Exploring How Geoscience Inquiry Labs Influence Graduate Student Teaching Beliefs and Undergraduate Student Learning and Interest

在NSF改善本科STEM教育计划：教育和人力资源（IUSE：EHR）的支持下，该项目旨在通过改善本科地球科学课程和培养未来更有效的教育工作者来服务于国家利益。探究式教学是模拟科学过程的有效途径。 然而，出版的地球科学实验室手册往往包含很少的调查为基础的练习。这种实验手册建议学习通过遵循教师的指导进行。认为遵循方向是学习的好途径的教师不太可能采用研究表明可以更好地支持学生学习的技术，例如探究。由于教学助理仍在发展他们的教学信念，我们假设，教学助理谁拥有更多的经验，教学探究为基础的实验室将开发更多的以学生为中心的信念，提高他们的有效性，作为未来的教师。该项目将为地球科学入门课程创建一套调查实验室，并在两年多的时间里研究它们对五个机构的教学助理信念的影响。本研究将探讨探究经验、助教教学信念与学生兴趣对约1500名本科生学习成效的相对影响。该项目的意义在于为地学学生提供更有效的教学材料，并可能揭示STEM教育变革的新途径。该项目将应用教师专业成长的相互关联模型（Clarke& Hollingsworth，2002）来检验假设，即让教学助理参与教学探究实验室将增加他们以学生为中心的教学信念，教师信念访谈（Luft& Roehrig，2007）。分层线性模型将探讨的比例的影响，教学助理的信念，实验室的探究水平，和学生的兴趣对概念，地球科学的学习。该项目开发的实验室将通过“教导地球”网站提供。 因此，该项目有可能在全国范围内增加基于调查的地球科学实验室的采用。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。通过机构和社区转型的轨道，该计划支持的努力，以改变和改善高等教育机构和学科社区的STEM教育.这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估支持.

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 improving the undergraduate geoscience curriculum and producing future faculty who are more effective educators. Inquiry-based teaching is an effective way to model the scientific process. However, published geoscience lab manuals often contain few inquiry-based exercises. Such lab manuals suggest that learning occurs by following an instructor's directions. Faculty who believe that following directions is a good pathway to learning are less likely to adopt techniques, such as inquiry, that research has demonstrated to better support student learning. Since teaching assistants are still developing their teaching beliefs, we hypothesize that teaching assistants who have more experience teaching inquiry-based labs will develop more student-centered beliefs, enhancing their effectiveness as future faculty. This project will create a suite of inquiry labs for introductory geoscience courses and study their effect on teaching assistant beliefs at five institutions over two years. This research will determine the relative effects of inquiry experiences, teaching assistant's teaching beliefs, and undergraduate student interest on student learning outcomes of approximately 1500 undergraduate students. This project's significance lies in its work to provide more effective instructional materials for geoscience students and its potential to reveal a new pathway for transforming STEM education.This project will apply the Interconnected Model of Teacher Professional Growth (Clarke & Hollingsworth, 2002) to test the hypothesis that involving teaching assistants in teaching inquiry labs will increase their student-centered teaching beliefs, as measured by the Teacher Beliefs Interview (Luft & Roehrig, 2007). Hierarchical linear modeling will explore the proportion of influence that teaching assistant beliefs, the inquiry level of the lab, and student interest have on conceptual, geoscientific learning. Labs developed by the project will be made available using the Teach the Earth website. As a result, the project has the potential to increase adoption of inquiry-based geoscience labs across the nation. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Institutional and Community Transformation track, the program supports efforts to transform and improve STEM education across institutions of higher education and disciplinary communities.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.