The effectiveness of an integrated STEM curriculum unit on middle school students' life science learning
The effectiveness of an integrated STEM curriculum unit on middle school students' life science learning
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综合STEM课程单元对中学生生命科学学习的有效性
DOI：
10.1002/tea.21756
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发表时间：
2022
影响因子：
4.6
通讯作者：
Bryan, Lynn A.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Anwar, Saira;Menekse, Muhsin;Guzey, Selcen;Bryan, Lynn A.
最近呼吁对K-12科学教育进行改革，美国国家工程院的21世纪工程大挑战强调改善科学教学、学生的参与和学习。在本研究中，我们设计并实现了一个面向六年级学生的课程单元(i=1305)。课程单元融合了科学和工程的内容和实践，教授生态学、水污染和工程设计。我们调查了设计的综合STEM单元在学生科学学习结果的前、后和延迟后评估中的有效性。我们收集了基线组(通过现有的学区采用的课程教授)和干预组(使用生命科学和工程综合课程教授)学生的科学学习结果的评估前和评估后的数据。我们采用准实验研究设计，考察了基线和干预组之间的差异。我们使用ANCOVA来探索基线组和干预组学生学习的差异。此外，对于干预组的学生，我们进行了重复测量的方差分析来调查知识保持。我们的分析还考虑了学生的性别和有色人种(POC)地位。我们使用多元回归分析来探讨学生的性别、POC状况与其学习结果之间的关系。结果表明，干预组学生的学习成绩明显好于基线组学生。重复测量方差分析显示，经过8周的 教学后，干预组学生仍能保留科学知识。最后，对基线组的回归分析表明，性别和POC状况对他们的评估后得分没有显著的预测作用。然而，对于干预组，POC状态是评估后分数和知识保留的显著预测因子。总体而言，这项研究为结合工程设计和实践设计的STEM综合课程如何改善学生的科学学习结果提供了有价值的发现。
Recent calls for reform in K‐12 science education and the National Academy of Engineering's Grand Challenges for Engineering in the 21st Century emphasize improving science teaching, students' engagement, and learning. In this study, we designed and implemented a curriculum unit for sixth‐grade students (i= 1305). The curriculum unit integrated science and engineering content and practices to teach ecology, water pollution, and engineering design. We investigated the designed integrated STEM unit's effectiveness in students' science learning outcomes on pre‐, post‐, and delayed post‐assessments. We collected pre‐and post‐assessment data of students' science learning outcomes for both the baseline group (taught via existing district‐adopted curriculum) and an intervention group (taught with integrated life science and engineering curriculum). We used a quasi‐experimental research design and examined differences between baseline and intervention groups. We used ANCOVA to explore differences in students' learning in baseline and intervention groups. Furthermore, for students in the intervention group, we conducted repeated‐measures ANOVA to investigate knowledge retention. Our analyses also accounted for students' gender and People of Color (POC) status. We conducted multiple regression analyses to explore the relationship between students' gender, POC status, and their learning outcomes. The results indicated that the intervention group students performed significantly better than the students in the baseline group. The repeated measures ANOVA showed that students in the intervention group retained science knowledge after 8 weeks of instruction. Finally, the regression analysis for the baseline group showed that gender and POC status were not significant predictors of their post‐assessment scores. However, POC status was a significant predictor of post‐assessment scores and knowledge retention for the intervention group. Overall, this study provides valuable findings on how an integrated STEM curriculum designed with engineering design and practices improves students' science learning outcomes.