Collaborative Research: A Community of Enhanced Assessment Facilitates Reformed Teaching

该项目正在为地方学科教师学习社区（FLC）的国家网络奠定基础，这些社区使用构建的反应评估来支持改革后的教学实践。它是建立在构建反应的自动分析（AACR）研究小组先前的工作，从五个合作机构谁是感兴趣的评估新方法，并愿意使用开放式反应评估和自动化分析，以通知他们的教学生物教师的学科社区。该项目是基于转型学习理论和圣吉的组织变革理论，并通过创建实践中心，促进更广泛地采用这些做法：包含在一个单一的部门/程序多个教师采用者。每个中心都由一名首席教师，机构管理员支持和多个中心的评估用户的跨机构社区提供支持。该项目正在通过以下方式建立可持续性：（1）为专业发展建立地方FLC，以支持使用这些评估，并根据评估报告编写以学习者为中心的材料;（2）将地方FLC连接到一个跨机构的虚拟教师社区，这些教师使用AACR问题，分享材料，并从社区本身获得支持;及（3）为日后扩展FLC网络奠定基础，使AACR评核的分析完全自动化，为生物学转型教与学的结构化支援提供路线图。该项目有三个研究目标，重点是教师采用和使用的评估和制度结构的影响，教师在FLC。他们正在调查教师对AACR评估和报告的态度，以及他们对促进和阻碍持续使用的系统结构的看法。他们还确定参与AACR FLC在多大程度上影响教师对教学和学习的想法，以及影响AACR工具持续采用的因素。该项目的智力价值在于通过使用有效和可靠的工具来深入了解学生的思维，从而改善STEM教育。建构反应概念评估有可能以比多项选择工具更丰富、更多方面的方式评估STEM中的“大想法”。该项目提供了深入了解的因素，促进或阻碍教师采用和使用改革后的教材和实践。它还为未来扩展本地FLC和基于学科的虚拟实践社区的国家网络奠定了基础，这些社区将能够获得对AACR评估项目的完全实时，自动化分析，教师开发的教学资源和支持。创建一个跨机构的网络生物教育工作者使用相同的评估允许在本科科学教育的重大问题的讨论。该项目的更广泛影响在于改善本科阶段STEM教育者的发展，以增加STEM的招聘和保留，并为教学和学习研究以及STEM课程的本科生教育提供更好的基础设施。它正在为有兴趣使用概念评估工具的科学教育工作者的全国合作奠定基础。在STEM教育研究工作中纳入和指导博士后研究员和本科生研究助理，进一步加强了教学研究的基础设施。最后，该项目网站通过允许资源共享和讨论，促成了一个实践社区。

This project is creating the foundation for a national network of local disciplinary Faculty Learning Communities (FLCs) that use constructed response assessments in support of reformed teaching practices. It is building on prior work of the Automated Analysis of Constructed Response (AACR) research group to create a disciplinary community of biology faculty from the five collaborating institutions who are interested in new methods of assessment and willing to use open-response assessments and automated analysis to inform their teaching. The project is grounded in transformational learning theory and Senge's theory of organizational change and is facilitating wider adoption of these practices by creating hubs of practice: multiple faculty adopters contained in a single department/program. Each hub is supported by a lead faculty member, institutional administrator support, and a cross-institutional community of assessment users in several hubs. The project is building sustainability in the following ways: (1) creating local FLCs for professional development (PD) to support the use of these assessments and develop learner-centered materials in response to assessment reports; (2) connecting the local FLCs in a cross-institutional virtual community of instructors who use AACR questions, share materials, and where support emerges from the community itself; and (3) laying the foundation for expanding the FLC network in the future in which we will fully automate the analysis of AACR assessments, providing a roadmap for structuring support of transformed teaching and learning in Biology. The project has three research objectives focused on faculty adoption and use of the assessments and institutional structures effect on faculty within the FLCs. They are investigating faculty members' attitudes about the AACR assessments and reports and their perception of the systemic structures that facilitate and impede sustained use. They are also determining the extent to which participation in the AACR FLCs impacts faculty's ideas about teaching and learning and what impacts sustained adoption of AACR tools. The intellectual merit of this project lies in the improving STEM education through the use of valid and reliable instruments for providing insight into student thinking. Constructed response concept assessments have the potential to assess "big ideas" in STEM in a richer, more multi-faceted manner than multiple choice instruments. This project is providing insight into the factors that facilitate or impede faculty adoption and use of reformed teaching materials and practices. It is also providing the foundation for the future expansion of a national network of local FLCs and disciplinary-based virtual communities of practice that will have access to completely real-time, automated analysis of AACR assessment items, faculty developed teaching resources and support. Creation of a cross-institutional network of biology educators using the same assessments allows the discussion of significant issues in undergraduate science education. The broader impacts of the project lie in the improvement of STEM educator development at the undergraduate level to increase recruitment and retention in STEM and provide enhanced infrastructure for research in teaching and learning and the education of undergraduates in STEM courses. It is laying the foundation for a national collaboration of science educators interested in using conceptual assessment tools. The inclusion and mentoring of postdoctoral research fellows and undergraduate research assistants in STEM education research work is further enhancing the infrastructure for research in teaching and learning. Finally, the project website is enabling a community of practice by allowing resource sharing and discussion.