Promoting Graphical Literacy Skills at Two and Four Year Colleges Through Virtual Tutoring

在NSF改善本科生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和了解所有学生如何发展图形素养来服务于国家利益，图形素养是现代劳动力的一个基本概念。该项目将开发虚拟辅导系统，并评估它们如何在两年制社区大学和四年制本科机构中促进图形素养。对于STEM专业的学生和懂STEM的公众来说，理解和解释图形信息是一项关键的基础技能。虽然大学课本和课程要求学生掌握阅读图表的技能，但有证据表明，大学生在阅读和解释线条和条形图方面存在困难。当图形包含增加了图形的复杂性和结构的多个变量时，情况尤其如此。将测试几个版本的辅导系统，每个版本都基于关于个人如何学习的相互竞争的理论，以评估针对不同学生和不同环境的最有效的一种或多种方法。该项目将开发几个经过研究验证的、灵活的、可以轻松自由传播的虚拟辅导系统。该项目将利用初步数据，展示一年级和二年级大学生在图形素养方面的共性失败点，开发图形素养虚拟辅导系统。在这些辅导系统中，一项由认知和社会发展学习理论提供信息的受控实验将测试情境和脚手架的独立和交互效应，以使用2x2方差设计来促进图形识字。附加的层次线性回归分析将测试潜在的计划影响调节者的作用，以及它们与计划特征的交互作用。这项拟议的研究是新颖的，因为它明确地检查了相互竞争的学习理论及其相互作用。该项目的一个重要元素是其有意包容的框架，该框架评估两年制和四年制大学设置的材料，以及个体学习者特征对学习结果的作用。一个由来自生物、化学、运动和健康科学、数学和物理的教职员工组成的顾问委员会将提供跨学科的见解，包括特定学科的应用或计划修改。NSF IUSE：EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生的STEM教育的有效性。通过参与的学生学习路径，该计划支持有前景的实践和工具的创建、探索和实施。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。

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 studying and understanding how all students develop graphical literacy, an essential concept for the modern workforce. This project will develop virtual tutoring systems and evaluate how they promote graphical literacy at both a two-year community college and a four-year primarily undergraduate institution. Understanding and interpreting graphical information is a critical foundational skill for STEM majors and the STEM-literate public. While college textbooks and curricula expect students to have mastered graph-reading skills, evidence indicates that college students struggle to read and interpret line and bar graphs. This is particularly true when graphs include multiple variables that increase the complexity and structure of the graph. Several versions of the tutoring system will be tested, each based on competing theories of how individuals learn, to evaluate the most effective method or methods for different students and in different environments. By its conclusion, this project will have developed several research-validated, flexible virtual tutoring systems that can be easily and freely disseminated.This project will develop virtual tutoring systems for graphical literacy by drawing on preliminary data demonstrating common points of failure in graphical literacy exhibited by first- and second-year college students. Within these tutoring systems, a controlled experiment informed by cognitive and social-developmental theories of learning will test the independent and interactive effects of context and scaffolding to promote graphical literacy using a 2x2 ANOVA design. Additional hierarchical linear regression analyses will test the role of potential moderators of program impact as well as their interactions with program features. The proposed research is novel in that it explicitly examines competing learning theories and their interaction. An important element of the project is its intentionally inclusive framework that evaluates materials across both two-year and four-year college settings, as well as the role of individual learner characteristics on learning outcomes. An advisory board, consisting of faculty from biology, chemistry, exercise and health sciences, mathematics, and physics, will provide interdisciplinary insights, including discipline-specific applications or program modifications. 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.