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（FLCs）的全国网络奠定基础，该网络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AACR（自动构建反应分析）研究小组之前工作的基础上，创建一个由来自五个合作机构的生物学教师组成的学科社区，他们对新的评估方法感兴趣，并愿意使用开放反应评估和自动分析来为他们的教学提供信息。该项目以转型学习理论和圣吉的组织变革理论为基础，并通过创建实践中心来促进这些实践的广泛采用：在一个部门/项目中包含多个教师采用者。每个中心由一名主要教员、机构管理员支持和多个中心的跨机构评估用户社区提供支持。该项目正在通过以下方式建立可持续性：(1)创建本地专业发展课程中心，以支持这些评估的使用，并根据评估报告编写以学习者为中心的材料；(2)将本地flc连接到一个跨机构的虚拟社区，该社区的教师使用AACR问题，共享材料，并从社区本身获得支持；(3)为未来FLC网络的扩展奠定基础，使我们能够完全自动化AACR评估分析，为生物转型教与学的结构支持提供路线图。该项目有三个研究目标，重点是教师采用和使用评估和机构结构对FLCs内教师的影响。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。他们还决定了参与AACR FLCs对教师的教与学观念的影响程度，以及什么影响了AACR工具的持续采用。这个项目的智力价值在于通过使用有效和可靠的工具来洞察学生的思维，从而改善STEM教育。建构反应概念评估比选择题工具更有可能以更丰富、更多方面的方式评估STEM中的“大想法”。该项目旨在深入了解促进或阻碍教师采用和使用改革后的教材和实践的因素。它还为未来扩展全国性的地方flc网络和基于学科的虚拟实践社区提供了基础，这些社区将能够获得AACR评估项目的完全实时、自动分析、教师开发的教学资源和支持。创建一个跨机构的生物教育者网络，使用相同的评估，可以讨论本科科学教育中的重要问题。该项目的更广泛影响在于改善STEM教育工作者在本科层面的发展，以增加STEM的招聘和保留，并为教学研究和STEM课程的本科生教育提供更好的基础设施。它正在为对使用概念性评估工具感兴趣的科学教育工作者的全国合作奠定基础。博士后研究人员和本科生研究助理参与STEM教育研究工作并提供指导，进一步加强了教与学研究的基础设施。最后，项目网站通过允许资源共享和讨论，使实践社区成为可能。

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.