Broadening Participation Research Project: Investigating the Impact of Collaborative Project-Based Learning on the Self-Efficacy of Minority STEM Students

鲍伊州立大学将研究合作项目学习对参加STEM课程的少数族裔新生自我效能感的影响，并使用参与式战略和社会建构主义理论审查潜在的教学系统。该项目还旨在通过参与行动研究来提高STEM教师的教育研究技能。干预包括小型课堂合作项目，以激发学生学习新理论的兴趣，并在设计过程中培训学生。研究人员将利用鲍伊州立大学的机器人诊所学习环境，了解为什么干预措施有效，并将创新的教学实践推广到更广泛的STEM教育界，特别是为少数族裔服务的机构。研究人员建议分两个阶段调查两个研究问题。本研究的问题是：STEM少数民族新生的学习特点是什么，协作学习的各种特点和群体动力如何影响效能感的发展。在第一阶段，调查人员将使用社会建构主义框架收集和分析参加机器人诊所新生研讨会课程的学生的调查数据。然后，他们将进行学习者和语境分析，以研究学习者特征和群体差异的影响。在第二阶段，研究人员将利用第一阶段的结果来设计和测试循证教学系统在培养自我效能感方面的有效性。研究人员将通过调查、焦点小组和自我报告的轶事来评估该项目对教师的影响。该项目预计将制定一项措施，以评估协作学习战略对学习成果的发展影响，阐明纳入社区探究的有效教学系统，并间接加强STEM教师在教育研究方面的培训。

Bowie State University will study the impact of collaborative project-based learning on the self-efficacy of minority freshmen enrolled in STEM courses and examine the underlying instructional system using a participatory strategy and socio-constructivist theories. The project is designed also to enhance the educational research skills of STEM faculty through their engagement in action research. The intervention incorporates small in-class collaborative projects to inspire students' interest in learning new theory and to train students in the design process. The researchers will leverage the Robotics Clinics learning environment at Bowie State to understand why the intervention is effective and to generalize the innovative teaching practice to the broader STEM education community, particularly minority serving institutions. The researchers propose to investigate two research questions in two phases. The research questions are what are the learning characteristics of minority freshmen in STEM, and how do various features in collaborative learning and group dynamics influence the development of efficacy. In the first phase, the investigators will collect and analyze survey data of students enrolled in the Robotics Clinic freshman seminar courses using a social constructivist framework. They will then conduct a learner and contextual analysis to study the influences of learner characteristics and group differences. In the second phase, the investigators will use the results of the first phase to design and test the effectiveness of the evidence-based instructional system in fostering self-efficacy. The researchers will assess the impact of the project on faculty through surveys, focus groups, and self-reported anecdotes. The project is expected to produce a measure to evaluate the developmental impacts of the collaborative learning strategy on learning outcomes, to articulate an effective instructional system that integrates community inquiry, and to indirectly enhance the training of STEM faculty in educational research.