Collaborative Research: Understanding the Role of Writing in Promoting Learning and Engagement for Diverse Undergraduate Thesis Writers

合作研究：了解写作在促进不同本科论文作者学习和参与方面的作用

• 批准号: 1225594
• 金额: $ 4.17万
• 依托单位: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-09-01 至 2015-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1225594&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Understanding; Role; Writing

Previous research demonstrated that students who participate in structured thesis writing courses developed stronger writing and critical thinking skills than students who simply worked one-on-one with faculty mentors. It is also well established that writing can be one of the most effective strategies for promoting critical thinking and scientific reasoning, but how writing affects learning is largely unproven. Since higher-order thinking involves restructuring knowledge, the writing activities that evoke this process of knowledge transformation - as well as the mechanisms of effect - still need to be determined. There is substantial evidence that motivation (level of engagement with the task), and self-efficacy (beliefs regarding one's ability to learn) increase learning. Additional processes that are likely to influence learning are epistemology beliefs (beliefs about the nature of knowledge and its justification) and metacognition skills (the ability of students to monitor their thinking and learning strategies). This project is based on the hypothesis that writing affects learning through these four processes. If this is correct, then teaching practices that address all of these mechanisms directly are most likely to optimize learning. The goal of this research project is to understand whether writing an undergraduate thesis improves critical thinking and writing skills through impacting metacognition, motivation, and beliefs, and whether these effects differ as a function of student characteristics and departmental context. This study will address these effects in two dimensions: (1) across four disciplines (biology, chemistry, economics, and neuroscience) within one university and (2) across four universities within biology departments and colleges. All collaborators teach thesis writing courses, represent a range of institutional contexts, pedagogical approaches, and have diverse student populations. A Faculty Learning Community will be used to facilitate sharing of educational practices, assessment methods, and findings. Nationally recognized teaching experts will guide participants in using assessment results to create effective teaching interventions. This research will employ pre-/post-intervention experiments and will be conducted concurrently at four universities using a common protocol and study design. The experiments involve different structures and practices at each institution and department around the common task of a capstone thesis and employ a baseline (year 1) and two modification years (Years 2 and 3). Year 1 is baseline with no intervention. In years 2 and 3, instructional practices will be shaped by assessment results and by sharing approaches through the faculty learning community.Intellectual Merit: Even though these mechanisms interact and operate concurrently, most prior research has examined each mechanism singly. Including all four processes in this model will enable a better understanding of their independent and combined contributions to improvements in critical thinking and scientific reasoning brought about through writing an undergraduate thesis. Broader impacts: This project will promote teaching and learning practices and the integration of teaching and research in several ways. The work intentionally and explicitly addresses the diversity of students and institutions by studying thesis writers across disciplines and universities representing diverse student populations. Furthermore, it will provide proof of concepts essential to the wider adoption of evidenced-based teaching practices: that students' beliefs, thinking and learning strategies, and motivation are processes that affect learning and can be effectively transformed through writing practices targeted to improve critical thinking and scientific reasoning.

先前的研究表明，参加结构化论文写作课程的学生比仅与教师导师一对一合作的学生培养了更强的写作和批判性思维能力。众所周知，写作是促进批判性思维和科学推理的最有效策略之一，但写作如何影响学习在很大程度上尚未得到证实。由于高阶思维涉及重构知识，因此引发这一知识转化过程的写作活动以及作用机制仍然需要确定。有大量证据表明，动机（对任务的参与程度）和自我效能（对自己学习能力的信念）可以促进学习。 可能影响学习的其他过程是认识论信念（关于知识本质及其合理性的信念）和元认知技能（学生监控自己的思维和学习策略的能力）。该项目基于这样的假设：写作通过这四个过程影响学习。如果这是正确的，那么直接解决所有这些机制的教学实践最有可能优化学习。该研究项目的目标是了解撰写本科论文是否通过影响元认知、动机和信念来提高批判性思维和写作技能，以及这些影响是否因学生特征和院系背景而有所不同。本研究将从两个维度解决这些影响：(1) 一所大学内的四个学科（生物学、化学、经济学和神经科学）；(2) 生物系和学院内的四所大学。所有合作者都教授论文写作课程，代表了一系列的机构背景、教学方法，并且拥有多样化的学生群体。教师学习社区将用于促进教育实践、评估方法和研究结果的共享。国家认可的教学专家将指导参与者使用评估结果来制定有效的教学干预措施。这项研究将采用干预前/干预后实验，并将使用共同的方案和研究设计在四所大学同时进行。这些实验涉及每个机构和部门围绕顶点论文的共同任务的不同结构和实践，并采用基线（第一年）和两个修改年（第二年和第三年）。第一年是没有干预的基线。在第二年和第三年，教学实践将根据评估结果和通过教师学习社区共享方法来形成。智力优点：尽管这些机制相互作用并同时运作，但大多数先前的研究都单独研究了每种机制。将所有四个过程包含在该模型中将使我们能够更好地理解它们对通过撰写本科论文所带来的批判性思维和科学推理的改进的独立和综合贡献。更广泛的影响：该项目将以多种方式促进教学实践以及教学与研究的融合。这项工作通过研究代表不同学生群体的跨学科和大学的论文作者，有意而明确地解决了学生和机构的多样性问题。此外，它将提供对更广泛采用循证教学实践至关重要的概念证明：学生的信念、思维和学习策略以及动机是影响学习的过程，可以通过旨在提高批判性思维和科学推理的写作实践来有效地转变。