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。 教师经常努力理解和帮助学生掌握这种技能，因此有必要探索和描述学生如何参与这种技能，并确定解决问题的错误是否主要是基于缺乏内容或科学技能知识，或者对如何解决问题的误解。 这个项目将结合联合收割机的学生是什么思考，因为他们解决问题的分析，他们对同样的问题的表现的探索。 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看法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犯的错误，作为发展策略和练习工具的基础，以提高学生解决问题的技巧。这个计划有两个主要目标：1）系统地考察和比较学生解决复杂问题的认知过程，无论是以内容为中心还是以技能为中心; 2）开发多种有效的问题解决实践工具。 该项目通过对学生的认知推理进行详细的定性探索，并对特定类型的指导如何帮助他们解决问题的过程进行定量分析，从而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脑力劳动的感知，将被测量并与解决问题的能力相关联。 更好地了解学生的思维模式和他们所犯的错误，然后将作为一个基础，以独立测试三个领域的指导-内容，技能和解决问题的过程。 结合和重复这一指导的效用可以被测试，沿着的是脑力劳动和元认知的贡献。 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。 这个项目还将提供详细的洞察学生的思维，而解决问题，并将这些模式与性能和改进。 最终，该项目将提供这些见解沿着成功的工具，帮助学生提高解决问题的能力。 虽然该项目的重点是解决生物学和生命科学中的问题，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.