Welcome to the Teaching-focused Faculty in Biology Education Special Interest Group!

This SIG provides a community for teaching-oriented faculty, including teaching faculty, tenure-track faculty with both research and teaching obligations but whose main percentage of time is dedicated to teaching, as well as those who are interested in teaching-orientated careers within higher education.  We will foster connections between members of our community through panels, discussions, and workshops, and discuss ways that we can promote the translation of biology education research into the scholarly reflective practices as well. At each SABER annual meeting, we will hold regular SIG panel meetings, creating a space to discuss our roles, experiences, challenges, interests and topics that we care about in biology education, as a cohort of biology classroom practitioners.

Who Should Join Us?

• Teaching-oriented faculty including teaching professors, tenure-track faculty with both research and teaching obligations but whose main percentage of time is dedicated to teaching, lecturers, teaching postdocs, and others whose primary duties is teaching, rather than research or creative work as defined by the regular norms of job duties. 

• Early career scientists, including undergraduates, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows, interested in pursuing teaching-focused careers in higher education

• Educators who are enthusiastic about evidence-based teaching strategies and innovated pedagogy.

• Classroom practitioners who are interested in expanding teaching practices to biology research.

• Individuals who are interested in national collaborative network or projects in biology education.

Working Groups

TFF Mentoring and Networking (TFF-MN): We are excited to develop ways to network among our TFF members and provide opportunities for connecting with similarly positioned individuals from universities and colleges around the US. This working group aims to provide resources in the context of mentorship and networking as well.

group leaders: Ariel Steele steel106@msu.edu and Anisha Navlekar Anisha.Navlekar@ttu.edu

Policy and Institutional Landscape Impacting TFF(PILI-TFF): We are dedicated to analyzing and comparing institutional policies on promotion, merit, governance, and voting rights for teaching-focused faculty (TFF) in order to identify patterns, disparities, and opportunities for improvement.

group leader: Nouran Amin: nouran.amin@bsu.edu

TFF-Oriented Research and Funding Opportunities(TFF-ORFO): We are passionate about building resources to increase TFF access to funding opportunities, while advocating for faculty engaged in classroom-centered education research.

group leader: Nikea Pittman: nikea@unc.edu

TFF Professional Development (TFF-PD): We assemble and share professional development opportunities, and provide a forum for discussion, experience‑sharing, and professional priority‑setting for TFF careers at SABER.

group leaders: Ann Thijs: ann.thijs@austin.utexas.edu and JT Cornelius: jtcornel@iu.edu

Compiling Resources for Pedagogical Innovation (CRPI): We will create a repository of resources that capture a variety of pedagogical practices that is easily accessible for TFF. This will include a comments section where instructors can note how they used the resources and any modifications they made.

group leader: Katy Guthrie: guthr103@umn.edu

Join Us

Join us by sharing your contact information on the Google form: https://forms.gle/d6QjY3A3Yj8swRr87 

Contact

Special Interest Group Leaders:

Working Group Leaders:

Ariel Steele: steel106@msu.edu
Anisha Navlekar: Anisha.Navlekar@ttu.edu

Nouran Amin: nouran.amin@bsu.edu

Nikea Pittman: nikea@unc.edu

Ann Thijs: ann.thijs@austin.utexas.edu
J.T. Cornelius: jtcornel@iu.edu

Katy Guthrie: guthr103@umn.edu