Paula Lemons
Senior Associate Dean for Academic Innovation | Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences
Media
Social
Biography
As an administrator, she leads Franklin’s work in graduate and undergraduate education, with a focus on building creative academic programs, helping students develop as career leaders, and developing students, faculty, and staff to lead in Franklin at UGA and beyond.
Areas of Expertise
Media Appearances
Langston, Lemons named University Professors
UGA Today online
2024-02-25
Lemons is a champion of innovation and collaboration at UGA. Most notably, she founded and served for seven years as executive director of the Scientists Engaged in Education Research Center. The center brings together nearly 50 faculty who conduct multidisciplinary STEM education research and use its outcomes in their teaching.
Event Appearances
Planning Committee for the National Academies of Science
Engineering, and Medicine workshop on the Status of Discipline-Based Education Research https://www.nationalacademies.org/our-work/status-of-the-field-of-discipline-based-education-research-a-workshop
Research Focus
Research Areas:
Discipline-based education research
Biology Education
Biochemistry learning and instruction
Maximizing student success
Education
University of Kentucky
Ph.D.
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
1999
Southern Wesleyan University
B.S.
Biology
1994
Duke University
Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow
2001
Published Works
Does Instruction-First or Problem-Solving-First Depend on Learners’ Prior Knowledge?
Springer Nature Link2025-02-26
This study tested competing theories about the effectiveness of different instructional sequences for learners with different levels of prior knowledge. Across two classroom experiments, undergraduates learned about noncovalent interactions in biochemistry by either receiving explicit instruction before problem-solving (I-PS group) or engaging in problem-solving before explicit instruction (PS-I group).
Beyond STEM Attrition: Changing Career Plans Within STEM Fields in College Is Associated with Lower Career Motivation, Satisfaction, and Certainty
International Journal of STEM Education2024-03-04
Research and policy often focus on reducing attrition from educational trajectories leading to careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), but many students change career plans within STEM. This study examined how changing career plans within STEM fields was associated with psychological indicators of career readiness.
Assessor in action: assessment literacy development in a biochemistry context
Chemistry Education Research and Practice2023-03-31
Instructors make assessment decisions based on their knowledge and experiences. Assessment practice is an essential element of instruction, and the outcomes of assessments have a broad impact on both students and instructors. Efforts to provide strengths-focused, relevant professional development support regarding assessment are enhanced by greater understanding of the complex nature of assessment practices. In this study, the Teacher Assessment Literacy in Practice (TALiP) framework was used to guide our investigation of one biochemistry instructor's assessment literacy, relevant to her integration of a biochemistry threshold concept, the physical basis of interactions (PBI), into her course.
Learning Introductory Biology: Students’ Concept-Building Approaches Predict Transfer on Biology Exams
CBE—Life Sciences Education2022-09-16
Previous studies have found that students’ concept-building approaches, identified a priori with a cognitive psychology laboratory task, are associated with student exam performances in chemistry classes. Abstraction learners (those who extract the principles underlying related examples) performed better than exemplar learners (those who focus on memorizing the training exemplars and responses) on transfer exam questions but not retention questions, after accounting for general ability. We extended these findings to introductory biology courses in which active-learning techniques were used to try to foster deep conceptual learning. Exams were constructed to contain both transfer and retention questions.
Guides to Advance Teaching Evaluation (GATEs): A Resource for STEM Departments Planning Robust and Equitable Evaluation Practices
CBE-Life Sciences Education2022-06-27
Most science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) departments inadequately evaluate teaching, which means they are not equipped to recognize or reward effective teaching. As part of a project at one institution, we observed that departmental chairs needed help recognizing the decisions they would need to make to improve teaching evaluation practices. To meet this need, we developed the Guides to Advance Teaching Evaluation (GATEs), using an iterative development process.
Teaching Discipline-Based Problem Solving
CBE—Life Sciences Education2022-05-11
Problem solving plays an essential role in all scientific disciplines, and solving problems can reveal essential concepts that underlie those disciplines. Thus, problem solving serves both as a common tool and desired outcome in many science classes. Research on teaching problem solving offers principles for instruction that are guided by learning theories. This essay describes an online, evidence-based teaching guide (https://lse.ascb.org/ evidence-based-teaching-guides/problem-solving) intended to guide instructors in the use of these principles.
Putting the Pieces Together: Student Thinking about Transformations of Energy and Matter
CBE: Life Sciences Education2022-09-16
Research on student thinking facilitates the design of instructional materials that build on student ideas. The pieces framework views student knowledge as consisting of independent pieces that students assemble in fluctuating ways based on the context at hand. This perspective affords important insights about the reasons students think the way they do. We used the pieces framework to investigate student thinking about the concept transformations of energy and matter with a specific focus on metabolism.
Every Tool in the Toolbox: Pursuing Multilevel Institutional Change in the DeLTA Project
Taylor & Francis2021-03-26
For decades, educators and policy makers have called for reform in higher education, yet now the urgency is palpable. The COVID-19 pandemic and heightened attention to systemic racism have highlighted the fact that outdated teaching practices can stunt student learning and trust of science, maintain systemic biases, and prevent equitable education.
Through the Eyes of Faculty: Using Personas as a Tool for Learner-Centered Professional Development
CBE—Life Sciences Education2019-11-22
College science instructors need continuous professional development (PD) to meet the call to evidence-based practice. New PD efforts need to focus on the nuanced blend of factors that influence instructors’ teaching practices. We used persona methodology to describe the diversity among instructors who were participating in a long-term PD initiative. Persona methodology originates from ethnography. It takes data from product users and compiles those data in the form of fictional characters. Personas facilitate user-centered design.
Accomplishments
Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, 2019
United States Government
Excellence in Teaching Award 2015
University System of Georgia Board of Regents
Education Fellow in the Life Sciences, 2010-2011
National Academies of Science
