Studying Students' Mechanistic Explanations across Undergraduate Chemistry and Biology Courses

研究学生在本科化学和生物学课程中的机理解释

• 批准号: 1725521
• 负责人: Jon Stoltzfus
• 金额: $ 59.89万
• 依托单位: Michigan State University
• 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 2023-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1725521&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Studying; Students; Mechanistic; Explanations; across

Many STEM students have difficulty in transferring ideas and reasoning from one class to another, for example in transferring knowledge gained in introductory classes into more advanced classes, or across disciplines. This project will examine how undergraduate students use core ideas and mechanistic explanations across introductory courses in three areas: chemistry, cell and molecular biology, and organismal biology. This study will carefully evaluate how students are using what they have learned in a prerequisite course when they take subsequent courses and how this connects with the development of reasoning and understanding. In particular, students will be asked to generate models that explain the problems that they are studying, such as why one patient is cured by an antibiotic while another patient is not. Developing explanations that include mechanisms and models of how and why things happen is an important skill for students to master, and will help them as they enter the scientific or professional workforce. Analysis of these explanations will provide valuable information about: 1) how students apply ideas from chemistry to biology, and 2) factors that help students gain skills in developing high-quality explanations using mechanisms and models. This information will lead to improved teaching that maximizes student application of ideas between introductory science courses and supports the development of reasoning skills needed after students graduate and begin their careers. This project will take advantage of a unique opportunity for researchers from four departments to explore the impact of students' mastery of disciplinary ideas and skills at developing mechanistic explanations on their ability to connect core ideas across courses. The project will use a cross-sectional, comparative analysis of students' mechanistic explanations within and across three sequential introductory courses: chemistry, cell and molecular biology, and organismal biology. In each course, students will use a combination of diagrams and writing to explain how and why a series of three related phenomena occur. The mechanistic explanations will be analyzed for cause-and-effect relationships between underlying factors needed to provide a scientifically sound explanation of the phenomena. These analyses will determine: 1) if students in undergraduate STEM courses use relevant core disciplinary ideas to explain how and why phenomena occur; 2) how explanation sophistication varies at different points in the curriculum; 3) the impact of mechanistic explanation sophistication in one discipline on the use of related disciplinary core ideas to explain phenomena in other disciplines; and 4) relationships between demographic and academic variables, explanation sophistication, and success on course exams. Findings from this study will advance research on the nature of and connections between students' disciplinary core ideas and explanatory practices beyond single courses by looking across courses. The assessment tools and analysis techniques used in this study will provide a foundation for further research in this understudied area including future longitudinal studies and research on the impact of instruction on students' abilities to construct sophisticated explanations. Insights from this work will also be used to develop an evidence-based instruction framework. The framework will provide a progression of learning objectives across introductory chemistry and biology courses indicating what needs to be mastered in each course to produce sophisticated explanations in subsequent courses. In addition, the framework will document common ways students use vocabulary to make connections between the courses as well as ways how differences in vocabulary between courses prevents transfer of ideas across courses. This framework will serve as a guide for future evidence-based STEM course and curriculum remodeling efforts geared toward producing well-prepared citizens and scientists.

许多STEM学生难以将想法和推理从一个班级转移到另一个班级，例如将入门课程中获得的知识转移到更高级的班级或跨学科。 该项目将研究本科生如何在三个领域的入门课程中使用核心思想和机械解释：化学，细胞和分子生物学以及有机体生物学。这项研究将仔细评估学生在参加后续课程时如何使用他们在先决课程中学到的知识，以及这与推理和理解的发展有何联系。 特别是，学生将被要求生成解释他们正在研究的问题的模型，例如为什么一个病人被抗生素治愈，而另一个病人却没有。 发展解释，包括如何和为什么事情发生的机制和模型是学生掌握的一项重要技能，并将帮助他们进入科学或专业劳动力。 对这些解释的分析将提供有关以下方面的有价值的信息：1）学生如何将化学思想应用于生物学，以及2）帮助学生获得使用机制和模型开发高质量解释的技能的因素。 这些信息将导致改进教学，最大限度地提高学生的应用程序之间的概念介绍科学课程，并支持学生毕业后，开始他们的职业生涯所需的推理技能的发展。 这个项目将利用一个独特的机会，从四个部门的研究人员探索学生的学科思想和技能的掌握，在开发机械解释他们的能力，跨课程连接核心思想的影响。 该项目将使用一个横截面，比较分析学生的机械解释内和跨三个连续的入门课程：化学，细胞和分子生物学，生物体。 在每门课程中，学生将使用图表和写作的组合来解释如何以及为什么一系列的三个相关现象发生。 机械解释将被分析为提供对现象的科学合理解释所需的潜在因素之间的因果关系。 这些分析将确定：1）本科STEM课程的学生是否使用相关的学科核心思想来解释现象如何以及为什么发生; 2）解释复杂性如何在课程的不同点上变化; 3）一个学科中的机械解释复杂性对使用相关学科核心思想来解释其他学科中的现象的影响; 4）人口统计学和学术变量、解释复杂度与课程考试成功率之间的关系。 本研究的发现将推动跨课程研究学生的学科核心思想和解释性实践之间的性质和联系，超越单一课程。 本研究中使用的评估工具和分析技术将为这一未充分研究的领域的进一步研究奠定基础，包括未来的纵向研究和研究教学对学生构建复杂解释能力的影响。 从这项工作中获得的见解也将用于制定循证教学框架。 该框架将提供一个跨化学和生物学入门课程的学习目标的进展，表明在每门课程中需要掌握什么，以便在随后的课程中产生复杂的解释。 此外，该框架将记录学生使用词汇在课程之间建立联系的常见方式，以及课程之间词汇差异如何阻止跨课程的思想转移。 该框架将作为未来循证STEM课程和课程重塑工作的指南，旨在培养准备充分的公民和科学家。

项目成果

A Deep Look into Designing a Task and Coding Scheme through the Lens of Causal Mechanistic Reasoning

从因果机制推理的角度深入探讨任务设计和编码方案

• DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.1c00959
• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: Journal of Chemical Education
• 影响因子: 3
• 作者: Noyes, Keenan;Carlson, Clare G.;Stoltzfus, Jon R.;Schwarz, Christina V.;Long, Tammy M.;Cooper, Melanie M.
• 通讯作者: Cooper, Melanie M.

Mechanistic Explanations Across Undergraduate Chemistry and Biology Courses.

本科化学和生物学课程的机理解释。

• 发表时间: 2020
• 期刊: Proceedings from the 14th International Conference of the Learning Sciences.
• 作者: Schwarz, C.V.;Cooper, M.M.;Long, T.M.;Trujillo, C.M.;de Lima, J.;Kesh, J.;Noyes, K.;Stoltzfus, J.R.
• 通讯作者: Stoltzfus, J.R.