Collaborative Research: Improving inorganic chemistry education through a community-developed student-centered curriculum

提高大学生对科学的兴趣和提高他们对科学的学习是国家的优先事项。这两个结果都取决于大学科学教学的大规模变革，因此更多的教师使用积极的学习策略来吸引和鼓励学生。这个项目的重点是无机化学，这是大多数化学专业大三的课程。该项目将在美国国家科学基金会的支持下建立一个完善的全国性教师社区，建立一个模块化框架，促进在无机化学课程中使用主动学习策略。此外，根据无机化学研究的最新进展，将开发新的课程材料，并在社区网站www.ionicviper.org上分享。在这项工作中，调查人员将研究教师采用主动学习实践所需的支持的类型和数量，以及这些变化对学生无机化学学习的影响。该项目有可能找到改善STEM教师教学的具体策略和一般原则，这可以应用于其他课程和学科。改进的课程和教学效果的影响还旨在增加拥有成为成功化学家所需的工具和批判性思维技能的本科生的数量。本项目所产生的知识将使我们深入了解教师在采用主动学习教学策略时所面临的挑战，以及在教学实践中影响和维持变革所必需的支持水平。这个项目将有助于确定一个专业实践社区如何启动、启用和维持教师变革。通过课堂观察、学生作业分析、学生调查和教师访谈，该项目将生成关于课堂变化如何影响学生学习的数据。它将通过评估如何鼓励采用基于证据的课堂实践，为促进教师变革提供证据。该项目的成果将包括：1)60个新的无机化学基础课程教学大纲和相关课程材料，内容涵盖核心无机化学主题；2)关于实践社区对教师变化影响的新知识；3)改善学生在无机化学方面的学习。

Increasing undergraduate student interest in science and improving their learning of science is a national priority. Both outcomes hinge on large-scale changes in college science teaching, so that more instructors use active learning strategies that engage and encourage students. This project focuses on inorganic chemistry, a course that most chemistry majors take in their third year. The project will use a well-established, nation-wide community of faculty, developed with prior NSF support, to build a modular framework that promotes the use of active learning strategies in inorganic chemistry courses. In addition, new curricular materials based on the latest advances in inorganic chemistry research will be developed and shared on the community website: www.ionicviper.org. During this work, the investigators will study the type and amount of support that instructors need to adopt active learning practices, as well as the impact of those changes on student learning in inorganic chemistry. This project has the potential to find specific strategies and general principles for improving STEM faculty teaching, which could be applied to other courses and disciplines. The impact of the improved curriculum and teaching effectiveness also aims to increase the number of undergraduates who have the tools and critical thinking skills needed to be successful chemists.The knowledge generated by this project will provide insight into the challenges faculty face as they adopt active-learning teaching strategies and the level of the support necessary to effect and sustain change in teaching practices. This project will help identify how a professional community of practice can initiate, enable, and sustain faculty change. Through classroom observations, analysis of student work, surveys of students, and interviews with faculty, the project will generate data on how changes in the classroom affect student learning. It will contribute to the body of evidence for promoting faculty change by evaluating how to encourage the adoption of evidence-based classroom practices. The products of this project will include: 1) 60 new syllabi, with related course materials, for a foundation-level inorganic chemistry course with content coverage drawn from core inorganic chemistry topics, 2) new knowledge on the impact of communities of practice on faculty change, and 3) improved student learning in inorganic chemistry.