Promoting Adoption of Team-Based Learning Pedagogy in College Economics Classes

本项目将在经济学导论课程中增加团队学习（TBL）教学实践的使用。基于团队的学习在其他几个STEM学科中成功地提高了学生的学习成果，但在经济学中的应用有限。一个关键的项目重点是研究这种方法对代表性不足的少数民族和第一代大学生学习成果的影响。该项目将通过面对面和在线主动学习研讨会培训教师实施TBL；在公立、私立、四年制、两年制和少数族裔服务机构等不同机构背景下，实证检验TBL教学法的有效性；重要的是，它将创建一个TBL应用练习（AE）的在线图书馆，经济学教师可以自由地采用或调整在课堂上使用。TBL应用练习和促进课堂使用的工具将成为现有“起点：经济学在线教学门户”中一个新的教学模块的一部分，该模块是在国家科学基金会的支持下与卡尔顿学院科学教育资源中心（SERC）合作创建的。在第二年，该项目将侧重于推广。在咨询委员会的协助下，该项目将举办网络研讨会、区域研讨会和会议报告，向经济学讲师介绍TBL方法，并促进对起点网站AE库的贡献。在NSF对项目的支持结束后，项目负责人将继续管理起始点网站和AE提交流程。本科阶段的TBL教学法已经在其他学科中使用了几十年，增加了学生的学习和参与，特别是女性和代表性不足的少数民族。TBL通常被用作一种与其他主动学习策略重叠的全程教学法。它采用的技术体现了认知心理学中关于学生如何最好地学习的最新研究成果，包括让学生积极地学习正在学习的材料，要求经常检索最近获得的信息，间隔学习，并鼓励成长心态。TBL尤其适用于经济学课堂，因为它有可能让学生参与预测未来趋势、诊断当前问题和提出政策建议。TBL专家在咨询委员会任职，包括TBL创始人，并将对项目倡议和进展提供有价值的反馈。科学教育资源中心（SERC）是该项目的合作伙伴；SERC在支持基于web的NSF项目方面有着丰富的经验。该项目包括一个代表众多高等教育机构的开发团队，其中包括一个HBCU和五所两年制学院。该项目还建立在以前由项目共同项目负责人（奖励0088303、0411037、0817382和1245802）领导的国家科学基金资助项目的基础上，这些项目促进了经济学的循证教学，并由一个共同项目负责人（奖励1043245、1238279和1522234）领导的国家科学基金资助项目支持社区大学教师在经济学中使用这些实践。

This project will increase the use of Team-Based Learning (TBL) teaching practices in introductory economics courses. Team-Based Learning has been successful at improving student learning outcomes in several other STEM disciplines, but has had limited use in economics. One key project focus is to study the impact of this approach on the learning outcomes of underrepresented minorities and first-generation college students. The project will train faculty members to implement TBL via face-to-face and online active-learning workshops; empirically test the efficacy of TBL pedagogy in a variety of institutional settings, including public, private, four-year, two-year, and minority-serving institutions; and importantly will create an online library of TBL Application Exercises (AE) that economics instructors can freely adopt or adapt for use in their classrooms. The TBL Application Exercises and tools promoting their classroom use will be part of a new pedagogic module in the existing "Starting Point: Economics online pedagogic portal" previously created in collaboration with the Science Education Resource Center (SERC) at Carleton College with NSF support. In the second year, the project will focus on outreach. Assisted by its advisory board, the project will conduct webinars, regional workshops, and conference presentations to introduce economics instructors to TBL methodology and promote contributions to the AE library at the Starting Point site. The PIs will continue to manage the Starting Point site and AE submission process after NSF support for the project ends. Undergraduate level TBL pedagogy has been used for several decades in other disciplines, achieving increased student learning and engagement, particularly by women and under-represented minorities. TBL is generally used as a whole-course pedagogy that overlaps with other active learning strategies. It employs techniques that embody recent research findings in cognitive psychology about how students learn best, including engaging students actively with the material under study, requiring frequent retrieval of recently acquired information, spacing out study, and encouraging a growth mindset. TBL is particularly promising for economics classrooms because of the potential to engage students in predicting future trends, diagnosing current problems, and making policy recommendations. TBL experts serve on the advisory board, including the TBL founder, and will provide valuable feedback on project initiatives and progress. The Science Education Resource Center (SERC) is a partner in the project; SERC has extensive experience supporting web-based NSF projects. The project includes a development team representing a wide array of higher education institutions, including one HBCU and five two-year colleges. The project also builds on previous NSF-funded projects led by the project co-PIs (Awards 0088303, 0411037, 0817382, and 1245802) promoting evidence-based teaching in economics and NSF-funded projects led by one of the co-PIs (Awards 1043245, 1238279, and 1522234) supporting community college instructor use of these practices in economics.