Research | andrewslab

RESEARCH AREAS

We are broadly interested in improving learning in undergraduate biology courses by facilitating the use of evidence-based teaching. We study current and future college instructors, as well as students. The following are ongoing areas of research.

The Developing Knowledge Project:

Discovering teacher knowledge that facilitates student learning

We investigate knowledge that college instructors need to effectively implement evidence-based teaching practices, such as active-learning instruction. Abundant evidence from investigations of K12 instructors indicate that effective teachers draw on extensive knowledge beyond content knowledge. However, there have been few studies of the teacher knowledge that college instructors need. We use innovative approaches to study teacher knowledge, including asking instructors to analyze lessons taught by other instructors, and using stimulated recall interviews to examine what instructors are thinking in real time while they teach. This research is currently funded by a National Science Foundation CAREER grant (DUE #1845886) and was previously funded by DUE #1504904.

Selected relevant publications (see Publications page for links to the articles):

Gehrtz J, Brantner M, & Andrews TC (2022). How are undergraduate STEM instructors leveraging student thinking?. International Journal of STEM Education, 9(1), 1-20.

Andrews TC, Auerbach AJJ, Grant E (2019) Exploring the relationship between teacher knowledge and active learning implementation in large college biology courses. CBE-Life Sciences Education 18(ar48), 1-17.

Auerbach AJ, Higgins M, Brickman P, Andrews TC (2018) Teacher knowledge for active-learning instruction: Expert-novice approach reveals differences. CBE-Life Sciences Education, 17(1), ar12.

Auerbach AJ, Andrews TC (2018) Pedagogical knowledge for active-learning instruction in large undergraduate biology courses: A large-scale qualitative investigation of instructor thinking. International Journal of STEM Education, 5, 19.

This figure shows a framework of pedagogical knowledge used by college biology instructors as they analyzed video clips of active-learning lessons in large classes. Pedagogical knowledge is generalizable knowledge of teaching and learning (Auerbach & Andrews, 2018).

Click the camera icon to watch a seminar Tessa gave about this research at the Drexel University Center for the Advancement of STEM Teaching and Learning Excellence (CASTLE) in March 2019.

Improving undergraduate evolution education

We investigate how undergraduates learn topics in evolution and how instructors can facilitate this learning. Evolution if a core concept in biology, and it is challenging to learn. Many concepts in evolution conflict with intuitive ways of thinking about the world, and with the everyday language we use to talk about the natural world. Thus, students have to work hard to build scientifically-accurate conceptions of evolution.

As instructors, we are better equipped to help students learn when we can anticipate the difficulties students are likely to have when learning a topic, use evidence-based approaches to help students learn, and assess student understanding using rigorously developed assessments. These tools and relevant teacher knowledge can be generated through research and made available to instructors. This is called "collective knowledge." Recently, we analyzed all existing peer-reviewed literature relevant to undergraduate evolution education to determine what collective knowledge is available and what are the gaps. For example, most college evolution instructors teach speciation, population genetics, macroevolution, and quantitative genetics, yet there is little (or no) peer-reviewed research about teaching and learning these topics at the undergraduate level (Ziadie & Andrews 2018).

One important first step in filling these gaps is identifying key concepts for undergraduates to learn within an evolutionary topic. We recently completed a project to develop a community-informed list of key speciation concepts,. The list emerged from feedback from over 100 speciation researchers and faculty and provides a starting place for research on speciation teaching and learning (Dial, Emetu, & Andrews 2019).

Check out our "Tips & Tricks" article in American Biology Teacher for a quick guide to capitalizing on collective knowledge.

Selected relevant publications:

Dial D*, Emetu N*, Andrews TC (2019) A community-informed list of key speciation concepts for undergraduate education. Evolution: Education and Outreach, 12:14. (*contributed equally)

Ziadie MA, Andrews TC (2019) Don't reinvent the wheel: Capitalizing on what others already know about teaching topics in evolution. American Biology Teacher, 81(2), 133-136.

Ziadie MA, Andrews TC (2018) Moving evolution education forward: A systematic analysis of literature to identify gaps in collective knowledge for teaching. CBE-Life Sciences Education 17(1), ar11.

