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教育的关键挑战。教师经常很难理解和帮助学生掌握这项技能，因此需要探索和描述学生是如何参与这项技能的，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。这个项目将把探索学生在解决问题时的想法与分析他们在相同问题上的表现结合起来。该项目还将衡量学生反思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。更好地了解学生是如何思考解决问题的，以及他们在解决问题时所犯的错误，将成为开发策略和练习工具以提高学生解决问题技能的基础。本项目有两个主要目标：1)系统地检查和比较学生在解决复杂问题时的认知过程，无论是以内容为中心还是以技能为中心；2)开发多种经过验证的问题解决练习工具。该项目通过将对学生认知推理的详细定性探索与对特定类型的指导如何帮助他们的过程的定量分析相结合，来了解学生解决问题的过程。此外，学生调节其思维过程的能力(即元认知)，以及他们对解决问题所需的精神努力的感知，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成为独立测试三个方面的指导的基础-内容、技能和解决问题的过程。结合和重复这一指导的效用以及精神努力和元认知的贡献都可以得到测试。将使用收集的定量数据建立详细的回归模型，以确定指导是否会改善绩效。这个项目还将提供对学生在解决问题时的思维的详细洞察，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和成功的工具，帮助学生提高他们解决问题的能力。虽然这个项目是以解决生物和生命科学中的问题为中心的，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.