The Development of Scientific Thinking and Conceptions of Science in College Science Students

大学生科学思维和科学观念的培养

• 批准号: 9980519
• 负责人: Neil Stillings
• 金额: $ 99.76万
• 依托单位: Hampshire College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2000
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2000-01-01 至 2004-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9980519&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Development; Scientific; Thinking; Conceptions; Science

The Development of Scientific Thinking and Conceptions of Science in College Science StudentsThe project is a three-year comparative study of general (as opposed to field-specific) student outcomes of introductory college science instruction will be compared with those resulting from more traditional instruction. Assessments will be conducted in a large state university, several private colleges, and several junior colleges. A rich, mutimodal assessment methodology will be employed, including the following components: 1. Interviews of students to assess their scientific epistemologies. A modified version of the Nature of Science Interview will be employed.2. On-line essay-style assessments of students' higher-order scientific inquiry and basic quantitative skills. Two new instruments developed in previous research will be combined and refined for this project.3. On-line student surveys covering student demographics, attitudes, and motivation.4. Classroom observation, including detailed coding of teaching method and content. An observational protocol developed in previous research will be employed. 5. Faculty interviews. The methodology will be deployed in three interrelated subprojects. First, student outcomes will be assessed and correlated with instructional practices and demographic variables in 12 courses distributed factorially across the three types of institution, two levels of innovation, and two disciplinary areas (biology and earth/environmental science). This project will produce a rich picture of higher-order cognition in today's college student and of the cognitive gains associated with various instructional practices. Second, a sample of students from the 12 courses will be followed longitudinally for the duration of the project. The persistence and further development of early gains in cognitive skills and epistemology will be assessed. Students' choices of major field of study will be added to the demographic analyses of this data. This project will produce rich data on the development of scientific epistemology and cognitive skills in contemporary college students, and it will allow the assessment of the hypothesis that early explosure to inquiry-oriented instruction triggers persistent cognitive and motivational change. Third, three intervention studies will be undertaken in which the researchers work with faculty members for courses that were assessed in the first year to redesign their courses to improve general student outcomes. The course will then be reassessed. The intervention projects concern the introductory chemistry curriculum at a large university, an interdisciplinary general science course at a small college, and geoscience course at a small collge. This project will attempt to use early findings of the assessment research and cognitive-informed principles of instructional design to improve student gains in general inquiry and quantitative skills and in epistemological sophistication. Overall the project will produce research findings and new assessment techniques that will have an impact on changing college science education to meet national standards for improving students' understanding of the nature of science and skills in scientific reasoning.

该项目是一个为期三年的比较研究一般（而不是特定领域）的学生的结果介绍大学科学教学将比较与那些从更传统的教学。 评估将在一所大型州立大学、几所私立学院和几所初级学院进行。 将采用丰富的多模式评估方法，包括以下几个部分：1。 对学生进行访谈，以评估他们的科学认识论。 修改后的版本的性质 将采用科学面试。2. 学生高阶科学探究和基本定量技能的在线论文式评估。 本计画将结合先前研究所开发的两种新仪器，并加以改良。 在线学生调查，涵盖学生人口统计数据，态度和动机。 课堂观察，包括教学方法和内容的详细编码。 一项观察性 将采用在先前研究中开发的协议。 5. 教师面试 该方法将在三个相互关联的分项目中部署。 首先，学生的成绩将进行评估，并与教学实践和人口统计变量在12门课程中分布在三种类型的机构，两个层次的创新，两个学科领域（生物学和地球/环境科学）。 这个项目将产生一个丰富的图片高阶认知在今天的大学生和认知收益与各种教学实践。 第二，将在项目期间对12门课程的学生进行抽样纵向跟踪。 将评估认知技能和认识论早期收获的持续性和进一步发展。 学生对主要学习领域的选择将被添加到该数据的人口统计分析中。 该项目将产生关于当代大学生科学认识论和认知技能发展的丰富数据，并将允许评估早期探索探究式教学引发持续认知和动机变化的假设。 第三，将进行三项干预研究，其中研究人员与第一年评估的课程的教师合作，重新设计他们的课程，以提高学生的总体成绩。 然后将重新评估课程。 干预项目涉及大型大学的化学导论课程，小型学院的跨学科普通科学课程和小型学院的地球科学课程。 本计画将尝试利用评估研究的早期发现，以及教学设计的认知原则，来增进学生在一般探究、量化技巧以及认识论成熟度方面的收获。 总的来说，该项目将产生研究成果和新的评估技术，这将对改变大学科学教育产生影响，以达到提高学生对科学本质的理解和科学推理技能的国家标准。