Collaborative Research: Developing Metacognitive Activities and Assessments for Introductory and Upper-Division Physics

合作研究：开发初级和高级物理的元认知活动和评估

• 批准号: 1245999
• 负责人: Mila Kryjevskaia
• 金额: $ 7.5万
• 依托单位: North Dakota State University Fargo
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-07-01 至 2016-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1245999&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Developing; Metacognitive; Activities

This project develops methods to assess and promote student metacognition in physics. In particular, the project is: (1) developing and validating a suite of assessment tasks to probe the ability of students to monitor their own learning during physics instruction, (2) developing and testing a suite of activities to foster this self - monitoring, and (3) documenting specific strategies, practices, and deficits that students exhibit as they review and direct the development of their own physics understanding. The project is motivated by a variety of common student behaviors, many of which have been documented through research and are familiar to experienced instructors. These include the tendency of students to: (1) focus on memorized algorithms without developing an awareness of how they know what they know, (2) apply concepts inconsistently in different but related contexts, and (3) struggle in identifying appropriate reasoning approaches when confronted with novel situations. These findings and others suggest that student learning of the content and practice of physics may be improved through systematic efforts to enhance the ability of students to think methodically and productively about their own thinking (i.e., metacognition). The activities and assessments are being developed concurrently and tested at four different institutions, in labs (both introductory and upper - division) and interactive lecture environments. Intellectual merit: The project is developing a suite of research - validated activities to evoke and improve students' metacognitive skills and investigate the resources that students utilize and the specific difficulties they face when engaged in metacognition. Furthermore, the project is examining the connections between specific lines of metacognitive thinking and gains in conceptual understanding and reasoning ability in physics. Despite substantial prior research and widespread agreement on its crucial role in learning, metacognition remains a "fuzzy" concept that is difficult to integrate into instruction. A major contribution of this project is to develop instructional strategies to support different forms of student metacognition; from "backward - looking" reflection, in which the learner articulates what she knows about a concept and how she came to know it, to "forward - looking" strategies that support the learner in selecting approaches best suited to new situations. A novel aspect of the activities is systematic student reflection on and evaluation of the role of specific instructional tasks and exercises in promoting learning. Broader impact: The metacognitive activities differ substantively from existing materials. They do not require the wholesale adoption of entirely new curricula or pedagogies, and may therefore be flexibly incorporated into physics courses as a supplement to existing instruction. The flexibility of the approach allows instructors to adopt teaching innovations incrementally. In addition, as the quality of student metacognition is linked to academic success, the activities may not only increase student learning in physics courses, but may also strengthen ongoing efforts to: (1) promote equity in the classroom by closing the gap between higher - and lower - achieving students, and (2) retain at risk students in STEM disciplines.

该项目开发了评估和促进物理学中学生元认知的方法。特别是：（1）开发和验证一套评估任务，以探测学生在物理教学期间监测自己的学习能力，（2）开发和测试一套活动，以培养这种自我监测，以及（3）记录特定的策略，实践和缺陷，这些策略，实践和缺陷是学生在审查和指导自己的物理学理解时表现出的表现出来的。该项目是由各种常见的学生行为激励的，其中许多行为已通过研究记录，并且对经验丰富的讲师很熟悉。这些包括学生的趋势：（1）专注于记忆的算法而不发展认识自己所知道的知识，（2）在面对新的情况时不一致地将概念不一致地应用于不同但相关的环境中，以及（3）在识别适当的推理方法方面的努力。这些发现和其他发现表明，可以通过系统的努力来提高学生对物理内容和实践的学习，从而提高学生对自己的思维（即元认知）的有条不紊和有效地思考的能力。这些活动和评估正在同时开发，并在实验室（介绍性和上层）和互动讲座环境中的四个不同机构进行了测试。 知识分子的优点：该项目正在开发一套研究套件 - 验证的活动，以唤起学生的元认知技能，并调查学生使用的资源以及从事元认知时面临的具体困难。此外，该项目正在研究元认知思维的特定线条与物理学的概念理解和推理能力的收益之间的联系。尽管对其在学习中的关键作用进行了重大研究和广泛的共识，但元认知仍然是一个“模糊”的概念，很难融入教学中。该项目的主要贡献是制定教学策略来支持不同形式的学生元认知；从“向后看”的反思中，学习者表达了她对一个概念的了解以及她如何知道它的知识，到“向前 - ”策略，这些策略支持学习者选择最适合新情况的方法。该活动的一个新方面是对特定教学任务和练习在促进学习中的作用的系统反思和评估。 更广泛的影响：元认知活动与现有材料实质上不同。他们不需要批发采用全新的课程或教学法，因此可以灵活地纳入物理课程中，以补充现有教学。 该方法的灵活性使讲师能够逐步采用教学创新。此外，随着学生元认知的质量与学术上的成功有关，这些活动不仅可以增加物理学课程中的学生学习，而且还可以加强持续的努力：（1）通过缩小更高 - 和较低的成就学生之间的差距，以及（2）在STEM学生中保持风险学生的差距。