Collaborative Research: A Community of Enhanced Assessment Facilitates Reformed Teaching

协作研究：增强评估社区促进教学改革

• 批准号: 1347729
• 负责人: Jennifer Knight
• 金额: $ 5.51万
• 依托单位: University of Colorado at Boulder
• 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: 2013-09-15 至 2017-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1347729&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Community; Enhanced; Assessment

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.

该项目正在为国家纪律教师学习社区（FLC）的国家网络创造基础，该网络使用构造的响应评估来支持改革教学实践。它正在基于对构建响应（AACR）研究小组的自动分析的先前工作，以从五个合作的机构中创建一个生物学学院的学科社区，这些机构对新的评估感兴趣，并愿意使用开放式响应评估和自动分析分析来告知他们的教学。该项目基于变革性学习理论和森格的组织变革理论，并通过创建实践枢纽来促进这些实践的更广泛采用：单个部门/计划中包含的多个教师采用者。每个枢纽都由领导教职员工，机构管理员的支持以及多个枢纽的评估用户的跨机构社区的支持。该项目正在以以下方式建立可持续性：（1）创建本地FLC以支持这些评估的使用并开发以学习者为中心的材料以响应评估报告； （2）在使用AACR问题，共享材料以及从社区本身出现的支持的跨机构虚拟社区中连接本地FLC； （3）为将来扩展FLC网络奠定了基础，在该网络中，我们将完全自动化AACR评估的分析，从而为生物学中转变的教学教学提供支持提供路线图。该项目具有三个研究目标，重点介绍了教师的采用和使用评估和制度结构对FLC内部教师的影响。他们正在调查教职员工对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。他们还在确定参与AACR FLC的程度会影响教师对教学的想法以及对AACR工具的持续采用的影响。该项目的智力优点在于通过使用有效和可靠的工具来洞悉学生思维，从而改善了STEM教育。构建的响应概念评估有可能以比多项选择工具更丰富，更多面的方式评估STEM中的“大思想”。该项目正在洞悉促进或阻碍教师采用和使用改革的教材和实践的因素。它还为未来扩展本地FLC和基于学科的虚拟实践网络的扩展为基础提供了基础，该网络将可以访问对AACR评估项目的完全实时的，自动的分析，教师开发了教学资源和支持。使用相同的评估建立生物学教育者的跨机构网络，可以讨论本科科学教育中的重大问题。该项目的更广泛的影响在于在本科层面改善STEM教育者的发展，以增加STEM的招聘和保留率，并为在STEM课程中的教学和学习研究以及对本科生的教育提供了增强的基础设施。它为有兴趣使用概念评估工具的科学教育者的全国合作奠定了基础。在STEM教育研究工作中的博士后研究研究员和本科研究助理的纳入和指导进一步增强了教学研究研究基础设施。最后，该项目网站通过允许资源共享和讨论来实现实践社区。