Welcome to the Teaching-focused Faculty in Biology Education Special Interest Group!

This SIG provides a community for teaching-oriented faculty, including teaching faculty, tenure-track faculty with both research and teaching obligations but whose main percentage of time is dedicated to teaching, as well as those who are interested in teaching-orientated careers within higher education.  We will foster connections between members of our community through panels, discussions, and workshops, and discuss ways that we can promote the translation of biology education research into the scholarly reflective practices as well. At each SABER annual meeting, we will hold regular SIG panel meetings, creating a space to discuss our roles, experiences, challenges, interests and topics that we care about in biology education, as a cohort of biology classroom practitioners.

Who Should Join Us?

• Teaching-oriented faculty including teaching professors, tenure-track faculty with both research and teaching obligations but whose main percentage of time is dedicated to teaching, lecturers, teaching postdocs, and others whose primary duties is teaching, rather than research or creative work as defined by the regular norms of job duties. 

• Early career scientists, including undergraduates, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows, interested in pursuing teaching-focused careers in higher education

• Educators who are enthusiastic about evidence-based teaching strategies and innovated pedagogy.

• Classroom practitioners who are interested in expanding teaching practices to biology research.

• Individuals who are interested in national collaborative network or projects in biology education.

Objectives and Goals

• Supporting professional development of teaching-focused faculty by hosting panels, workshops, and mentorship groups.

• Develop resources for early career scientists interested in pursuing teaching-focused careers in higher education.

• Addressing Experiences and Challenges:Provide a space to discuss what teaching-oriented faculty need in specific educational contexts and scales.

• Enhancing the Impact of Classroom Practices: Keep up-to-date pedagogical innovation and promote the evidence-based teaching effectiveness through professional development events.

• Advance Scholarly Work: Encourage and support the development of any types of classroom practice-based projects, data collection, analyses and dissemination; Contribute to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) in biology education.

• Promote Collaboration: Connecting practitioners with DBER researchers to enhance the implementation science and classroom data collection.

Activities and Projects

• Holding regular SIG panel meetings at SABER.

• Creating network and connections for practitioners.

• Centralizing and sharing resources for biology classroom practitioners, including professional development opportunities, curriculum development resources, and literature bibliographies.

• Facilitating project-specific workgroups and outcomes.

• Fostering cross-institutional collaboration on projects and funding opportunities.

• More… (Join us to develop more!)

Join Us

Join us by sharing your contact information on the Google form: https://forms.gle/d6QjY3A3Yj8swRr87 

Contact

Min Zhong mzhong@utexas.edu
Jeremy Hsu hsu@chapman.edu