Using Community-Based Inquiry to Build Faculty Capacity and Student Critical Thinking

该项目采用一种名为社区探究（CBI）的教学方法来培养教师的专业知识，培训教师在课程中建立真实的探究，以显著提高学生的批判性思维技能和学习能力。虽然大多数国家领导人和大学教师认为批判性思维是教育的主要目标，也是STEM学科成功的主要组成部分，但很明显，许多美国大学毕业生缺乏批判性思维所需的技能。该项目正在通过招募来自STEM学科的教师来解决这一问题，以建立一个教师发展基础设施，帮助改革STEM课程，并通过协作、同行培训支持系统培养教师在激发批判性思维方面的专业知识。这些课程和教学改革对学生批判性思维的影响正在通过加州批判性思维技能测试来衡量。过去10年的研究表明，与传统教育的学生没有任何收获相比，CBI培养了显著的批判性思维能力。CBI方法整合了四个主要组成部分，以促进批判性思维技能的提高：1)与社区需求或学生兴趣相关的真实调查，2)案例研究练习，3)同行评估和个人责任，以及4)专注于批判性思维和解决问题的讲座/内容讨论。研究表明，这四个要素必须明确地集中在批判性思维的目标上，以实现学生的实质性进步。研究还表明，CBI方法对来自各种代表性不足群体的学生特别有益。

Employing an instructional approach called Community-Based Inquiry (CBI) to develop faculty expertise, this project is training faculty to build authentic inquiry into their curricula in order to measurably improve students' critical thinking skills and learning. While most national leaders and university faculty believe that critical thinking is a major goal of education and a major component of success in the STEM disciplines, it is clear that many graduates from American universities lack the skills necessary to think critically. This project is addressing this situation by recruiting faculty from STEM disciplines to build a faculty development infrastructure that helps reform STEM curricula and develop faculty expertise in eliciting critical thinking gains using a collaborative, peer-training support system. The impact of these reforms in curriculum and instruction on student critical thinking is being measured using the California Critical Thinking Skills Test. Research over the past 10 years indicates that CBI produces significant critical thinking gains compared to no gains for traditionally taught students. The CBI approach integrates four main components to elicit improvements in critical thinking skills: 1) authentic inquiry related to community need or student interest, 2) case study exercises, 3) peer evaluation and individual accountability, and 4) lecture/content discussion focused on critical thinking and problem solving. Research indicates that all four of these elements must be clearly focused on the goal of critical thinking in order to achieve substantive student improvement. Research also indicates that the CBI approach is particularly beneficial for students from a variety of underrepresented groups.