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

促进本科生 STEM 教学的改进：为涉及团队的新兴变革举措提供基于研究的基础

• 批准号: 1525393
• 负责人: Andrea Beach
• 金额: $ 46.77万
• 依托单位: Western Michigan University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-01-01 至 2020-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1525393&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Facilitating; Improvement; Undergraduate; STEM; Instruction

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.

该项目以经验为基础，考察了美国各地团队在成功增加本科STEM循证教学实践使用的举措中的使用情况。 它直接解决了IUSE计划的目标，即提高知识基础，以增加本科教育中循证教学和学习实践的使用。 这个项目的背景视角是制度改进的主导理论的转变。 多年来，STEM高等教育界寻求改善本科教学实践的从业者的标准做法一直是寻求资金用于课程材料和相关教学实践的开发和传播。这些从业者主要是单独或以小团体的形式开展活动。STEM教育工作者越来越多地达成共识，即依靠主要研究者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的广泛传播。因此，更新的STEM教育改进计划正在转向变革战略，重点是鼓励整个学术部门和机构增加使用循证教学。越来越多地，由赠款支持的教学改进项目正在通过聘请教师，研究生助教和研究生研究人员团队来合作重新设计STEM本科课程的内容和教学方法来实现这一目标，借鉴了过去几十年来开发的许多有效方法。该项目将-制定一个全国普查的本科生STEM倡议使用基于团队的方法来改变; -综合调查和访谈数据，以确定类别，区分基于团队的方法;和-进行综合集成-连接从这个分析中出现的类别与现存的文献，从广泛的学科有关的团队学习，组织团队结构和过程，以及支持团队的模型和理论。 该项目通过探索和测试来自广泛学科的理论，为研究界提供了巨大的价值。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、领导力和流程方面各不相同。更好地理解团队如何有效地为特定目标和成果工作，需要什么样的领导和促进才能使他们保持活力和任务，以及什么样的关系，沟通和协作工作对他们实现目标是必要的，这将提高机构和社区转型工作的有效性。这些知识的应用有可能从NSF赠款和其他改进举措中产生更广泛的影响。该项目由NSF的EHR核心研究（ECR）计划共同资助。ECR计划强调基础STEM教育研究，产生该领域的基础知识。 投资是在关键领域是必不可少的，广泛的和持久的：干学习和干学习环境，扩大参与干，干劳动力发展。