Collaborative Research: Undergraduate Students' Epistemology and Expectations of Experimental Physics

在许多学科中，人们经常关注实验室课程如何有效地将实验过程与理论概念联系起来，以及更普遍地弥合课堂实验室实践与专业科学研究和工程实验室实践之间的差距。改革实验室课程的呼吁来自各种利益相关者，包括：物理教育界;生命科学界;国家科学决策机构促进STEM专业的保留，STEM劳动力的发展，以及实验室课程的最新指南。建议通过改进实验课程，培养学生的思维习惯、实验策略、研究热情和信心。为了实现这些目标，本研究项目将通过探讨学生的态度和教师的期望，促进对如何支持学生发展实验技能和理解实验过程的理解。研究团队还将开发评估工具，使教师能够反复改进他们的课程，并让研究人员了解不同课程修改对学生学习的影响。为了进一步了解如何支持学生发展实验技能和理解实验过程，研究团队将调查学生的态度和教师的期望。学生和教师的数据将收集利用科罗拉多学习态度科学调查实验物理（E-CLASS）调查。将开发一个在线平台，使教员能够自动和无缝地管理调查和分析其数据，从而增加一个自动调查管理和报告系统。 这将使用户能够提供反馈，以便对调查中的现有陈述的有用性进行评价。 用户的答复将允许对调查进行调整，以满足大多数教员的目标，并将对发回教员的报告进行改进。 将查明教师如何使用数据的信息，例如，他们是如何利用它来改革课程的，以及所尝试的干预措施的细节。 最后，建立了制度和教学改革的想法，一个“E类指南：使用，解释和课程修改”将被开发。 通过这些手段，调查的使用将增加，将开发一个系统，使调查的管理更可持续的长期，结果将被用来帮助教师调整他们的课程，以实现个人目标，调查的有效性和可靠性将增加，并在回答一些关于培养学生的实验物理研究问题方面取得进展。将以形成性和总结性的方式对项目进行内部和外部评价，以确保项目成功地朝着目标取得直接进展。 该项目将包括一个由关键专业人员组成的咨询委员会，他们将提供形成性反馈，并就关键决策提供咨询意见。此外，将与教育研究界分享所获得的知识和开发的平台，因为这可能是传播这类评估工具的新模式。将通过向以讲师为重点的期刊提交出版物进行传播（例如，物理教师和物理评论专题。 研究结果也将通过AAPT、美国天文学会和APS以及年度物理系主席会议举办的教师讲习班进行传播。

Within many disciplines, concerns are frequently raised about how effective laboratory courses are at connecting experimental processes with theoretical concepts, and more generally bridging the gap between the practices of the classroom laboratory and the practices of the professional scientific research and engineering laboratories. Calls to transform laboratory courses are coming from a wide variety of stakeholders, including: the physics education community; the life sciences community; and national science policy-making bodies promoting the retention of STEM majors, the development of the STEM workforce, and updated guidelines for the laboratory curriculum. Recommendations advocate that students should develop habits of mind, experimental strategies, enthusiasm, and confidence in research through improved laboratory courses. Towards these goals this research project will advance understanding of how to support students in developing experimental skills and understanding of the experimental process, through probing students' attitudes and instructors' expectations. Evaluation tools will also be developed to enable instructors to iteratively improve their courses and to give researchers insights into the effects of different course modifications on student learning.To advance understanding of how to support students in developing experimental skills and understanding of the experimental process, the research team will probe students' attitudes and instructors' expectations. The student and instructor data will be gathered utilizing the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey for Experimental Physics (E-CLASS) survey. An online platform that allows instructors to administer the survey and analyze their data automatically and seamlessly thus adding an automated survey administration and reporting system will be developed. This will allow feedback from users in order that current statements in the survey are evaluated for their usefulness. Responses from users will allow tailoring of the survey to meet the majority of instructors' goals and the report sent to back to instructors will be refined. Information on how instructors are using the data will be ascertained, e.g., how they are using it to reform courses and the details of the interventions attempted. Finally building off the ideas of institutional and instructional change a "A Guide to the E CLASS: Use, Interpretation and Course Modifications" will be developed. Through these means the use of the survey will be increased, a system will be developed to make the administration of the survey more sustainable in the long term, results will be used to help instructors tailor their courses to achieve individual goals, the validity and reliability of the survey will be increased, and progress towards answering several research questions about training students in experimental physics will be made. The project will be evaluated both internally and externally in both a formative and summative manner to ensure project success in making direct progress towards the goals. The project will include an advisory board of key professionals who will provide formative feedback and advising on key decisions. In addition, knowledge gained and the platform developed will be shared with the education research community, as it may be a new model for dissemination of these types of assessment tools. Dissemination will occur via submission of publications to journals that are instructor focused (e.g., AJP, Physics Teacher and Physical Review Special Topics-PER.) Results will also be disseminated through faculty workshops run by AAPT the American Astronomical Society and APS and the Annual Physics Department Chairs conference.