Collaborative Research: Promoting instructional change in introductory STEM courses through Faculty Learning Communities focused on the transition from high school to college

最近的国家报告指出，在STEM领域开始的一年级本科生中，只有不到一半的学生在六年后毕业并获得STEM学位。这种流失大多发生在大学的第一年和第二年之间，学生们经常把大学入门课程中使用的教学实践作为离开的一个突出原因。此外，来自STEM领域代表性不足的背景的学生，包括第一代大学生，离开STEM专业的比率高于他们的同学。新出现的数据表明，大学STEM入门课程中使用的教学实践与高中科学课程中使用的教学实践有很大不同，而且即将入学的大学生的期望往往与实际的大学教学实践不一致。该项目是重要的，因为它直接解决了高中和大学的教学实践差异，以及如何改善对学生的负面影响。在这些早期研究结果的基础上，该项目将在缅因州大学和内布拉斯加州林肯大学建立教师学习社区（FLC），在其中教授STEM入门课程的教师将在一年内定期会面。参与教师将检查有关高中和大学的教学差异的数据;与高中教师讨论学生的过渡;并探索新出现的数据，以深入了解为什么学生，特别是第一代学生，在大学的第一学期挣扎。这些小组将开发有关教学过渡的材料，可用于各种课程，并将回答一年级本科生关于如何在STEM领域取得成功的问题。该项目将进行研究，以了解FLC如何影响参与者的教学信念和课程实践，以及FLC如何最终影响学生在入门课上。本研究将采用多种方法，包括对FLC参与者进行定性访谈，对参与者的教学实践进行录像和观察评分，收集学生对其学习环境的看法的调查数据，以及测量学生的学习成绩。该项目还将使用在线调查来询问学生对本科课程中使用的教学实践的期望以及他们对高中和大学STEM课程之间差异的看法。通过开发和研究侧重于从高中到大学的过渡的FLC，该项目将产生一个模型，用于如何设计FLC侧重于介绍STEM课程;了解使教师能够改变教学实践的条件和经验，以及这些变化如何影响学生;以及教师，第一年顾问和管理员可以使用的材料，以帮助学生进行教学过渡。

Recent national reports note that fewer than half of first-year undergraduate students who start in STEM fields have graduated with a STEM degree six years later. Most of this attrition occurs between the first and second year of college, and students often cite instructional practices used in introductory college courses as a prominent reason for leaving. Furthermore, students from backgrounds that are underrepresented in STEM fields, including first-generation college students, leave STEM majors at higher rates than their classmates. Emerging data suggest that the instructional practices used in introductory college STEM courses differ significantly from those used in high school science classes and that incoming college students hold expectations that are often not well aligned with actual college teaching practices. This project is important because it is addressing directly the teaching practices differences in high school and college and how to ameliorate the negative impact on students. Building on these earlier findings, this project will develop Faculty Learning Communities (FLCs) at the University of Maine and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, in which faculty who teach introductory STEM courses will meet regularly over the course of a year. Participating faculty will examine data about instructional differences in high school and college; discuss student transitions with high school teachers; and explore emergent data that provide insight into why students, especially those who are first-generation, struggle during the first semester of college. These groups will develop materials about instructional transitions that can be used in a variety of courses and will respond to questions from first-year undergraduate students regarding how to achieve success in STEM fields.In conjunction with the formation of FLCs at two universities, this project will conduct research to understand how the FLCs affect participants' teaching beliefs and course practices as well as how the FLCs ultimately impact students in introductory classes. This research will use a multi-methods approach that includes qualitative interviews with FLC participants, video recording and observational scoring of participants' teaching practices, collection of survey data on student perceptions of their learning environments, and measurement of student academic performance. This project will also use online surveys to ask students about their expectations regarding the teaching practices used in undergraduate courses and differences they perceive between high school and college STEM courses. By developing and researching FLCs focused on the transition from high school to college, this project will produce a model for how to design FLCs focused on introductory STEM courses; an understanding of the conditions and experiences that enable faculty to change their instructional practices and how these changes impact students; and materials that instructors, first-year advisors, and administrators can use to help students with instructional transitions.