Evaluating the Impact of CURE Course Design Characteristics on Student Interest, Engagement, and Persistence

评估 CURE 课程设计特征对学生兴趣、参与度和持久性的影响

• 批准号: 1856150
• 负责人: Mark Graham
• 金额: $ 29.96万
• 依托单位: Yale University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-10-01 至 2024-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1856150&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Evaluating; Impact; CURE; Course; Design

With support from the NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education Program: Education and Human Resources (IUSE: EHR), this project aims to serve the national interest by examining how students benefit from Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs). Evidence suggests that early, authentic research experiences have a more positive affect than traditional learning contexts on college students' STEM learning, motivation, and academic plans. Unfortunately, opportunities for undergraduate research are available to relatively few students. Although traditional undergraduate laboratory classes can support a large number of students, they do not typically engage students in discovery and iteration, which are characteristics of authentic research. A solution that provides more students with greater access to an "authentic" research experience is the CURE. CUREs combine many of the authentic features of a faculty member's research lab with the larger capacity of a course environment. This scalability and authenticity have led to growth of CURE programs and expansion across colleges and universities. As CURE offerings spread, however, the enthusiasm for them has not been matched by a consistent approach to evaluation or educational theory grounding. Therefore, research is needed to assist instructors in understanding how CUREs work, when CUREs are most effective, and who CUREs benefit. Addressing this gap in the literature will contribute to improving undergraduate STEM education in the United States by providing evidence and tools to improve the quality of research opportunities experienced in course settings. In turn, access to these improved research opportunities can increase the retention of potential STEM majors who are vulnerable to exiting the major early in their academic careers, including those from groups underrepresented in STEM fields.Although assessment of some pre-/post-CURE student outcomes has been conducted, it is not yet documented how students experience and react to various CURE course design features, such as iterative experimentation and dealing with ill-defined, complex tasks. In addition, it remains unknown how students react to CURES over a semester-long experience. Finally, it is not known how the instance and emphasis of different features of CURE courses throughout a semester interact with student interest to increase (or decrease) students' motivation to persist in a course of study. This project will address these gaps in the literature by: 1) Developing a taxonomy of "authentic research" characteristics for systematic classification of CUREs across departments and institutions; 2) Measuring how student interest (based on motivation theory) varies over the course of a given CURE as a result of these course characteristics; and 3) Exploring interactions between course characteristics, student interest, and longer-term STEM persistence and career goals. The project aims to complete these tasks by studying course design and student outcomes in a natural sample of undergraduate CURE courses at three universities: a research-focused private, a research-focused public, and an undergraduate-focused public. Data collection will include a combination of quantitative (syllabus analysis and student interest surveys) and qualitative (student interviews) research methods. The results of this study will expand practitioners' knowledge of course-based approaches to STEM engagement. It will also inform those in the STEM education research community who are interested in studying CUREs with new research questions to explore. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.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.

在NSF改善本科STEM教育计划：教育和人力资源（IUSE：EHR）的支持下，该项目旨在通过研究学生如何从基于课程的本科研究经验（CURES）中受益来服务于国家利益。有证据表明，早期，真实的研究经验比传统的学习环境对大学生的STEM学习，动机和学业计划有更积极的影响。不幸的是，本科研究的机会提供给相对较少的学生。虽然传统的本科实验室课程可以支持大量的学生，他们通常不从事学生的发现和迭代，这是真实的研究的特点。一个解决方案，提供更多的学生有更多的机会获得一个“真实”的研究经验是治愈。CURE联合收割机结合了教员研究实验室的许多真实特征和课程环境的更大容量。这种可扩展性和真实性导致了CURE计划的增长和跨学院和大学的扩展。然而，随着CURE课程的普及，人们对它们的热情并没有得到一致的评估方法或教育理论基础的匹配。因此，需要进行研究，以帮助教师了解CURE如何工作，何时CURE最有效，以及谁受益。解决文献中的这一差距将有助于通过提供证据和工具来提高课程设置中经历的研究机会的质量，从而改善美国的本科STEM教育。反过来，获得这些改善的研究机会可以增加潜在的STEM专业的保留，这些专业在学术生涯的早期容易退出专业，包括那些在STEM领域代表性不足的群体。虽然已经对一些前/后CURE学生的成果进行了评估，但尚未记录学生如何体验和反应各种CURE课程设计功能，例如迭代实验和处理定义不清的复杂任务。 此外，它仍然是未知的学生如何反应治愈超过一个学期的经验。最后，目前还不知道如何在整个学期的CURE课程的不同功能的实例和重点与学生的兴趣互动，以增加（或减少）学生的动机，坚持在学习过程中。本研究将通过以下方式解决文献中的这些空白：1）开发一种“真实研究”特征的分类法，用于跨部门和机构的CURE系统分类; 2）测量学生的兴趣如何（基于动机理论）由于这些课程特征而在给定的CURE课程中变化;以及3）探索课程特征，学生兴趣，长期STEM坚持和职业目标之间的相互作用。该项目旨在通过研究课程设计和学生的成绩在三所大学的本科CURE课程的自然样本完成这些任务：一个以研究为重点的私人，一个以研究为重点的公共和一个以本科生为重点的公共。数据收集将包括定量（教学大纲分析和学生兴趣调查）和定性（学生访谈）研究方法的结合。这项研究的结果将扩大从业人员的知识，以课程为基础的方法，以干参与。它还将通知那些在干教育研究社区谁有兴趣研究与新的研究问题探索的CURE。 NSF IUSE：EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

项目成果

College Student Meaning Making and Interest Maintenance During COVID-19: From Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) to Science Learning Being Off-Campus and Online

• DOI: 10.3389/feduc.2020.590738
• 发表时间: 2020-12-08
• 期刊: FRONTIERS IN EDUCATION
• 影响因子: 2.3
• 作者: Wang, Cong;Bauer, Melanie;Graham, Mark J.
• 通讯作者: Graham, Mark J.