Research Experience
Presenting research on the #SabelLab metacognition project at the CIRCLE Conference at @WUSTL. @UofMemphisBio pic.twitter.com/74tal1YvkH
— Dr. Jaime Sabel (@jlsabel) April 5, 2022
Summary
I began my research path as a developmental geneticist examining genes involved in early embryonic development and then transitioned to teaching and research in science education. My master’s degree work focused on a gene (irf6) involved in cleft lip and palate in humans that led to early defects in zebrafish embryonic development resulting from disruptions in epithelial cell migration. See Sabel et al. 2009. Concurrently with laboratory work, I began teaching developmental biology to undergraduates and became interested in how various instructional methods have the potential to help students understand complex biological concepts. This led me to begin exploring science education literature and to consider how I could integrate research about teaching into my own classroom practices. As a result, I altered my path from research in the science laboratory to research in the science classroom. My science education research has focused generally on adult learners engaging in learning life science and science teaching methods. In particular, this work has involved inservice teachers (those in the classroom) learning to use formative assessment, preservice teachers (students studying to be teachers) learning both life science content and pedagogical methods, and undergraduate students learning biology.
In my early research in science education, I was a part of two different projects focused on formative assessment practices in science contexts for teachers in both inservice and preservice teachers. The RAES-Iowa project involved inservice teacher professional development on using formative assessment in elementary science classrooms. As a part of this project, I collaborated with many different partners including teachers from the community, science education consultants from the area education agency, and curriculum developers from FOSS Program at the Lawrence Hall of Science. The research focused on how teachers implemented formative assessment to improve their own practice and students’ understanding. Findings from research embedded within this project revealed that teachers used information from science curriculum materials or the presence of particular vocabulary words to interpret student understanding rather than the teachers’ own content knowledge about the science concepts (Forbes, Sabel, and Biggers, 2015) and that teachers with greater content knowledge were able to more effectively interpret students’ ideas than those with lower content knowledge scores (Sabel, Forbes, and Flynn, 2016).
In a second project, I was a leader on a team of faculty and graduate students that developed an innovative science methods course for undergraduate students preparing to become elementary teachers (i.e., preservice teachers) that integrated both elementary science methods and science content. The course was designed to provide preservice teachers with the necessary tools to develop understanding of biological concepts and the skills they will need to implement elementary science curriculum. Our research focused on how preservice teachers used content knowledge to connect to formative assessment tasks. Findings from this research showed that increased life science content knowledge over the semester helped preservice teachers engage more productively in anticipating and evaluating students’ ideas, but not in deciding what instructional steps to take next based on that information. See (a) Sabel, Forbes, and Zangori, 2015 and (b) Forbes, Sabel, and Zangori, 2015.
My dissertation work came, in part, from ideas developed during these prior research studies, specifically the focus on life science content knowledge and on strategies, like formative assessment, that can help improve student learning. The ability to engage in forming and understanding complex conceptual frameworks is a foundation for students to engage in the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of working in, thinking about, or teaching science. Instructors can provide students support in connecting their preexisting ideas to more complex understanding through various types of scaffolds (tools to support students until they can engage in a behavior on their own) to help students engage in metacognition (thinking about thinking) and enhance their learning. My dissertation encompassed two studies in which different types of scaffolds were embedded to encourage reflection about what students know and what steps they need to take to enhance their understanding. The first study involved introductory biology students using post-assignment rubrics and reflection question to engage in metacognition and enhance their understanding of complex biological concepts. The second study involved preservice elementary teachers using structured formative assessment learning tasks to support them in learning life science content and engaging in formative assessment practices. These scaffolds represent the types of support instructors can provide students to help them consider their own learning processes and construct new understanding or strengthen existing understanding. See Sabel, Dauer, and Forbes, 2017.
My work at The University of 
Memphis continues to be focused on how various types of scaffolds can be incorporated into undergraduate education to support students in learning complex biological concepts. This work will inform the design of undergraduate and graduate biology courses to integrate scaffolds that will support students as well as the design of scaffolds that will best support students in these efforts.
The lab currently has three projects under this scaffolds umbrella:
1) The Majors Metacognition project is a longitudinal study examining undergraduate students’ development of metacognition and understanding of complex biological concepts as they progress through the five, core courses of the biology major
2) The Nonmajors Reflection project examines how the use of frequent reflection on the relevance of biology to students lives affects the self-efficacy and self-regulated learning strategies in a nonmajors biology course
3) The Plant Blindness project is the primary work of PhD student, Kate Parsley. She is working to develop instruments and examine the effects of classroom interventions on students’ levels of plant blindness and botanical literacy.
4) The CURE Progression project focuses on the development and evaluation of Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) within the biology department.
5) The Enzyme Modeling for Introductory Biology Students is a joint project with Dr. Nathan DeYonker in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Memphis.