Transforming Undergraduate STEM Gateway Teaching and Learning by Emphasizing Core, Interdisciplinary STEM Practices

该项目旨在通过改善生物、化学、数学和物理入门课程的教与学，为国家利益服务。它将通过改进课程来帮助学生学习所有STEM学科所需的核心STEM技能：阅读和解释图表，使用比率和比例进行比较和对比，并通过反思和丰富的解释揭示一个人的思维。传统的课程并没有明确地培养这些技能。通过在新的STEM入门课程中反复接触这些技能，学生将学会在跨学科中识别和使用这些技能，从而获得更综合的科学观。新课程将通过由STEM教师和本科生团队开发的教学工具和方法来支持。具体来说，教员教员将与100名本科生合作，他们将参与课程材料的设计，并作为授课或学习小组的学习教练实施这些材料。该项目包括旨在记录学生、学习教练和教员随时间变化的研究。将特别注意让所有群体的学生都有机会担任学习教练，并了解教学方法对学生学习成果的具体影响。这个项目有可能成为一个典范，通过学生作为共同设计师和学习教练的服务，让学生深入参与大学的智力使命，并在STEM教育中以研究为导向的制度改进。该项目旨在制定一个PKAL/Keck模式，以研究为依据，以需求为基础，以社区为支持，以学生为资源。它将吸引STEM学科的教师共同改变新罕布什尔大学生物、化学、数学和物理入门课程的教学。这个项目的新颖之处在于让教师参与开发材料和评估，以教授跨学科的科学、数学和元认知实践，这些实践一直是学生和教师难以学习和教授的。具体实践包括图形表示、比例推理和反思性自我解释。Gateway的教职员工将加入一个学习社区，该社区由具有特定领域学科学习挑战和领域通用认知方法专业知识的基于学科的教育研究同事领导。教师们将在以研究为基础的教学方法的指导下，沿着提高舒适度、知识和技能的轨迹进行指导。具有所有入门课程经验的本科生同伴学习教练将与教师合作，对学生进行实地测试和实施设计的活动。该项目将产生关于学生科学、数学和元认知实践发展以及这种智力技能发展如何影响STEM表现的新知识。这些信息可以指导改善STEM教育的努力，为未来的STEM专业劳动力做好准备，并为教师的教学轨迹提供见解。项目评估工作将通过期刊、访谈和观察来监测教师的能力和障碍。对于学生，学习成果（概念、技能、态度）的准实验对比将作为接触干预措施的函数进行探索。预计该项目将提供一个简单和可复制的模式，可在其他院校使用，并可扩大到包括其他STEM学科和不同的课程水平。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轨道，该计划支持高等教育机构和学科社区的STEM教育转型和改善。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

This project aims to serve the national interest by improving teaching and learning in introductory biology, chemistry, mathematics, and physics. It will do so by making curricular improvements that help students learn core STEM skills that are needed in all STEM disciplines: reading and interpreting graphs, comparing and contrasting using ratios and proportions, and revealing one’s thinking through reflective and rich explanation. Traditional curricula do not explicitly develop these skills. Through recurring encounters with these skills across the new introductory STEM curriculum, students will learn to recognize and use these skills across disciplines and thus acquire a more integrated view of science. The new curriculum will be supported through teaching tools and approaches developed by teams of STEM faculty and undergraduates. Specifically, the faculty instructors will partner with one hundred undergraduate students who will contribute to the design of curricular materials and implement the materials as learning coaches for lecture sessions or study teams. The project includes research studies designed to document changes over time in students, learning coaches, and faculty instructors. Particular attention will be paid to including students from all populations in opportunities to serve as learning coaches and in terms of understanding the specific impacts of the teaching approach on student learning outcomes. This project has the potential to be a model for engaging students deeply in the intellectual mission of the University, through students' service as co-designers and learning coaches, and for research-guided institutional improvement in STEM education.This project aims to enact a PKAL/Keck model for institutional change that is research-informed, needs-based, community-supported, and student-resourced. It will engage faculty across STEM disciplines to collectively transform teaching and learning in the biology, chemistry, mathematics, and physics gateway courses at the University of New Hampshire. The novelty of this project lies in engaging faculty in developing materials and assessments to teach interdisciplinary scientific, mathematical, and metacognitive practices that have been of persistent difficulty for students to learn and instructors to teach. The specific practices include graphical representation, proportional reasoning, and reflective self-explanation. Gateway faculty will join a learning community led by disciplinary-based education research colleagues with specialized knowledge about domain-specific disciplinary learning challenges and domain-general cognitive approaches. The faculty will be mentored along a trajectory of improved comfort, knowledge, and skill with research-based pedagogy. Undergraduate peer learning coaches, who have experienced all the gateway courses, will partner with faculty to field test and implement the designed activities with students. The project will result in new knowledge about development of students’ scientific, mathematical, and metacognitive practices and how this intellectual skill development affects STEM performance. This information can guide efforts to improve STEM education and prepare the professional STEM workforce of tomorrow and provide insights into faculty pedagogic trajectories. Project evaluation efforts will monitor faculty affordances and barriers using journals, interviews, and observations. For students, quasi-experimental contrasts of learning outcomes (concepts, skills, attitudes) will be explored as a function of exposure to interventions. It is anticipated that this project will provide a simple and replicable model that can be used at other institutions, and that could be broadened to include additional STEM disciplines and different course levels. 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.