Advancing Adaptation of Writing Pedagogies for Undergraduate STEM Education Through Transdisciplinary Action Research

该项目旨在通过调查如何帮助工程和科学学生培养有效的沟通技能来服务于国家利益。美国国家科学院和美国国家工程院都强调了这一关键能力。 然而，沟通技巧仍然是学生发展的挑战。这项工作的长期目标是以持久，具有成本效益和可扩展的方式提高攻读科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）学位的本科生的写作技能。这个跨学科项目将建立在STEM和写作研究教师之间的现有合作基础上。写作教学的最佳实践已经在以前的写作研究中建立起来。然而，这些做法在大多数STEM课程中基本上没有被采用。STEM学生必须掌握不同的流派和惯例，这取决于他们的学科。 例子包括技术报告和会谈，标准，实验室报告，和科学论文的档案文献。 此外，STEM课程往往很大，很少有STEM教师接受过有效教学和应对学生写作的培训。该项目将调查一个名为“跨工程科学写作”（WAES）的项目在促进教师采用最佳实践和让学生参与整个本科课程的专业写作方面的有效性。该研究项目将i）通知WAES计划的持续发展，ii）建立一个教师社区，致力于从写作研究中调整和创新最佳实践，以适应不同类型和规模的STEM课程的限制和目标，iii）启动对这些调整和创新的有效性的评估，iv）促进对如何促进教学变革的理解，无论是在写作研究和整体教师的发展。WAES是一个跨学科的计划，授权STEM教师在其学科背景下更有效地教授写作。该项目将采用跨学科的行动研究方法，整合跨学科合作，正在进行的研究和教育改革。WAES计划在促进教学改革和让学生参与写作方面的有效性将通过严格的混合方法，三角评估计划进行评估。目标1将评估WAES计划在提高STEM教师对写作研究最佳实践的认识方面的有效性，并鼓励他们创造性地适应这些最佳实践。定性，混合方法的方法将包括教师调查，课程材料，教师访谈，并观察WAES会议，指导会议，课程和课程工作人员会议。这些数据将进行分析，从写作研究和新兴的主题的概念的吸收/拒绝。目标2将评估WAES计划对学生参与写作的影响。学生的参与度将首先通过在成对的WAES影响和控制班进行调查，使用情感和行为问题进行评估。将与学生进行模拟启发式访谈，以更深入地了解影响。学生的写作样本将被收集，并将启动写作的语言和修辞特征的多维分析。该项目由NSF改善本科STEM教育计划：教育和人力资源支持。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。该项目是在学生学习的轨道，通过该计划支持的创建，探索和实施有前途的做法和工具。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的支持。

This project aims to serve the national interest by investigating how to help engineering and science students develop effective communication skills. Both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering have emphasized this critical competency. Nevertheless, communication skills remain challenging for students to develop. The long-term objective of this work is to improve the writing skills of undergraduate students pursuing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) degrees in a lasting, cost-effective, and scalable way. This transdisciplinary project will build on an intensive existing collaboration between STEM and writing-studies faculty. Best practices for teaching writing have been established by previous research in writing studies. However, these practices remain largely unadopted in most STEM classes. STEM students must master different genres and conventions, depending on their discipline. Examples include technical reports and talks, standards, laboratory reports, and scientific papers for the archival literature. In addition, STEM classes tend to be large and few STEM faculty are trained to teach and respond effectively to student writing. This project will investigate the effectiveness of a program called Writing Across Engineering & Science (WAES) in promoting faculty adoption of best practices and engaging students with professional writing throughout the undergraduate curriculum. This research project will i) inform continued developments to the WAES program, ii) build a faculty community working to adapt and innovate best practices from writing studies to suit the constraints and objectives of different types and sizes of STEM classes, iii) initiate evaluation of the effectiveness of those adaptations and innovations, and iv) advance understanding of how to promote pedagogical change, both within writing studies and for overall faculty development. WAES is a transdisciplinary program that empowers STEM faculty to teach writing more effectively within their disciplinary contexts. The project will apply a transdisciplinary action research approach that integrates cross-disciplinary collaboration, ongoing research, and educational reforms. The effectiveness of the WAES program at promoting pedagogical change and engaging students with writing will be evaluated through a rigorous mixed-methods, triangulated assessment plan. Objective 1 will evaluate the effectiveness of the WAES program in increasing STEM faculty awareness of best practices from writing studies and encouraging their creative adaptation of those best practices. The qualitative, mixed-methods approach will include faculty surveys, course materials, faculty interviews, and observations of WAES sessions, mentoring meetings, classes and course staff meetings. These data will be analyzed for uptake/rejection of concepts from writing studies and for emergent themes. Objective 2 will assess the impact of the WAES program on students’ engagement with writing. Student engagement will be assessed first through surveys in paired WAES-impacted and control classes, using both affective and behavioral questions. Stimulated elicitation interviews will be conducted with students for a deeper understanding of impacts. Student writing samples will be collected, and multidimensional analysis of linguistic and rhetorical features of the writing will be initiated. This project is supported by the NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education Program: Education and Human Resources. The IUSE: EHR program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. This project is in the Engaged Student Learning track, through which 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.