EDUCATION, PARASITE EVOLUTIONARY ECOLOGY, AND MUSEUMS: PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS.

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) have grown in popularity, particularly within introductory biology courses, to provide more students with authentic research experiences. CUREs have been shown to have many of the same positive effects as conventional research experiences; however, most assessments of CUREs lack an appropriate comparison group to evaluate their effectiveness. Here, we introduced a CURE into an introductory biology lab at a regional public university but maintained a traditional, "cookie-cutter" lab in half the lab sections over a 3-year period. We compared changes in test scores and survey responses, final lab and lecture scores, and D, F, withdrawal, and incomplete (DFWI) and retention rates between non-honors biology students in each group. While both groups showed significant improvement in test scores, only transfer students had significantly greater improvement in the CURE vs traditional lab. Students in both groups showed significant increases in self-confidence in some lab-related tasks, but differences in these changes were generally not significant between groups. There were no significant differences in final lecture score, lab score, DFWI rate, or retention rate. Factors affecting the lack of measured CURE success may include the type of CURE chosen, student career interests, and COVID-19; other positive impacts of the CURE may not have been captured by our measurements. This study demonstrates the importance of carefully choosing a CURE to match the student population, as well as assessing the CURE's impact against a comparison group.

Course Based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) are an effective method of teaching students not only content, but also critical thinking, scientific practice, and other skills beneficial to their education and success. They lower the barrier to participation in undergraduate research, thereby increasing access to entry. Thus, CUREs are especially valuable to under-performing students as they are an effective means of bridging the achievement gap. Due to the value and effectiveness of CUREs in student development, Lynn University has implemented a means by which students are exposed to CUREs and skills necessary to complete a CURE throughout the Environmental Studies major curriculum. This presentation will give a description of the curriculum and how CUREs and CURE-required skills are taught throughout the curriculum culminating in a fully independent capstone research project.

Early research experiences must be made available to all undergraduate students, including those at 2-yr institutions who account for nearly half of America's college students. We report on barriers unique to 2-yr institutions that preclude the success of an early course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE). Using a randomized study design, we evaluated a CURE in equivalent introductory biology courses at a 4-yr institution and a 2-yr institution within the same geographic region. We found that these student populations developed dramatically different impressions of the experience. Students at the 4-yr institution enjoyed the CURE significantly more than the traditional labs. However, students at the 2-yr institution enjoyed the traditional labs significantly more, even though the CURE successfully produced targeted learning gains. On the basis of course evaluations, we enhanced instructor, student, and support staff training and reevaluated this CURE at a different campus of the same 2-yr institution. This time, the students reported that they enjoyed the research experience significantly more than the traditional labs. We conclude that early research experiences can succeed at 2-yr institutions, provided that a comprehensive implementation strategy targeting instructor, student, and support staff training is in place.

In the Republic of Congo, formal teacher training is comprised of both theoretical and practical components. Theoretical training takes the form of theoretical courses within the training institution itself. On the other hand, practical training takes place in professional settings such as secondary school. The purpose of this comparative study was to identify the conceptions of critical thinking development held by pedagogical supervisors and student trainees. Rooted in a qualitative methodological approach, this research was based on Eric Lavertu's (2013) conceptual approach to the development of critical thinking during internships. Eight (08) pedagogical supervisors and nineteen (19) student-interns voluntarily participated in the study via focus groups. The results revealed a categorization of several didactic-pedagogical devices for the development of student-interns' critical thinking, according to both the pedagogical supervisors and the studentinterns themselves. To foster the development of critical thinking in student trainees, the devices mentioned specify that the supervisor must implement a supervisory pedagogical approach anchored in a socio-constructivist paradigm to accompany the student's development while employing a reflective approach in coaching. In addition, these systems stress the importance of placing the student at the center of their learning, making them a real player in their own development.

Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) have beneficial impacts on students and the capacity to provide authentic research experiences that are accessible and beneficial to all students, especially those from Minoritized Groups. CUREs can be presented in a full semester format (cCURE) and shorter modules incorporated into laboratory courses (mCURE). In this study, protein-centric CUREs were implemented at two minority-serving Community Colleges (CCs) in introductory biology and chemistry courses. Using validated assessment tools, student self-reported gains, and institutional data, we examined student outcomes in three conditions: control, mCURE, and cCURE courses. We also examined whether there was a differential impact on student outcomes by Minoritized Group status. Our findings show that students from Minoritized Groups have improved scientific literacy compared to their White/Asian peers in the cCUREs, whereas students from Minoritized Groups in the control course had lower relative scientific literacy. There was no significant difference in STEM Career Interest between the three conditions. Most significantly, the one-year retention rate of students from the mCURE condition was 24% higher than that seen among control students. Furthermore, retention of students from Minoritized Groups in mCUREs was significantly higher than in control courses, whereas no significant difference was observed in White/Asian students. Taken together, these data suggest that CUREs can be an impactful practice in introductory courses at CCs, especially for students from Minoritized Groups.

Today, the need for the formation and development of critical thinking attracts more and more attention from foreign and domestic scientists. It was found out that this is primarily due to the lack of independence, social orientation, motivation and effectiveness of thinking of the younger generation. There is a tendency to increase the flow of information with which a person interacts on a daily basis, but the question arises not only of perceiving and memorizing this information, but also of critical understanding, highlighting important characteristics, and achieving the truth of knowledge. The development of critical thinking becomes the main task of education, in particular higher education, it is an important component of the intellectual development of future teachers. The article considers the need to develop critical thinking skills in future educators. The didactic features of the mentioned phenomenon among students of higher education in the specialty 012 Preschool education during the study of the discipline «Formation of soft skills of a modern specialist in preschool education» were revealed. Education focused on the development of critical thinking is an urgent methodological problem of modern education. Techniques for the development of critical thinking make it possible to obtain positive results in the formation of active mental activity of students. The specified type of thinking is aimed at developing skills for working with information, the ability to analyze and apply this information in solving professional situations. Based on the analysis of scientific literature, the interpretation of the concept of «critical thinking» from the perspective of psychological and pedagogical science, namely the views of researchers of the past and modern scientists, is highlighted. The author describes the methods and techniques of developing critical thinking. Among them, the following were found to be effective: «INSERT», «Open microphone», «Brainstorming», «Conjecture tree», «Written discussion», «Thick and thin questions», «PRES-formula», «Fishbone». The specified methods and techniques accustom students to independent thinking, a critical look at alternative solutions to existing problems, and the choice of well-founded argumentation. Emphasis is placed on the application of the problem-based approach in the educational process, which is the main tool for the development of critical thinking, because it contains a contradiction that allows students to form their own attitude to the issues under consideration. It has been proven that during the study of micro- and macroeconomics, effective methods of developing critical thinking are the division of students into groups and teamwork during preparation for debates, and the important role of essay writing is also analyzed. Key words: critical thinking, professional training, future educator, «INSERT», «Written discussion», «PRES-formula», «Fishbone».

Undergraduate research involves experiential learning methods that helps animal science students gain critical thinking skills. There is high demand for these opportunities. For example, 77.9% of incoming freshmen in the Department of Animal Sciences & Industry at Kansas State University in Fall 2017 and Fall 2018 planned to conduct research sometime during their undergraduate career (422 of 542 students). Conventional, one-on-one mentoring methods in the department were only serving 1.7% of the undergraduate population (21 of 1,212 students). This creates a unique challenge of increasing the number of undergraduate research opportunities, while maintaining the impact of individualized experiential learning. One method to address this challenge is the incorporation of a course-based research program. In this model, research projects are conducted during a conventional semester during scheduled classroom hours, with project components divided into 3 sections: (1) research preparation, including compliance requirements, hypothesis testing, experimental design, and protocol development; (2) data collection; and (3) data interpretation and dissemination. Students collect data as a team, but individually develop their own research abstract and poster to maintain a high level of experiential learning. By teaching multiple sections of this course per semester and incorporating the concepts into existing laboratories, 13.5% of students in the department completed undergraduate research in the 2018–2019 academic year (162 of 1,197 students). To monitor the quality of these experiences, student critical thinking ability was assessed using the online Critical Thinking Basic Concepts & Understanding Test (Foundation for Critical Thinking, Tomales, CA). Undergraduate research experiences increased (P = 0.028) the growth in student critical thinking score, but the type of research experience did not influence assessed skills (P > 0.281). Thus, course-based undergraduate research experiences may be an option for growing the quantity and quality of undergraduate research experience in animal science.

