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

该项目旨在通过改进生物、化学、数学和物理入门课程的教与学来服务于国家利益。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来揭示一个人的思维。传统的课程并不明确地发展这些技能。通过在新的STEM入门课程中反复接触这些技能，学生将学会跨学科识别和使用这些技能，从而获得更全面的科学观。新课程将通过STEM教员和本科生团队开发的教学工具和方法来支持。具体地说，教师讲师将与100名本科生合作，他们将为课程材料的设计做出贡献，并作为讲座或学习小组的学习教练实施这些材料。该项目包括研究研究，旨在记录学生、学习教练和教员随时间的变化。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。该项目有可能成为学生深入参与大学的智力使命的典范，通过学生作为联合设计者和学习教练的服务，以及在STEM教育中以研究为导向的机构改进。该项目旨在制定一个基于研究、基于需求、社区支持和学生资源的PKAL/KECK制度变革模式。它将动员跨STEM学科的教师共同改变新汉普郡大学生物、化学、数学和物理门户课程的教与学。这个项目的新奇之处在于，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学习和教师教学的难点。具体的练习包括图形表示、比例推理和反思性自我解释。Gateway教师将加入一个学习社区，由以学科为基础的教育研究同事领导，他们拥有关于特定领域的学科学习挑战和领域一般认知方法的专门知识。教职员工将沿着改善舒适度、知识和技能的轨迹接受指导，采用基于研究的教学方法。经历过所有入门课程的本科生同伴学习教练将与教师合作进行现场测试，并与学生一起实施设计的活动。该项目将产生关于学生科学、数学和元认知实践发展的新知识，以及这种智力技能发展如何影响STEM成绩。这些信息可以指导改进STEM教育的努力，为未来的专业STEM劳动力做好准备，并为教师的教学轨迹提供洞察。项目评估工作将使用日记、访谈和观察来监测教师的负担能力和障碍。对于学生来说，将探索学习结果(概念、技能、态度)的准实验对比，作为接触干预的函数。预计该项目将提供一种可在其他机构使用的简单和可复制的模式，并可扩大到包括更多的STEM学科和不同的课程级别。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转变和改进STEM教育的努力。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。

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.