid-back, engaging, interactive, relatable, understanding, and able to personalize teaching. Overall, undergraduates seem to perceive professors as having more knowledge and authority over the curriculum, but enjoy the instructional style of GTAs. The results of this study will be used to make recommendations for GTA professional development programs.

Students respond to classroom activities and achievement outcomes with a variety of emotions that can impact student success. One emotion students experience is anxiety, which can negatively impact student performance and persistence. This study investigated what types of classroom anxiety were related to student performance in the course and persistence in the major. Students in introductory biology classes self-reported their general class, test, communication, and social anxiety; perceived course difficulty; intention to stay in the major; and demographic variables. Final course grades were acquired from instructors. An increase in perception of course difficulty from the beginning to the end of the semester was significantly associated with lower final course grades ( N = 337), particularly for females, non-Caucasians, and students who took fewer Advanced Placement (AP) courses. An increase in communication anxiety slightly increased performance. Higher general class anxiety at the beginning of the semester was associated with intention to leave the major ( N = 122) at the end of the semester, particularly for females. Females, freshmen, and those with fewer AP courses reported higher general class anxiety and perceived course difficulty. Future research should identify which factors differentially impact student anxiety levels and perceived difficulty and explore coping strategies for students.

It is well documented that people are less interested in studying plants than animals. We tested whether university students would selectively recall more animal images than plant images even when equally-nameable plant and animal images were presented for equal lengths of time. Animal and plant images were pre-tested and 14 animal-plant pairs were selected, based on student ability to equally name the images. These images were randomly presented to two groups of university students: those currently enrolled in a psychology class and those currently enrolled in a botany class. Student recall of each image was recorded after a distracting task. The results confirmed that the animal images were recalled significantly more than the plant images. There was no apparent effect of attending a botany class on these results. However, gender effects were identified for recall of plant versus animal images in general (women recalled more plants than men) and for four specific plant images (carnation, rose, daisy, and venus fly trap). When teaching biology, teachers should present equal numbers of plant and animal examples and use the most memorable plant images possible to attempt to offset student selective attention to animals.

This essay proposes a conceptual framework for biology graduate teaching assistant professional development evaluation and research with three overarching variables for consideration: outcome variables, contextual variables, and moderating variables.

This essay explores how “student success” is defined in the education literature broadly, using specific examples from CBE-Life Sciences Education from 2015 to 2020. This essay posits that success is most often implicitly defined by researchers in terms of quantitative outcomes. Recommendations for centering student voice within policy, practice, and research are provided.