Price RM, Andrews TC, McElhinny TL, Mead LS, Abraham JK, Thanukos A, Perez KE (2014) The Genetic Drift Inventory: a tool for measuring what advanced undergraduates have mastered about genetic drift. CBE-Life Sciences Education, 13(1), 65-75.

Kalinowski ST, Leonard MJ, Andrews TM, Litt AR (2013) Six classroom exercises to teach natural selection to undergraduate biology students. CBE-Life Sciences Education, 12(3), 483-793.

Andrews TM, Price RM, Mead LS, McElhinny TL, Thanukos A, Perez KE, Herreid CF, Terry DR, Lemons PP (2012) Biology undergraduate’s misconceptions about genetic drift. CBE-Life Sciences Education, 11(3), 248-259.

Kalinowski ST, Andrews TC, Leonard MJ, Snodgrass M (2012) Are Africans, Europeans, and Asians different “races”? A guided inquiry laboratory investigation for introducing students to variation among DNA sequences. CBE-Life Sciences Education, 11(2), 142-151.

Andrews TM, Kalinowski ST, Leonard MJ (2011) ‘Are Humans Evolving?’ A classroom discussion to change students’ misconceptions about natural selection. Evolution: Education and Outreach, 4(3), 456-466.

Kalinowski ST, Leonard MJ, Andrews TM (2010) Nothing in evolution makes sense except in the light of DNA. CBE-Life Sciences Education, 9(2), 87-97.

Changing the system to promote the adoption of evidence-based and inclusive teaching strategies among college STEM instructors

We investigate factors that influence the adoption of evidence-based teaching strategies among college instructors in STEM. Facilitating the adoption of evidence-based teaching on a large scale will likely require systemic change to many parts of a complex system, from how we train future college instructors to our criteria for hiring and promoting college faculty to the priorities of leadership in higher education. Research is key to understanding the system that influences teaching. This part of our work studies factors external to the instructor, including colleague-colleague relationships and the culture and climate within academic departments and disciplines.

We have support from an NSF Institutional Transformation grant that allows us to study systemic change in undergraduate STEM education at the level of instructors, departments, and the institution at the University of Georgia (DUE #1821023). The DeLTA (Departmental and Leadership Teams for Action) project engages faculty and departmental leaders in collaborative teams to support evidence-based teaching. This project recognizes that working with faculty is not enough. To achieve change, we also have to reconsider how evidence-based teaching is supported, evaluated, and rewarded in departments and the university as a whole. This project crosses STEM disciplines and was born from the Scientists Engaged in Education Research (SEER) center at UGA. It is led by Paula Lemons, Peggy Brickman, Erin Dolan, and Tessa Andrews.

Read about early work and the change theory that guides this project in a 2021 essay in Change magazine.
Check out a research-based resource for supporting teaching evaluation reform: Guides to Advance Teaching Evaluation (GATEs).

Selected relevant publications (see Publications page for links to the articles):

Krishnan S, Gehrtz J, Lemons PP, Dolan EL, Brickman P, Andrews TC (2022). Guides to Advance Teaching Evaluation (GATEs): A resource for STEM departments planning robust and equitable evaluation practices. CBE-Life Sciences Education, 21(3), ar42.

Andrews TC, Brickman P, Dolan EL, Lemons PP (2021) Every Tool in the Toolbox: Pursuing Multilevel Institutional Change in the DeLTA Project. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 53(2), 25-32.

Lane AKG, Hardison CU, Simon AU, Andrews TC. (2019) A model of the factors influencing teaching identity among life sciences doctoral students. Journal of Research on Science Teaching, 56, 141-162.

Andrews TC, Conaway EP, Zhao J, Dolan EL (2016) Colleagues as change agents for undergraduate teaching. CBE-Life Sciences Education, 15 (2), 1-17.

Andrews TC, Lemons PP (2015) It’s personal: Biology instructors prioritize personal evidence over empirical evidence in teaching decisions. CBE-Life Sciences Education, 14(1), 1-18.