Developing Scientific Reasoning: Targeted Physics Instruction for STEM Majors

发展科学推理：STEM 专业有针对性的物理教学

• 批准号: 1431908
• 负责人: Kathleen Koenig
• 金额: $ 65万
• 依托单位: University of Cincinnati Main Campus
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-09-01 至 2020-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1431908&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Developing; Scientific; Reasoning; Targeted; Physics

Developing scientific reasoning skills is a major goal of contemporary education. The nature of jobs in the global, knowledge-based economy calls for a shift of educational goals from content drilling toward fostering higher-end skills in reasoning, creativity, and open problem solving. Unfortunately, the typical introductory science course does not significantly impact students in these areas. Although scientific reasoning has become a widely targeted domain for high-end skills in STEM learning, the knowledge base about the impact of curricula targeting scientific reasoning is still not very deep. This project will address the gap by producing a research-based curriculum specifically designed to develop scientific reasoning skills, as well as solid evidence about how the course activities and their specific strategies affect college students' development of scientific reasoning skills. Outcomes of the project will include (1) a complete lab curriculum for first-semester (introductory) physics, with lab modules designed such that they can be flexibly used in lab settings across institutions, and (2) a knowledge base with assessment outcomes on the effectiveness of different elements of the curriculum in helping students develop scientific reasoning skills, as well as best practices for implementing the curriculum in different settings to optimize learning. Because the scientific reasoning modules will be designed to readily fit into existing lab courses, this work has the potential to impact thousands of STEM majors (1,600 per year at the University of Cincinnati alone). Because scientific reasoning skills cross all areas of STEM, the project's research outcomes will be adaptable across many courses in the STEM disciplines.This project combines the development of promising curricula with a rigorous assessment/evaluation study. The robust assessment plan will be conducted across six pre-selected test sites. A validated assessment tool will be used to measure students' scientific reasoning. The research design, which involves multiple repeated measures with random subgroups of a student population, will produce data that allows for the identification of patterns of class mean performance on scientific reasoning skills over time, as well as an understanding of how changes in scientific reasoning performance are connected with specific instructional events. Statistical analyses involving multiple t-tests will determine whether the evolution patterns and states are statistically significant and consistent with instructional events by comparing performance before and after relevant instruction. Survey data collected from instructors at test sites will provide evidence of successful implementation strategies, as well as challenges, such that the curriculum and related products (i.e., instructor guides) can be designed to optimize learning and promote widespread use of the end products.

发展科学推理能力是当代教育的一个主要目标。全球知识经济中工作的性质要求教育目标从内容训练转向培养推理、创造力和解决开放性问题的高端技能。不幸的是，典型的入门科学课程并没有显着影响学生在这些领域。虽然科学推理已成为STEM学习中高端技能的广泛目标领域，但有关以科学推理为目标的课程的影响的知识基础仍然不是很深。本项目将通过制作一个专门为发展科学推理技能而设计的研究型课程，以及课程活动及其具体策略如何影响大学生科学推理技能发展的确凿证据，来解决这一差距。该项目的成果将包括（1）第一学期的完整实验课程（入门）物理，实验单元的设计使它们可以灵活地用于各机构的实验室环境，以及（2）知识基础，评估课程不同元素在帮助学生发展科学推理技能方面的有效性，以及在不同环境中实施课程以优化学习的最佳做法。由于科学推理模块将被设计成易于适应现有的实验室课程，这项工作有可能影响数千名STEM专业的学生（仅辛辛那提大学每年就有1,600名学生）。由于科学推理技能跨越STEM的所有领域，该项目的研究成果将适用于STEM学科的许多课程。该项目将有前途的课程开发与严格的评估/评估研究相结合。强有力的评估计划将在六个预先选定的测试地点进行。一个有效的评估工具将被用来衡量学生的科学推理。研究设计，其中涉及多个重复的措施与随机分组的学生人口，将产生的数据，允许识别模式的类平均性能的科学推理技能随着时间的推移，以及了解如何在科学推理性能的变化与特定的教学活动。涉及多个t检验的统计分析将通过比较相关教学前后的表现来确定演变模式和状态是否具有统计学显著性并且与教学事件一致。从考点教员那里收集的调查数据将提供成功实施战略以及挑战的证据，例如课程和相关产品（即，教师指南）可以设计用于优化学习并促进最终产品的广泛使用。