Problem Solving Through Practice: Identifying Common Student Struggles in Solving Complex Biology Problems and Developing Tools to Drive Improvement

培养解决复杂问题的能力是STEM教育的一个关键挑战。教师经常难以理解和帮助学生掌握这一技能，因此有必要探索和描述学生如何运用这一技能，并确定解决问题的错误主要是基于缺乏内容或科学技能知识，还是基于对如何解决问题的误解。这个项目将探索学生在解决问题时的想法，并分析他们在相同问题上的表现。该项目还将衡量学生思考如何解决问题的能力，以及确定学生对问题难度的感知是否会影响他们解决问题的能力。更好地了解学生如何思考解决问题，以及他们在解决问题时所犯的错误，将作为制定策略和实践工具的基础，以提高学生解决问题的技能。该项目有两个主要目标：1)系统地检查和比较学生在解决以内容为中心或以技能为中心的复杂问题时的认知过程；2)开发多种有效的解决问题的实践工具。该项目通过结合对学生认知推理的详细定性探索和对具体指导如何帮助他们解决问题的定量分析，来了解学生解决问题的过程。此外，学生调节思维过程的能力（即元认知），以及他们对解决问题所需的心理努力的感知，将被测量并与解决问题的能力相关。更好地了解学生的思维模式和他们所犯的错误，将作为在内容、技能和解决问题过程这三个方面独立测试指导的基础。结合和重复这些指导的效用可以被测试，以及精神努力和元认知的贡献。将使用收集的定量数据建立详细的回归模型，以确定指导是否会提高绩效。该项目还将提供学生在解决问题时思考的详细见解，并将这些模式与表现和改进联系起来。最终，该项目将提供这些见解以及成功的工具，帮助学生提高解决问题的能力。虽然这个项目以解决生物学和生命科学中的问题为中心，但学习如何解决问题对所有大学生都有长期的好处，因此这些发现可能广泛适用于各种STEM学科的教育工作者和学生。

Developing the ability to solve complex problems is a key challenge in STEM education. Faculty frequently struggle to understand and help students master this skill, thus there is a need to explore and characterize how students engage in this skill and to determine whether problem-solving errors are primarily based on a lack of content or science skills knowledge, or on a misunderstanding about how to approach problem-solving. This project will combine an exploration of what students are thinking as they solve problems with analysis of their performance on the same questions. The project will also measure students' ability to reflect on how they solve problems, as well as determine whether student perception of the difficulty of a problem affects their ability to solve it. A better understanding of how students think about solving a problem, and the errors that they make as they solve problems, will then serve as a basis for developing strategies and practice tools to improve students' problem-solving skills.This project has two major objectives: 1) to systematically examine and compare students' cognitive processes in solving complex problems that are either content-focused or skills-focused and 2) to develop multiple kinds of validated problem-solving practice tools. The project approaches understanding students' problem-solving processes by combining a detailed qualitative exploration of their cognitive reasoning with a quantitative analysis of how specific kinds of guidance may assist in their process. Additionally, students' ability to regulate their thinking process (i.e. metacognition), as well as their perception of the mental effort required to solve problems, will be measured and related to problem-solving ability. A better understanding of students' patterns of thinking and the errors they make will then serve as a foundation to independently test guidance in three areas - content, skills, and problem-solving processes. The utility of combining and repeating this guidance can be tested, along with the contribution of mental effort and metacognition. A detailed regression model will be built using the quantitative data collected to determine whether guidance improves performance. This project will also provide detailed insight into student thinking while problem-solving, and will relate these patterns to performance and improvement. Ultimately, the project will deliver these insights along with successful tools for helping students improve their problem-solving ability. Although this project is centered on solving problems in biology and life science, learning how to solve problems has long-term benefits for all college students, therefore these findings are likely to be broadly applicable to educators and students in a variety of STEM disciplines.