Collaborative Research: Promoting Research-based Instructional Methods to Enhance and Reform STEM Education

该项目是科罗拉多大学博尔德分校、德克萨斯大学里奥格兰德河谷分校、前排社区学院和内布拉斯加大学/方法论和评估研究核心设施之间的合作项目。该项目旨在解决各机构在寻求改善科学、技术、工程和数学本科教育时面临的挑战。为此，该项目将实施和研究一种转变教学和机构文化的综合方法。该项目旨在通过设计学习专业发展计划，更多地采用以学习者为中心的研究型教学策略。通过设计学习方案是通过之前扩大实施和示范循证改革奖而制定的。项目组成部分包括一个专业发展计划，重点是课程设计原则和以研究为基础的教学战略，并有后续指导、圆桌讨论、课程改进奖以及研究和评估活动。该项目的主要目标是将本科生STEM教师从传统的以教师为中心的讲授教学转变为以学习为中心的主动学习教学。次要目标是创建、测试和实施设计学习计划的不同版本，其方式应对机构之间的差异及其不同的任务和背景敏感。项目组建议开发可持续发展的模型，使这些版本能够在项目生命周期之后持续存在。运用扎根的理论和相关分析，多案例研究性研究(定性和定量相结合的方法)旨在解决主要的研究问题：如何在不同的高等教育机构有效地推广循证教学方法和专业发展计划，以支持STEM教师实施以学生为中心的教学？拟议工作的设计/实施和研究部分以组织变革文献为基础，主要通过Kezar的理论和实践工作(例如，基于研究的组织变革原则、变革战略、变革重点、变革模式和变革成果)。该项目旨在提供多种方式，使教师、学术部门和其他单位、机构和机构联合体能够支持更广泛地实施有效的教学战略/实践，从而改善本科生STEM教育。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project is a collaboration between the University of Colorado at Boulder, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Front Range Community College, and the University of Nebraska/Methodology and Evaluation Research Core Facility. The project aims to address the challenges institutions face as they seek to improve undergraduate education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. To this end, the project will implement and investigate a comprehensive approach to transforming instruction and institutional culture. The project aims to increase the adoption of learner-centered, research-based instructional strategies through the Learning by Design professional development program. The Learning by Design program was developed through a previous Widening Implementation and Demonstration of Evidence-Based Reforms award. Project components include a professional development program focused on course-design principles and research-based instructional strategies, with follow-on mentoring, roundtable discussion, course improvement awards, and research and evaluation activities. The primary goal of this project is to move undergraduate STEM instructors away from traditional teacher-centered lecture-based instruction, toward learning-centered active learning-based instruction. The secondary goal is to create, test, and implement different versions of the Learning by Design program in ways that are sensitive to differences between institutions and their varied missions and contexts. The project team proposes to develop models for sustainability that will enable these versions to persist beyond the life of the project. Applying grounded theory and correlational analyses, the multiple-case study research study (mixed qualitative and quantitative methods) is designed to address the primary research question: How can evidence-based instructional methods and professional development programs be effectively propagated in different institutions of higher education to support STEM instructor implementation of learner-centered instruction? The design/implementation and research components of the proposed effort are grounded in the organizational change literature, primarily through the theoretical and practical work of Kezar (e.g., research-based principles of organizational change, change strategies, change foci, change models, and change outcomes). The project is designed to provide multiple ways by which faculty, academic departments and other units, institutions, and institutional consortia can support broader implementation of effective instructional strategies/practices, and thus improve undergraduate STEM education.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.