Back

Detecting signals of critical transition in inclusive teaching in biology education: A computational text analysis of CourseSource

Mangane, S.; Zhao, Y.; Eaton, C. D.

2023-09-01 scientific communication and education
10.1101/2023.08.31.555773 bioRxiv
Show abstract

We examine every Inclusive Teaching section in articles published by the journal CourseSource - undergraduate biology teaching materials and related essays - from 2014 to 2022 to understand the evolution of inclusive teaching ideas as expressed through language. We find a rapid shift in attention to inclusive teaching occurs between 2018 and 2019, marked by an increase in section length, increased use of inclusive teaching keywords, and an increase in complexity of ideas in the semantic network. This critical transition occurs before many of the recent events in 2020 which have renewed conversation on equity in education. Some effect is associated with Writing Workshop Faculty Mentoring Networks, which provide participants with authoring resources and support. However, this alone is not enough to explain the observed shift, suggesting that many other structures, conversations, and investments were already providing the fertile ground for educational equity in biology education.

Matching journals

The top 3 journals account for 50% of the predicted probability mass.

1
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B
51 papers in training set
Top 0.1%
28.3%
2
eLife
5422 papers in training set
Top 3%
12.8%
3
Nature Human Behaviour
85 papers in training set
Top 0.1%
10.3%
50% of probability mass above
4
PLOS Biology
408 papers in training set
Top 0.4%
8.6%
5
PLOS ONE
4510 papers in training set
Top 27%
6.5%
6
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
341 papers in training set
Top 1%
5.0%
7
Scientific Reports
3102 papers in training set
Top 49%
2.1%
8
PLOS Computational Biology
1633 papers in training set
Top 13%
2.1%
9
Communications Biology
886 papers in training set
Top 6%
1.9%
10
FEBS Letters
42 papers in training set
Top 0.1%
1.7%
11
eneuro
389 papers in training set
Top 5%
1.7%
12
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
2130 papers in training set
Top 37%
1.3%
13
Nature Neuroscience
216 papers in training set
Top 5%
1.3%
14
Ecology and Evolution
232 papers in training set
Top 3%
1.3%
15
Current Biology
596 papers in training set
Top 12%
0.9%
16
Patterns
70 papers in training set
Top 2%
0.8%
17
GigaScience
172 papers in training set
Top 3%
0.8%
18
FACETS
11 papers in training set
Top 0.3%
0.8%
19
BMC Biology
248 papers in training set
Top 5%
0.7%
20
Molecular Systems Biology
142 papers in training set
Top 2%
0.7%
21
Science
429 papers in training set
Top 20%
0.7%
22
Journal of Molecular Evolution
21 papers in training set
Top 0.4%
0.7%
23
Nature Biotechnology
147 papers in training set
Top 7%
0.7%
24
Computers in Biology and Medicine
120 papers in training set
Top 5%
0.7%
25
Royal Society Open Science
193 papers in training set
Top 6%
0.5%