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R Markdown as a dynamic interface for teaching: Modules from math and biology classrooms.

ABSTRACT: Advancing technologies, including interactive tools, are changing classroom pedagogy across academia. Here, we discuss the R Markdown interface, which allows for the creation of partial or complete interactive classroom modules for courses using the R programming language. R Markdown files mix sections of R code with formatted text, including LaTeX, which are rendered together to form complete reports and documents. These features allow instructors to create classroom modules that guide students through concepts, while providing areas for coding and text response by students. Students can also learn to create their own reports for more independent assignments. After presenting the features and uses of R Markdown to enhance teaching and learning, we present examples of materials from two courses. In a Computational Modeling course for math students, we used R Markdown to guide students through exploring mathematical models to understand the principle of herd immunity. In a Data Visualization and Communication course for biology students, we used R Markdown for teaching the fundamentals of R programming and graphing, and for students to learn to create reproducible data investigations. Through these examples, we demonstrate the benefits of R Markdown as a dynamic teaching and learning tool.

SUBMITTER: Grayson KL

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9487201 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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R Markdown as a dynamic interface for teaching: Modules from math and biology classrooms.

Grayson Kristine L KL Hilliker Angela K AK Wares Joanna R JR

Mathematical biosciences 20220524

Advancing technologies, including interactive tools, are changing classroom pedagogy across academia. Here, we discuss the R Markdown interface, which allows for the creation of partial or complete interactive classroom modules for courses using the R programming language. R Markdown files mix sections of R code with formatted text, including LaTeX, which are rendered together to form complete reports and documents. These features allow instructors to create classroom modules that guide students ...[more]

PMID: 35623397

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Project description:BackgroundAs higher education institutions strive to effectively support an increasingly diverse student body, they will be called upon to provide their faculty with tools to teach more inclusively, especially in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) classrooms where recruitment and retention of students from underrepresented and disadvantaged groups present long-standing challenges. Pedagogical training approaches to creating inclusive classrooms involve interventions that raise awareness of student and instructor social identities and explore barriers to learning, such as implicit bias, microaggressions, stereotype threat, and fixed mindset. Such efforts should focus on embracing diversity as an asset leveraged to benefit all students in their learning. In this paper, we describe the impact of multiday, off-campus immersion workshops designed to impart faculty with these tools. Based on analysis of workshop participant data, we report the resulting changes in faculty knowledge of factors affecting classroom climate and student success in STEM, attitudes about students, and motivation to adopt new teaching practices aimed at fostering equitable and culturally responsive learning environments.ResultsKey findings indicate that attendees (1) increased their knowledge of social identities and the barriers to learning in STEM classrooms, particularly those faced by students from underrepresented groups in STEM or socioeconomically challenged backgrounds; (2) changed their attitudes about students' abilities as science majors, shifting away from a fixed-mindset perspective in which characteristics, such as intelligence, are perceived as innate and unalterable; and (3) modified their teaching approaches to promote inclusivity and cultural responsiveness.ConclusionFaculty members, who are linchpins in the evolution of college classrooms into settings that provide students with equitable opportunities to succeed academically in STEM, can benefit from participating in immersion workshops structured to support their awareness of issues affecting classroom culture related to race/ethnicity, LGBTQ status, religious affiliation, ability, socioeconomic status, and other social identities that contribute to disparities in STEM achievement and persistence.

Dataset Information

R Markdown as a dynamic interface for teaching: Modules from math and biology classrooms.

Publications

R Markdown as a dynamic interface for teaching: Modules from math and biology classrooms.

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