CAREER: Costs and benefits of problem solving in small groups: An integrated plan for research and education

拟议的研究项目探索了群体规模对问题解决的影响。调查人员将系统地观察个体在从事科学问题解决活动时的过程和结果，以及二元组和三合会的合作。在这些活动中，本科生被要求在完整的心理学课堂上对数据、证据和理论进行推理。通过这种方式，研究人员的研究计划与她的教育研究方法和计算机科学课程的课堂教学计划相结合。这位研究人员还提议进行一组平行的基于实验室的研究，着眼于关于板块构造和火山的推理，试图跨领域和主题推广这些发现。该项目的中心目标是确定协作环境的具体方面，这些具体方面会导致学习收获，而不会导致学习收获。根据社会心理学的文献，研究者确定了群体问题解决的四个方面与生产力的损失有关：动机和努力的变化，评估和冲突的可能性，任务的协调和表征，资源的汇集。这位研究人员希望为设计有效的合作活动制定指导方针，这些活动不仅应该促进她自己的课堂上的学习，而且应该对教育中的一系列领域和主题产生影响。这位调查人员的教育计划包括利用她自己的研究来完善她目前在心理学方法方面的本科课程，并将其调整为用于她的计算机科学和教育方法课程。作为荣誉学院的顾问，她还计划聘请一群本科生作为她实验室的研究人员。

The proposed program of research explores the effects of group size on problem-solving. The investigator will systematically look at the processes and outcomes of individuals working along as well as colloborations by dyads and triads as they engage in scientific problem solving activities in which undergraduates are asked to reason about data, evidence, and theories in intact psychology classes. In this manner, the investigator's research program is integrated with her classroom instruction plans for her courses on research methods in education and computer science. The investigator also proposes to conduct a parallel set of laboratory-based studies looking at reasoning about plate tectonics and volcanoes in an attempt to generalize the findings across domains and topics. The central goal of the project is the identification of the specific aspects of collaborative contexts that lead to learning gains and those that do not. Drawing on the literature in social psychology, the investigator has identified four aspects of group problem solving that are implicated in a loss of productivity: changes in motivation and effort, potential for evaluation and conflict, task coordination and representation, pooling of resources. The investigator hopes to produce guidelines for the design of effective collaborative activities that should not only foster learning within her own classes, but have implications across a range of domains and topics in education. The investigator's educational plan includes using her own studies to refine her current undergraduate courses in methods in psychology, and adapting them for use in her course in Computer Science and educational methods classes. In her role as an advisor in the Honors College, she also plans to engage a group of undergraduates as researchers in her lab.