PULSE vision & change rubrics.

Dear Editor:

We want to inform CBE—Life Sciences Education readers about the release of the first version of the Partnership for Undergraduate Life Sciences Education (PULSE) Vision & Change Rubrics (available at the PULSE Community website: www.pulsecommunity.org). These rubrics were written and assembled by the PULSE Vision & Change Leadership Fellows to help stimulate the widespread adoption of the principles outlined in the 2011 National Academy of Sciences report Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: A Call to Action (American Association for the Advancement of Science [AAAS], 2011). Initially, these rubrics can be utilized for departmental self-assessment. In the longer term, the rubrics are intended serve as the basis of a tiered certification program for life sciences departments based on Vision and Change principles.

In 2006, the National Science Foundation (NSF) initiated a multi-year conversation with the undergraduate life sciences community, with assistance from the AAAS. That conversation, cosponsored by the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIH/NIGMS) and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), resulted in the release of the Vision and Change report in 2011 (AAAS, 2011). Among the recommendations in the Vision and Change report was recognition that a 21st-century education requires modifications of faculty incentive systems, academic departmental support, how curricular decisions are determined, and biology education pedagogy. In 2012, the NSF, NIH/NIGMS, and HHMI founded the Partnership for Undergraduate Life Sciences Education, or PULSE, to catalyze implementation of Vision and Change principles across all institutions of higher education. The PULSE community, open to all life sciences educators, now hosts more than 1000 members. Forty Vision and Change Leadership Fellows selected from among biologists with leadership roles at institutions of higher education of all types were charged with developing strategies to promote systemic changes in life sciences education.

The PULSE initiative is intended to catalyze change at the departmental and institutional levels by initiating and implementing new strategies to assist departments and institutions to move toward a shared vision and effect curricular transformation (Manning, 2013). Decisions regarding curriculum, hiring, teaching assignments, faculty evaluations, mentoring, and faculty development are typically made at the department level. Thus, a concerted effort at this level is needed to overcome the widespread resistance to change (Savkar and Lokere, 2010; Anderson ). During the past year, the 40 PULSE Leadership Fellows have designed and begun to implement several initiatives to facilitate educational transformation in life sciences departments. One of these initiatives, the PULSE Vision & Change Rubrics, is described briefly here.

The PULSE Vision & Change Rubrics articulate fundamental criteria for evaluating the level and degree of departmental adoption of the principles of Vision and Change. These rubrics assess department or program alignment with Vision and Change recommendations in five broad areas: curriculum alignment, assessment, faculty practice/faculty support, infrastructure, and climate for change. Each rubric has several categories with multiple criteria to be assessed (see Figure 1 for a sample rubric). The rubric descriptors designate different levels of implementation of Vision and Change principles from first steps to full departmental transformation. The set of rubrics has been designed for flexible use by undergraduate life sciences departments at a broad range of institution types including 2-yr colleges, 4-yr liberal arts institutions, regional comprehensive institutions, and research institutions.

Figure 1.

Sample from the PULSE Vision & Change Rubrics. The rubrics are organized with separate criteria listed on the left, with levels of achievement across the top, from zero (no achievement) to four (exemplary achievement). In total, 69 separate criteria are assessed in five broad categories: curriculum alignment, assessment, faculty practice/faculty support, infrastructure, and climate for change.

We expect that the PULSE Vision & Change Rubrics will be used for a variety of purposes, including departmental self-assessment, engagement of senior academic administrators, and as the basis for a departmental certification program. Initially, the rubrics can provide a structure and “road map” for departmental reflection regarding a host of topics relevant to implementation of Vision and Change recommendations. A goal of the rubrics is to provide a basic framework of expectations, such that evidence of adoption of Vision and Change principles can be gathered and self-assessed by departments and a road map for continued transformation can be charted. We anticipate that the rubrics themselves can serve as an assessment tool to examine how changes in departmental practices over time affect student outcomes. Longer term, we intend the rubrics to serve as the basis for a tiered certification program for undergraduate life sciences departments that have adopted some or all of the principles outlined in the Vision and Change report. Certification will serve both to reward departments that have made substantial progress in implementing Vision and Change, and to incentivize departments that have been slow to adopt these changes.

An underlying assumption of the PULSE Vision & Change Rubrics is that higher scores resulting from excellent/exemplar level of achievement will result in better student outcomes. At present, this is only a hypothesis, and we and others who use the rubrics will gather data to test this hypothesis. This evidence will guide future revisions of the PULSE Vision & Change Rubrics, to ensure that they reflect the criteria that “really matter” to improve student learning.

We are very interested in receiving feedback from the biology education community. This is most easily done via the PULSE Community website or by contacting one of the authors directly. During the past year of development, we have done our best to include the most relevant criteria for capturing and recognizing departmental efforts, but it is likely we have omitted key items or areas. We are depending on the community to provide feedback so as to make the rubrics as effective as possible. We anticipate that the rubrics will be revised over the next year, and we expect them to evolve in future years based on evidence of their effectiveness and changing standards of knowledge and practice in undergraduate life sciences education.

MATERIALS FOR DEPARTMENTAL ASSESSMENT AND ONGOING REFORM

The PULSE Vision & Change Rubrics are available for download from the PULSE Community website: www.pulsecommunity.org.