Refinement and Expansion of the Community College Anatomy and Physiology Education Research (CAPER) Program

This project aims to serve the national interest by increasing the prevalence of evidence-based instructional practices in Anatomy and Physiology (A&P) courses offered at community colleges. Across the country, nearly one in two students fail or withdraw from the required Human A&P course on the path to careers in health sciences, jeopardizing our future workforce. Contributing to this low success rate is the predominance of traditional, lecture-based teaching approaches that undermine active student participation and fail to result in deep learning. Notably, these approaches may perpetuate classroom inequities that disadvantage the many community college students from underrepresented communities in STEM including women, students of color, and first-generation college students. Effective implementation of evidence based instructional practices such as group work and peer-to-peer teaching can improve student success in STEM education. Community college instructors will receive training in both teaching practices and educational research, and within a short time period will become co-investigators in studies examining the impact on student performance. These instructors will then act as leaders in A&P education within their schools and their professional societies, to spread these practices more broadly.

The project builds on a previous pilot project that aimed to improve the quality of A&P instruction in community colleges and assess the impact of the interventions on both faculty and students. This project takes an evidence-based approach to fostering transformation in student learning and retention. Over a period of five years, four cohorts of 10 community college instructors will complete two professional development courses, design and implement a small-scale educational research project investigating the impact of a student-centered teaching strategy on student success. In addition to their individual projects, instructors will collaborate in a multi-institutional effort examining the hypothesis that evidence based instructional practices could alleviate the negative impacts of anxiety on student performance and retention by improving learning and building community. The instructors' contributions to this project will be foundational to the increasingly relevant topic of student anxiety in the classroom. Finally, the research team will monitor instructor perceptions and practices using a combination of validated survey instruments, interviews, and classroom observation protocols. The evaluation measures will determine if the project is able to promote instructor transition to more student-centered instructional practices. A dissemination strategy of conference presentations, blogs, and articles will ensure that our findings reach key end users, the first step in promoting educational change. In particular, the instructors will be well-situated to influence the practices of other community college instructors, both within their institutions and within professional organizations such as the Human Anatomy and Physiology Society and the Physiology Educators Communities of Practice. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.