In the context of globalization, critical thinking is still regarded as the core content of higher education. The difference between Eastern and Western cultures has a key impact on understanding critical thinking. When the current literature studies the influence of culture on critical thinking, it mainly considers from the macro level, mainly including ethnic history, traditional customs, religious beliefs, art, ethics, and so on. However, from a specific and micro cultural perspective, how critical thinking is influenced by a culture still lacks effective research. This paper studies the influence of Confucian paternalistic leadership on the development of critical thinking in the East from a specific cultural perspective. The study discovers that Asians are easier to understand how things change and they are more tolerant to conflict, which means that they see things as interrelated and interdependent. They are more likely to use intuitive and experience-based reasoning if there is a conflict between intuitive and logical reasoning. Benevolence and hierarchy in paternalistic leadership promote the formation of cooperative critical thinking in improving the operation of organizations so that the characteristics of oriental critical thinking can be analyzed more comprehensively.

The article deals with the methods and techniques for the development of critical thinking of primary schoolchildren, which are fundamentally different from the reproductive style of learning. The development of critical thinking of students can largely meet the requirements of modernity, namely: the content of education is considered not as a material for learning, but as a material for research; the student in this system is one of the main subjects of cooperation; the teacher, acting as an assistant, encourages students to maximum cognitive activity, maintains a creative psychological climate through co-creativity with students. It is noted that for the quality organization of the educational process and achievement of the set goals it is important to correctly apply the tools and methods of development of critical thinking. The article suggests a detailed description of the basic methods and techniques for the development of critical thinking and features of their application at primary school lessons. It is noted that the technologically correct application of methods and techniques for the development of critical thinking will promote active learning of students and form a culture of critical thinking.

We attribute the development of critical thinking to the urgent problem of teachers’ training in the additional professional education (APE) system, allowing them to design tasks for the development of students’ critical thinking, which determines the formation of their functional literacy. The paper reveals a solution to the problem of developing didactic tools and conditions by teachers within the framework of professional development in the APE system that ensure the development of students’ critical thinking. The aim is to describe the use of techniques for contextual understanding of the text in the APE courses for teachers, which determine the development of critical thinking of education subjects. Project teams of teachers (112 people) from the Lyceum of Istra, Secondary School No. 17 in Odintsovo, Moscow Region, took part in the experimental work on the implementation of techniques for the development of critical thinking designed by teachers trained in the DPO system. Diagnostics of the development of teachers’ critical thinking was carried out on the basis of the methodology for determining the level of development of teachers’ critical thinking (E.N. Volkova), an individual measure of reflexivity (A.V. Karpova). The techniques for contextual perception and analysis of text have been developed, including interpretation, explanation, evaluation, interpretation, questions and critical analysis of videos, works of art and texts through the prism of a certain context. These techniques represent the novelty of the study. A methodology for constructing techniques for interpreting and treating any content, video material, critical analysis of texts in the context of certain concepts and theories is presented. A methodology for designing a technique for explaining, interpreting and critically analyzing materials, including educational videos and texts, in the context of the content of various subjects is also proposed. All the proposed techniques are related to the theoretical significance of this study. The practical significance of the study is revealed in a specific assignment for teachers undergoing their qualification mastering at the level of APE, consisting of a multi-contextual interpretation of the video «Stand to the end, don’t you dare break!» The techniques developed in the study for contextual perception, comprehension of the text, and the methods for their development by teachers improving their qualifications in the APE system expand and enrich the theory of modeling pedagogical means for developing critical thinking in education subjects and create new opportunities for its development.

