Understanding the Role of Writing in Strengthening and Assessing Learning and Engagement in Undergraduate STEM Education

该项目是一个为期两天的研讨会，旨在推进当前关于写作学习（WTL）在本科STEM教育中的作用的知识和话语，特别是在研究型大学。它还旨在教育和授权教师将写作作为一种教学工具来改进和衡量学生的学习。尽管有大量证据表明，写作可以成为改善和衡量学习以及提高学生参与度的有效工具，但WTL实践并未广泛纳入本科STEM教育。一些障碍阻碍了它们的实施。首先，STEM教师通常没有将写作与他们的教学联系起来，也没有反思如何在课程中使用写作来增加学生的知识、理解和参与度。其次，现有的研究通常没有系统或概念驱动。因此，关于有效的WTL实践的证据是分散的，质量参差不齐，而不是累积的，并且不能为教学实践提供信息。第三，很难在实证研究的独特教育背景之外进行推断。该研究将把STEM教师与掌握最新WTL理论和实践的同事聚集在一起，研究如何将WTL应用于本科STEM课程，以提高学生的知识和理解能力，培养批判性和分析性思维技能，并衡量这两个领域的进展。第一个目标是编写一份报告，综合目前有关在STEM学科中使用WTL的知识，并编写一份关于“在STEM中写作学习”的在线工具包，以确定经验验证和有前途的WTL实践（包括其实施指导）。第二个目标是为STEM学科中WTL的多所大学实证研究奠定基础，以解决报告中确定的知识差距和将证据转化为实践的关键问题。最终目标是建立一个STEM教师社区，他们拥有在STEM学科中使用WTL实践的经验和知识，将在他们的大学和他们的学科中发挥主导作用，促进WTL实践，并将参与设想的多大学实证研究。

This project is a two-day workshop to advance current knowledge and discourse on the role of writing-to-learn (WTL) in undergraduate STEM education, particularly at research universities. It is also designed to educate and empower instructors to use writing as a pedagogical tool to improve and measure student learning. Although there is substantial evidence indicating that writing can be an effective tool for improving and measuring learning and increasing student engagement, WTL practices are not widely incorporated into undergraduate STEM education. Several barriers have hindered their implementation. First, STEM faculty generally have not connected writing to their teaching and have not reflected on ways to use writing in their courses to increase students' knowledge, understanding, and engagement. Second, extant studies have not generally been systematic or conceptually driven. As a consequence, evidence on effective WTL practices is scattered, of varying quality, and not cumulative, and does not inform teaching practices. Third, it is difficult to extrapolate beyond the unique educational contexts of empirical studies. The study will bring STEM faculty together with colleagues who are up-to-date on WTL theory and practice to investigate how WTL may be applied in undergraduate STEM courses to improve students' knowledge and comprehension and foster the development of critical and analytic thinking skills and to measure progress in both arenas. The first objective is to produce both a report that synthesizes current knowledge regarding the use of WTL in STEM disciplines and an online tool kit on "Writing to Learn in STEM" that identifies empirically validated and promising WTL practices (including guidance on their implementation). The second objective is to lay the foundation for a multi-university empirical study on WTL in STEM disciplines that addresses the gaps in knowledge and key issues in translating evidence into practice identified in the report. The final objective is to build a community of STEM faculty who have experience and knowledge of the use of WTL practices within STEM disciplines, will play a lead role at their universities and within their disciplines in promoting WTL practices, and will participate in the envisioned multi-university empirical study.