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

以前的研究表明，参加结构化论文写作课程的学生比那些仅仅与教师导师一对一合作的学生发展了更强的写作和批判性思维技能。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。由于高阶思维涉及知识的重构，因此引发知识转化过程的写作活动以及影响机制仍然需要确定。有大量的证据表明，动机（参与任务的水平）和自我效能（关于一个人的学习能力的信念）会增加学习。 可能影响学习的其他过程是认识论信念（关于知识性质及其正当性的信念）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。本研究项目的目标是了解是否写本科论文通过影响元认知，动机和信念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部门背景而异。本研究将从两个方面探讨这些影响：（1）一所大学内的四个学科（生物学，化学，经济学和神经科学）和（2）四所大学内的生物系和学院。所有合作者教授论文写作课程，代表了一系列的机构背景，教学方法，并有不同的学生群体。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。这项研究将采用前/后干预实验，并将同时在四所大学使用共同的协议和研究设计进行。实验涉及不同的结构和做法，在每个机构和部门周围的顶点论文的共同任务，并采用基线（第1年）和两个修改年（第2年和第3年）。第1年为基线，无干预。在第二年和第三年，教学实践将通过评估结果和教师学习社区的共享方法来塑造。智力优势：即使这些机制相互作用，并同时运作，大多数先前的研究已经单独检查了每个机制。包括在这个模型中的所有四个过程将使他们的独立和合并的贡献，通过写本科论文带来的批判性思维和科学推理的改进更好地理解。更广泛的影响：该项目将以多种方式促进教学和学习实践以及教学和研究的整合。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，有意并明确地解决了学生和机构的多样性。此外，它还将提供对更广泛地采用循证教学实践至关重要的概念的证明：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有效地转变。

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.