Integrating and Scaffolding Research into Undergraduate STEM Curricula: Probing Faculty, Student, Disciplinary, and Institutional Pathways to Transformational Change

参与本科研究为学生提供了有据可查的好处，包括高学术成就，教育持久性以及知识和技能的显着增益。 然而，参与研究方面的公平差距依然存在。 为了解决这一缺点，该项目将协助生物学，化学，物理学和心理学系的教师设计和实施协调的四年制课程，为所有学生提供公平获得本科研究的好处。 十二所院校中的每一所的两个系将根据他们对综合研究注入课程改革的兴趣进行竞争性选择。参与该项目的每个部门都将得到专家顾问的协助，他们将保持持续的沟通，以监督和指导课程改革过程。 将进行研究，使学生能够参与并坚持探究驱动的课程的因素，并确定支持教师，部门和机构在催化和维持支持这种参与所需的变化的策略。 这项研究的结果将有助于缩小本科生研究参与差距，并指导本科教育的转型工作。为了实现一个有凝聚力的课程，让学生进入学科的探究和研究文化，各部门将使用向后设计的方法来开发脚手架，研究丰富的课程和作业，以故意的方式建立，引导学生更大的独立性和自主权学习。两个首要的研究问题将被审查：（1）什么影响做学生的特点（例如，现有的学术准备，目前的课程表现）对学生的学习经验和成果，在脚手架探究驱动的课程？(2)不同的部门方法和不同的学科文化如何影响本科研究的组成部分和成果融入课程？ 将采用混合方法来解决这些问题，包括调查，与学生和教师的焦点小组，教师和团队顾问的观察和访谈，年度进度报告，以及深入的现场考察。 这个项目的一个新的方面将是学生参与的全国调查和教师调查的学生参与的标准化和实验性问题的发展。 这些调查将有助于将项目机构与国家成果进行比较。 从这个项目发展的变化模型的理论将允许广泛和多样化的机构类型和部门/学科，以评估他们的研究脚手架课程的准备，并提供关键的见解，这种课程转型对学生成绩和组织和文化变革的影响。

Participation in undergraduate research provides well-documented benefits to students, including high academic achievement, educational persistence, and significant gains in knowledge and skills. Yet equity gaps in participating in research persist. To address this shortcoming, this project will assist faculty in departments of biology, chemistry, physics, and psychology in designing and implementing coordinated four-year curricula to provide all students with equitable access to the benefits of undergraduate research. Two departments at each of twelve institutions will be competitively selected for their interest in comprehensive research-infused curricular reform. Each department involved in the project will be assisted by expert consultants who will maintain sustained communication to oversee and guide the curricular transformation process. Research will be conducted to characterize the factors that enable students to participate and persist in an inquiry-driven curriculum and to identify the strategies that support faculty, departments, and institutions in catalyzing and sustaining the changes needed to support this participation. Findings from this study will contribute to efforts to close undergraduate research participation gaps and guide transformation efforts in undergraduate education. To achieve a cohesive curriculum that initiates students into a culture of inquiry and research in the discipline, departments will use a backward design approach to develop scaffolded, research-rich courses and assignments that build in deliberate ways to guide students to greater independence and ownership of their learning. Two overarching research questions will be examined: (1) What effect do student characteristics (e.g., pre-existing academic preparation, current course performance) have on student-learning experiences and outcomes in a scaffolded inquiry-driven curriculum? (2) How do different departmental approaches and distinct disciplinary cultures impact the integration of the components and outcomes of undergraduate research into the curriculum? A mixed-methods approach will be used to address these questions, including surveys, focus groups with students and faculty, observations and interviews with faculty and team consultants, annual progress reports, and in-depth site visits. A novel aspect of this project will be the development of both standardized and experimental questions on the National Survey of Student Engagement and the Faculty Survey of Student Engagement. These surveys will allow for comparison of project institutions with national results. The theory of change model that develops from this project will allow a broad and diverse range of institutional types and departments/disciplines to assess their readiness for research-scaffolded curricula and provide key insights into the effects of such curricular transformation on student achievement and organizational and cultural change.