Investigating Deliberative Argumentation in Large-Lecture Biology

现代生物学研究迅速产生新的、复杂的、可扩展的信息。这种新知识的流动使得向未来的生物学家传授完整的知识体系是不可能的，更不用说教育知情的公众了解生物学了。取而代之的是，现代生物学教学越来越强调科学实践的教学，如解释数据和根据证据进行辩论。长期以来，这些主题一直是实验室生物学课程的研究范围。然而，将它们嵌入大型入门课程有可能接触到更多的学生，特别是那些为了满足通识教育要求而注册入门入门课程的学生，以及那些在准备进入STEM专业时第一次上科学课的学生。这项计画将发展将研讨论证融入生物大课堂的方法和措施。审议论证强调协作方法和积极寻找替代解释，这是研究科学家广泛使用的做法。教授学生参加这些实践可以让他们像科学家一样思考，并鼓励他们坚持大学专业的理科，考虑在STEM领域从事职业。大型入门课程经常充当把关课程，高失败率阻碍了学生继续攻读STEM专业。更令人不安的是，这些班级的不及格率往往对代表不足的少数族裔学生来说高得不成比例。在这些课程中融入思考性辩论是一种策略，旨在帮助学生对他们学习的主题有一个概念性的理解，这反过来可能有助于学生获得更好的成绩并通过课程，从而提供坚持STEM专业的动力。在课堂上推广改善科学教学的实践可以帮助留住STEM的学生，这支持培养知情公民和建设更大的科学工作力量的国家利益。这个为期三年的探索与设计项目的目标是增加关于如何在大型讲座生物学课程中实施和利用科学家的修辞实践，特别是审议辩论，以学习核心概念的知识。使用Asterhan和Schwarz的从辩论到学习的框架，该项目将侧重于学生的个体特征(即有效参与辩论所需的内容、知识和技能)、辩论任务设计和支持(即教师支架和话语指导)。该项目旨在通过实现四个目标来确定如何在生物学大课中构建评议辩论，以支持学生的学习：1)优化课前活动以支持评议辩论；2)提炼和展示课上辩论活动的可行性；3)开发和验证评议辩论的措施；以及4)在大课入门本科生物学课程中进行试点论证活动。通过这样做，拟议的研究将为未来的功效和有效性研究奠定基础，通过在大型讲座入门生物学中建立为学习而论证的方法的可行性和潜力。项目人员将采用准实验设计来确定有效的课前活动，为学生准备辩论(目标1)。将使用基于迭代设计的研究(DBR)方法来测试和改进大型讲座生物学的论证课程的设计(目标2)。该项目打算制定和验证一种审议辩论措施(目标3)，以便为迭代辩论会议的设计提供信息。项目工作将以试点研究结束，该研究将采用重复测量实验设计，以确定论证干预的潜在影响(目标4)。这项拟议的研究将拓宽人们对创建以学生为中心的本科生生物学大课课程的“有效方式”的理解。具体地说，该项目将产生证据，证明两项课前活动在为学生积极学习指导做准备方面的有效性，并确定为辩证学习提供关键的教学支持。这项研究旨在通过创建一种稳健的和可复制的审议论证措施来促进论证领域的知识。这一奖项反映了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。

Modern biology research rapidly generates new and complex expansive information. This flux of new knowledge makes it impossible to teach a complete body of knowledge to future biologists, much less to educate an informed public about biology. Instead, modern biology instruction increasingly emphasizes teaching of scientific practices, such as interpreting data and arguing from evidence. These topics have long been the purview of laboratory biology courses. However, embedding them into large introductory lecture courses has the potential to reach more students, especially those who enroll in the introductory courses to fulfill general education requirements and those taking their first science classes as they prepare to enter a STEM major. This project will develop approaches and measures to incorporate deliberative argumentation into large-lecture biology classes. Deliberative argumentation emphasizes collaborative approaches and active searches for alternative explanations, which are practices that are widely used by research scientists. Teaching students to take part in these practices lets them "think like a scientist" and encourages them to stick with science as a college major and to consider a career in a STEM field. Large introductory lecture courses often serve as gatekeeper courses, with high failure rates that discourage students from continuing in STEM majors. Even more troubling is that failure rates in these classes are often disproportionately high for underrepresented minority students. Incorporating deliberative argumentation into these classes is a strategy to help students develop a conceptual understanding of the topics that they study, which may in turn help students to earn better grades and pass the course, providing motivation to stick with a STEM major. Promoting practices in the classroom that improve the teaching and learning of science can help to retain students in STEM, which supports the national interest of developing an informed citizenry and building a larger scientific workforce.The goal of this three-year Exploration and Design project is to increase knowledge about how the rhetorical practices of scientists, specifically deliberative argumentation, can be implemented and leveraged for learning core concepts in large-lecture biology courses. Using Asterhan and Schwarz's argumentation-to-learn framework, the project will focus on individual characteristics of students (i.e. content knowledge and skills necessary to productively engage in argumentation), argumentation task design, and supports (i.e. teacher scaffolds and discourse instructions). The project is designed to determine how deliberative argumentation should be structured in large-lecture biology to support student learning by accomplishing four aims: 1) Optimize pre-class activities to support deliberative argumentation; 2) Refine and demonstrate feasibility of in-class argumentation activities; 3) Develop and validate measures of deliberative argumentation; and 4) Pilot argumentation activities in large-lecture introductory undergraduate biology courses. In doing so, the proposed research will lay the foundation for future efficacy and effectiveness studies by establishing the feasibility and potential of an argumentation-for-learning approach in large-lecture introductory biology. Project personnel will adopt a quasi-experimental design to identify effective pre-class activities for preparing students for argumentation (Aim #1). An iterative design-based research (DBR) approach will be used to test and refine the design of argumentation sessions for large-lecture biology (Aim #2). The project intends to develop and validate a measure of deliberative argumentation (Aim #3) to inform the iterative argumentation session design. Project efforts will conclude with a pilot study, which will apply a repeated measures experimental design to determine the potential impact of the argumentation intervention (Aim #4). The proposed research will broaden understanding about "what works" in creating student-centered undergraduate large-lecture biology courses. Specifically, the project will generate evidence regarding the efficacy of two pre-class activities in preparing students for active learning instruction and to identify key instructional supports for argumentation-to-learn. The study is designed to advance knowledge in the field of argumentation by creating a robust and replicable measure of deliberative argumentation.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.