PECASE: Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Practice in Teacher Education: Guided Interactive Virtual Environments (GIVEs) for Case-Based Learning

提案标题：PECASE：弥合教师教育理论与实践之间的差距：基于案例学习的引导交互式虚拟环境（GIVE）机构：新墨西哥大学PECASE建议的目的是研究如何帮助科学教师准备有效地思考和应用教育心理学的原则，课堂经验。作者希望它有助于理解的认知过程，支持教师的努力，以解决新的和复杂的问题在课堂上。该项目也有影响的教育技术，促进学生更高层次的推理能力，通过案例研究的设计。特别是，预计该项目将有助于显示满足新墨西哥州有大量美洲土著居民和其他少数民族的学校的需要的方法。她将开发虚拟环境，为教师准备案例学习，使认知技能在日常生活的背景下学习的具体程序。虚拟环境允许一次专注于几个问题，从而减少了教师的认知负荷。本研究将探讨几个假设，如何基于案例的方法提供高阶思维技能，帮助学生解决问题。研究者将通过对三组学生进行为期三年的跟踪调查，收集教师对学生表现的数据。这批学生将在项目的第三年成为职前教师，并将作为教师进入他们的教室。一个队列将作为对照组，其他队列将接受由研究者制定的培训计划。教育计划研究者的职业规划与本PECASE提案中概述的项目直接相关。调查人员感兴趣的是人们如何思考和学习，以及如何将这些知识应用到课堂上。这个项目与调查人员的职业规划紧密相连。正如她在2002年12月12日给L Suter的一封电子邮件中指出的那样，这个项目“直接反映了我对教学的兴趣，这源于我对研究人们如何思考和学习的承诺。“这些材料将被纳入她所教授的本科课程，她计划根据她的研究结果开设特殊的研究生课程。这个项目最初是作为一个职业奖资助的，并于2004年9月转换为总统工程师和科学家早期职业奖（PECASE）。

Proposal Title: PECASE: Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Practice inTeacher Education: Guided Interactive Virtual Environments (GIVEs) for Case-Based LearningInstitution: University of New MexicoThe purpose of this PECASE proposal is to study how to help science teachers prepare to think effectively and apply principles of educational psychology to classroom experiences. The author expects it to contribute to understanding of the cognitive processes that support the teacher efforts to solve novel and complex problems in the classroom. The project also has implications for the design of educational technology that promote student higher level reasoning skills through case studies. In particular, this project is expected to help show ways of meeting the needs of the New Mexico schools with large populations of Native American and other minorities. She would develop virtual environments for preparing teachers with case learning so that cognitive skills are learned as concrete procedures in the context of everyday life. The virtual environments allow a focus on a few issues at a time thus reducing the cognitive load on the teachers. This study will explore several hypotheses about how case-based methods provide higher order thinking skills that help students solve problems. The researcher will collect data from teachers on student performance by following three cohorts of students for 3-years each. The cohorts will be pre-service teachers in year 3 of the project and will be followed into their classrooms as teachers. One cohort will serve as a control group to the others that will go through the training program developed by the investigator.Education PlanThe investigator's career plans are directly related to the project outlined in this PECASE proposal. The investigator is interested in how people think and learn and how to apply that knowledge to classrooms. This project is very closely woven into the investigators career plans. As she noted in an e-mail to L Suter on December 12, 2002, this project is a "direct reflection of my interest in teaching, which stems from my commitment to research how people think and learn." The materials will be incorporated into the undergraduate curriculum that she teaches and she plans to offer special graduate classes based on the result of her research.This project was originally funded as a CAREER award, and was converted to a Presidential Early Career Award for Engineers and Scientists (PECASE) award in September 2004.