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: 1225612
• 负责人: Christine Hohmann
• 金额: $ 6.39万
• 依托单位: Morgan State University
• 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 2016-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1225612&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.

之前的研究表明，参加结构化论文写作课程的学生比单纯与教师导师一对一合作的学生发展出更强的写作和批判性思维能力。写作可以是促进批判性思维和科学推理的最有效的策略之一，这也是公认的，但写作如何影响学习在很大程度上还没有得到证实。由于更高层次的思维涉及到知识的重组，因此引发知识转化过程的写作活动以及影响机制仍需确定。有大量证据表明，动机(对任务的投入程度)和自我效能感(关于一个人学习能力的信念)会增加学习。其他可能影响学习的过程是认识论信念(关于知识的性质及其合理性的信念)和元认知技能(学生监控其思维和学习策略的能力)。这个项目是基于这样一个假设，即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。这项研究的目标是了解写一篇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，以及这些影响是否随着学生特征和系背景的不同而不同。这项研究将在两个维度上解决这些影响：(1)在一所大学内跨越四个学科(生物学、化学、经济学和神经科学)；(2)在生物系和学院内跨越四所大学。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，并拥有不同的学生群体。学院学习社区将用于促进教育实践、评估方法和结果的共享。国家公认的教学专家将指导参与者使用评估结果来创建有效的教学干预措施。这项研究将采用干预前/干预后实验，并将在四所大学同时进行，使用共同的方案和研究设计。这些实验涉及每个机构和部门围绕顶峰论文这一共同任务的不同结构和做法，并采用基线(第一年)和两个修改年(第二年和第三年)。第一年是基线，没有干预。在第二年和第三年，教学实践将通过评估结果和通过教师学习社区分享方法来塑造。智力优势：尽管这些机制相互作用并同时运行，但大多数先前的研究都是单独检查每个机制。在这个模型中包括所有四个过程将有助于更好地理解它们对通过撰写本科生论文而提高批判性思维和科学推理的独立和综合贡献。更广泛的影响：该项目将以几种方式促进教学实践和教学与研究的结合。这项工作有目的地和明确地解决学生和机构的多样性，通过研究代表不同学生群体的跨学科和大学的论文作者。此外，它还将为更广泛地采用循证教学实践提供必要的概念证明：学生的信念、思维和学习策略以及动机是影响学习的过程，可以通过旨在改善批判性思维和科学推理的写作练习有效地转化。