{"id":87,"date":"2018-11-09T09:12:31","date_gmt":"2018-11-09T14:12:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/?p=87"},"modified":"2018-11-09T14:54:14","modified_gmt":"2018-11-09T19:54:14","slug":"scientific-method","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/issues\/fall-2018\/scientific-method\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientific Method"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Bryan
Bryan Dewsbury, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

For students struggling in Bryan Dewsbury\u2019s first-year biology classes, the intervention starts before class is over.<\/p>\n

Dewsbury monitors email while he\u2019s teaching\u2014to address students\u2019 questions on the spot, sparing them the embarrassment of publicizing their confusion. It\u2019s one pillar of Dewsbury\u2019s \u201caggressive early intervention system.\u201d He says the key to reducing failure and withdrawal rates in introductory science courses is an inclusive teaching approach that considers students\u2019 diverse needs.<\/p>\n

The inclusive teaching approach works especially well with minorities who, historically, struggle with STEM disciplines, Dewsbury says. Research supports this, but he has anecdotal evidence, too. As a graduate student in Florida, he taught first-generation college students, gaining an appreciation for their unique challenges. Some challenges, like socioeconomic pressures, were obvious. Others weren\u2019t. The students\u2019 parents often dictated their career choices; they saw in their children a way to create upward mobility for the whole family\u2014a heavy mantle for a student to bear, Dewsbury notes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my initial semesters as a teaching assistant, I learned the value of teaching someone to believe they can be better than they imagine,\u201d says Dewsbury. \u201cThis is what propels ordinary people to do great things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dewsbury says student success comes from getting to know students and adhering to best practices. He\u2019s on to something. Nationally, students in big, introductory math and science courses who struggle often withdraw or receive failing grades, driving them out of intended fields of study. A 2014 New York Times<\/i> article reported that at four-year colleges, \u201c28 percent of students set out as math, engineering, and science majors, but only 16 percent of bachelor\u2019s degrees are awarded in those fields.\u201d It noted that the University of California, Davis, and the University of Colorado abandoned the lecture model typical of large introductory courses in favor of active learning and in-class group work. The results: improved student performance, sometimes by as much as 50 percent more than students in traditional classes.<\/p>\n

In Dewsbury\u2019s introductory biology classes, the withdrawal and failure rate has been as low as 6 percent. His äçÐÄvlogÃâ·ÑBÕ¾ students, he says, are \u201ca remarkably diverse group in every way possible. The opportunity to facilitate their growth has taught me incredible things about the human experience.\u201d \u2022<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For students struggling in Bryan Dewsbury\u2019s first-year biology classes, the intervention starts before class is over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":387,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fall-2018","architecture-currents","architecture-why-i-teach"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":555,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87\/revisions\/555"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}