Facilitating Improvement in Undergraduate STEM Instruction: Providing A Research-Based Foundation for the Emerging Class of Change Initiatives Involving Teams

本项目从经验上考察了美国各地团队在计划中的使用情况，以成功地增加本科STEM中循证教学实践的使用。它直接解决了IUSE计划的目标，即改善知识库，以增加在本科教育中使用循证教学和学习实践。这个项目的背景视角是制度改进主导理论的转变。多年来，STEM高等教育界从业者寻求改善本科教学实践的标准做法是为课程材料和相关教学实践的开发和传播寻求资金。这些从业者主要是单独或以小组形式操作。STEM教育工作者之间越来越多的共识是，依靠主要研究人员的努力来传播他们自己的改进往往不会导致其他教育工作者之间的广泛传播。出于这个原因，新的STEM教育改进计划正朝着改变战略的方向发展，重点是鼓励整个学术部门和机构增加对循证教学的使用。越来越多的由拨款支持的教学改进项目正在通过聘请教师导师、研究生助教和研究生研究人员组成的团队，利用过去几十年来开发的许多有效方法，共同重新设计STEM本科课程的内容和教学方法。该项目将-使用基于团队的方法进行变革，对本科STEM项目进行全国普查；-综合调查和访谈数据，以确定区分基于团队的方法的类别；和-进行元综合-将从该分析中出现的类别与现有文献联系起来，这些文献来自与团队学习、组织团队结构和过程以及支持团队的模型和理论相关的广泛学科。该项目通过探索和测试来自广泛学科的理论，为研究界提供了实质性的价值。在STEM教学改进计划中使用的团队中有各种各样的配置。团队在规模、组成、目标、领导和过程方面各不相同。提高对团队如何有效地为特定目标和结果工作的理解，需要什么样的领导和促进来保持他们的活力和任务，以及什么样的关系，沟通和协作工作是他们达到目标所必需的，这些将增强机构和社区转型努力的有效性。这些知识的应用有可能从NSF拨款和其他改进计划中创造更广泛的影响。本项目由美国国家科学基金会EHR核心研究（ECR）项目共同资助。ECR项目强调在该领域产生基础知识的基础STEM教育研究。投资在至关重要、广泛和持久的关键领域：STEM学习和STEM学习环境，扩大STEM参与，以及STEM劳动力发展。

This project examines empirically the use of teams across the US in initiatives to successfully increase the use of evidence-based teaching practices in undergraduate STEM. It directly addresses the IUSE program goal of improving the knowledge base for increasing the use of evidence-based teaching and learning practices in undergraduate education. The background perspective for this project is the shift in the dominant theory of institutional improvement. For many years, standard practice by those practitioners in the STEM higher education community seeking to improve undergraduate instructional practices has been to seek funding for the development and dissemination of curricular materials and associated instructional practices. These practitioners have predominantly operated alone or in small groups. There is a growing consensus among STEM educators that relying on the principal investigators' efforts to disseminate their own improvements often does not lead to widespread propagation among other educators. For this reason, newer STEM education improvement initiatives are moving towards change strategies focused on encouraging entire academic departments and institutions to increase their use of evidence-based teaching. Increasingly, instructional improvement projects supported by grants are doing this by engaging teams of faculty instructors, graduate student teaching assistants, and post-graduate researchers to collaboratively redesign content and instructional approaches in STEM undergraduate courses, drawing on many of the effective approaches that have been developed over the last several decades. This project will- Develop a national census of undergraduate STEM initiatives using team-based approaches to change; - Synthesize survey and interview data to identify categories that distinguish among team-based approaches; and- Conduct a meta-synthesis-- connecting the categories that emerge from this analysis with extant literature from a wide range of disciplines related to team learning, organizational team structures and processes, and models and theories supporting teams. This project offers substantial value to the research community by exploring and testing theory from a wide range of disciplines. There is a wide range of configurations among the teams used in STEM teaching improvement initiatives. Teams vary in terms of size, composition, goals, leadership, and process. Improved understanding of how effectively teams work for particular goals and outcomes, what kind of leadership and facilitation is needed to keep them vital and on-task, and what kinds of relationships, communication, and collaborative work are necessary for them to reach their goals will bolster the effectiveness of institutional and community transformation efforts. Application of this knowledge has the potential to create improved broader impacts from NSF grants and other improvement initiatives. This project receives co-funding from NSF's EHR Core Research (ECR) program. The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that generates foundational knowledge in the field. Investments are made in critical areas that are essential, broad and enduring: STEM learning and STEM learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development.