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充分证明的好处，包括高学术成就，教育持久性以及知识和技能的显着收益。然而，参与研究的公平差距仍然存在。为了解决这一缺陷，本项目将协助生物、化学、物理和心理系的教师设计和实施协调的四年课程，为所有学生提供公平获得本科研究成果的机会。在12所大学中，每所大学有2个系将根据他们对综合研究课程改革的兴趣进行竞争。参与项目的每个部门都将由专家顾问协助，他们将保持持续的沟通，以监督和指导课程转型过程。将进行研究，以确定使学生参与和坚持探究驱动课程的因素，并确定支持教师，部门和机构催化和维持支持这种参与所需的变化的策略。本研究的结果将有助于缩小本科研究参与差距，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，使学生在学科中形成一种探究和研究的文化，院系将采用一种向后设计的方法来开发脚手架，研究丰富的课程和作业，这些课程和作业以深思熟虑的方式建立，引导学生更大的独立性和自主性。两个主要的研究问题将被检查：(1)学生的特点（例如，先前的学术准备，当前的课程表现）对学生的学习经验和结果有什么影响？(2)不同的院系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与课程的整合？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、对教师和团队顾问的观察和访谈、年度进度报告和深入的实地考察。这个项目的一个新颖之处在于，它将为全国学生参与调查和教师学生参与调查提供标准化和实验性的问题。这些调查将允许将项目机构与国家结果进行比较。从这个项目中发展出来的变革理论模型将允许广泛而多样的机构类型和部门/学科评估他们对研究框架课程的准备情况，并为这种课程转型对学生成绩和组织和文化变革的影响提供关键见解。

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.