Asynchronous online discussions (AODs) are increasingly prevalent in higher education to adapt to educational changes and promote critical thinking among learners. Past research has emphasized instructors' facilitation roles in encouraging learners' critical thinking in AODs, while fewer studies explored peer facilitation and peer participants' critical thinking from the students' perspective as facilitators. This study used a lag sequential analysis approach to examine peer facilitation techniques and critical thinking in a peer‐facilitated AOD spanning six tasks over 12 weeks with 40 undergraduate participants. Results highlighted that the most frequently used peer facilitation techniques were giving own opinions or experiences and questioning, with the latter demonstrating the highest number of significant sequential patterns. Peer participants' critical thinking primarily involved analyse and evaluate, with significant sequential patterns observed in lower level and higher order critical thinking stages but not between them. Further investigation revealed the impact of peer facilitation techniques on critical thinking, and a new three‐phase model was developed to describe their associations. These findings suggest that dynamic peer facilitation techniques effectively enhance critical thinking, with specific techniques targeting distinct phases of its development in AODs. The study provides actionable insights for educators, offering strategies to optimize facilitation approaches and foster critical thinking skills in higher education settings. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Asynchronous online discussions are widely used in higher education to encourage learners' critical thinking. Instructors as facilitators play a positive role in encouraging learners' critical thinking in asynchronous online discussions, while the role of peer facilitators is less discussed. In peer‐facilitated asynchronous online discussions, the facilitation techniques used by peer facilitators affect the development of critical thinking in peer participants. What this paper adds Uses lag sequential analysis to examine the sequential patterns of peer facilitation techniques and critical thinking in peer‐facilitated asynchronous online discussions. Reports common peer facilitation techniques used by peer facilitators and observed significant sequential patterns. Presents the distribution and developmental sequential patterns of critical thinking in peer participants. Examines the association between peer facilitation techniques and critical thinking, and develops a new three‐phase model to describe this association. Implications for practice and/or policy Dynamic peer facilitation techniques can effectively promote the development of critical thinking in peer participants, with specific relationships existing between different phases of critical thinking and different types of peer facilitation techniques. This study reveals the facilitation of critical thinking in asynchronous online discussions from the perspective of learners as facilitators, filling a research gap. The findings provide practical guidance for effectively encouraging critical thinking among college students in higher education.

Critical thinking instruction and technology enhanced learning from the student perspective: A mixed methods research study.

Labor market trends estimation shows that there is an increasing number of professions in which universal competencies are valued, including critical thinking. This paper presents a theoretical framework, which makes it possible to assess the organizational and pedagogical conditions for the development of critical thinking, and analyzes these conditions in Russian universities. To collect data, we used the method of semi-structured interviews with teachers (18 people), with representatives of the administration (10 people) of Russian universities, and with one of the authors of Federal State Standards for Higher Education (current version). The results show that today in Russia, despite the requirements of the standards, not all universities have conditions for the development of critical thinking among all students. Three types of universities can be distinguished: 1) universities that create conditions for the development of critical thinking among all students; 2) universities whose conditions allow to develop critical thinking only for individual students; 3) universities that do not create conditions for the development of students’ critical thinking at all.

Critical thinking and collaboration skills are fundamental skills that must be owned by teachers in the 21st- century. Critical thinking skills make teachers more sensitive and critical of the teaching and learning process so the teachers can continue to improve the quality of their learning. Improving the learning process will be maximized if a teacher collaborates with other teachers to design improvements in the teaching and learning process. The development of critical thinking and collaboration skills will be maximized if they realize the importance of having these skills. The purpose of this paper is to outline the opinions of prospective teacher students about how important the development of critical thinking and collaboration skills for prospective teacher- students. The method of this research was descriptive and literature study. Data retrieval was carried out through questionnaires that were given to 224 prospective teacher students at Universitas Negeri Malang. The questionnaire was filled out by 63 postgraduate and 161 undergraduate students. The purpose of the questionnaire was to find out the opinions of prospective teacher students about how important the development of critical thinking and collaboration skills is. Analysis of the data was carried out using qualitative analysis techniques. The results of the questionnaire showed that all prospective teacher-students agree that the development of critical thinking and collaboration skills is important, especially for prospective teacher-students. These results indicate the need for developing critical thinking and collaboration skills for prospective teacher-students through various models/methods/strategies in learning.

An emphasis on science practices in university science education provides a logical route to student development of scientific literacy and critical thinking. Unlike scientific literacy and critical thinking which have been the subjects of much debate and controversy, the science practices are consensus-based and well-defined. As the disaggregated components of critical thinking, science practices are well-positioned to support and systematically assess student development of critical thinking. In this paper, we report on our examination of general chemistry laboratory curricula for opportunities to engage students in science practices using the Three-Dimensional Learning Assessment Protocol, 3D-LAP. Our findings suggest that the laboratory curricula provide opportunities for students to engage in some practices, while others are consistently underrepresented. Additionally, there is a disproportionate emphasis on mathematical thinking which not only has equity implications, especially for marginalized students, but could also have the unintended consequence of students developing a distorted view of the intellectual work of chemistry. The findings of our study indicate a need for greater balance with respect to the practices in the general chemistry laboratory curricula, and have the potential to inform the design, development, or adaptation of lab curricula to better support scientific literacy and critical thinking. We couple accountable disciplinary knowledge and constructive alignment to discuss these and other findings and implications of our work for teaching, learning, and research.