Description of the Program

The goal of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) New Generation Program is to develop an entire generation of new resources to enhance undergraduate biology education. Our work is guided by the following hypothesis: Training graduate students to teach and mentor improves the education of undergraduates and the preparation of graduate students for careers in science. We promote graduate students and postdocs as vital educational resources by providing them the education necessary to become outstanding mentors and classroom teachers. Specifically, graduate students and post-docs are invited to apply for HHMI Teaching Fellowships that support activities directed toward building their skills as teachers and mentors. Each teaching fellow takes “Inquiry-Based Teaching Biology,” a course that covers theoretical and practical aspects of biology education, providing students with a structured setting in which to practice and receive feedback on teaching. During subsequent semesters, each fellow chooses to serve as a mentor for an undergraduate researcher, teach in a classroom, or develop instructional materials. In addition, we are studying the impact of this training comprehensively, including examination of the participating students and postdocs, the undergraduates they teach, and the faculty advisors with whom they work.

Outcomes of the Program

Graduate students and the undergraduate students they mentored, voluntarily participated in a number of data collection activities (e.g., surveys, interviews) to describe their experiences. These activities are providing us with an initial understanding of some the program’s effects. For example, graduate students reported the greatest gains in these skills due to participation: working with undergraduates, understanding how students learn, teaching and mentoring, giving feedback to a student, dealing with setbacks, and understanding the nature of the job as a researcher. Undergraduates reported the greatest increases in these skills: developing a research project, conducting research, analyzing data, presenting information, and working independently. Further, eighteen graduate students, who participated in the Inquiry-Based Teaching Biology class this summer, wrote Teaching Philosophy statements both before and after their participation. A scoring rubric is currently being used to analyze these statements to see if there are changes in how they define teaching and learning, their view of the “learner,” the goals and expectations they have in student-teacher relationships, and methods of teaching and assessing learning.

Implementation of the Program

The HHMI New Generation program is developing several initiatives which we hope will be easily transferable into a variety of other programs. Each component of our program has a developed syllabi and accompanying materials. It is our hope that each of these initiatives can be implemented as a whole or in part at other institutions. Currently, the HHMI New Generation program is assisting in the integration of our mentoring program into other research programs on campus. In addition, the syllabi and resources developed for our instructional materials course are being used as template for a similar course offering by Delta program. Lastly, we hope that the assessment tools developed to measure the gains by our participants will be helpful for others. Perhaps the greatest challenge in transferability of the HHMI New Generation program is identifying faculty willing to implement the program at their university and revise the program to fit their own needs.