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

合作研究：通过专注于从高中到大学过渡的教师学习社区，促进 STEM 入门课程的教学变革

• 批准号: 1712060
• 负责人: Brian Couch
• 金额: $ 14.43万
• 依托单位: University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-08-01 至 2021-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1712060&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Promoting; instructional; change

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.

最近的国家报告指出，在STEM领域开始学习的一年级本科生中，只有不到一半的人在六年后毕业并获得了STEM学位。大部分流失发生在大学一年级到二年级之间，学生们经常将大学入门课程中使用的教学实践作为离开的主要原因。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专业的比例高于他们的同学。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理科课程中使用的教学实践有很大不同，即将入学的大学生持有的期望往往与大学实际教学实践不符。这个项目很重要，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。在这些早期发现的基础上，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)，教授STEM入门课程的教师将在一年的课程中定期会面。参与的教职员工将研究有关高中和大学教学差异的数据；与高中教师讨论学生的过渡；并探索新出现的数据，这些数据为学生，特别是第一代学生在大学第一学期的挣扎提供了洞察。这些小组将开发可用于各种课程的教学过渡材料，并将回答一年级本科生提出的关于如何在STEM领域取得成功的问题。该项目将结合两所大学的FLC的成立，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最终如何影响入门课程中的学生。本研究将使用多种方法，包括对FLC参与者的定性访谈，对参与者的教学实践进行录像和观察评分，收集关于学生对其学习环境的感知的调查数据，以及测量学生的学业表现。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课程之间的差异的看法。通过开发和研究以从高中到大学过渡为重点的Flc，本项目将产生一个模型，说明如何设计侧重于STEM入门课程的Flc；了解使教师能够改变其教学实践的条件和经验以及这些变化对学生的影响；以及教师、一年级导师和管理人员可以用来帮助学生进行教学过渡的材料。

项目成果

What Questions Are on the Minds of STEM Undergraduate Students and How Can They Be Addressed?

STEM 本科生有哪些问题以及如何解决？

• DOI: 10.3389/feduc.2021.639338
• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: Frontiers in Education
• 影响因子: 2.3
• 作者: Meaders, Clara L.;Smith, Michelle K.;Boester, Timothy;Bracy, Anne;Couch, Brian A.;Drake, Abby G.;Farooq, Saima;Khoda, Bashir;Kinsland, Cynthia;Lane, A. Kelly
• 通讯作者: Lane, A. Kelly