Collaborative Research: Transforming Organic Chemistry Instruction through Faculty Workshops and a Community of Practice

本项目旨在通过改进本科化学教育服务于国家利益。为此，它将支持旨在提高学生有机化学学习的不断增长的实践社区。项目团队的总体目标是让学生更容易理解有机化学，并改变其教学方式。它打算通过举办一系列教师研讨会和提供在线访问范例学习材料来实现这一目标。这些工作坊旨在增加有机化学教师的循证教学实践的实施。工作坊的参与者将学习和实践教学技巧，让学生积极地构建知识，而不是传统的“坐享其成”的讲座。其他活动包括努力维持研讨会的效果，传播结果，扩大教师实践社区。具体活动包括在线教师学习社区、小型研讨会、全国会议专题讨论会、新闻通讯以及出版一本详细报告新教学法课堂实施情况的书。除了改善本科有机化学教育外，本项目有可能增进对实践社区在促进教学改进中的作用的理解。这个项目的首要目标是提高学生在有机化学方面的学习和成果。本提案计划通过有机化学研讨会中的主动学习来提高教师对循证教学实践的认识，协助教师实施，扩大实践社区，促进教育资源的发展，协调正在进行的教师学习社区，检查研讨会的有效性，并修改研讨会以提高其有效性，从而实现这一目标。项目团队和研讨会参与者将制作积极的学习材料，并将其发布在有机教育资源网站（https://www.organicers.org/）上，以便任何人都可以使用，包括有机化学讲师。该项目将应用和研究两种变革理论：罗杰的创新扩散理论和计划行为理论。该项目的教育研究部分将检查(1)研讨会参与者的教学实践变化过程，(2)有机化学教师的实践社区如何发展，(3)促进或阻碍教学实践转变的因素，以及(4)维持实践社区的最佳实践。工作坊的形成性评估将用于在整个颁奖过程中不断改进工作坊。本项目由美国国家科学基金会改善本科STEM教育计划：教育与人力资源项目支持，该项目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，该计划支持有前途的实践和工具的创建，探索和实施，以了解机构如何改变以更好地支持学生学习。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 undergraduate chemistry education. To do so, it will support a growing community of practice that aims to improve student learning in organic chemistry. The project team’s overall goal is to make organic chemistry more accessible to students and transform how it is taught. It intends to achieve this goal by hosting a series of faculty workshops and providing online access to exemplar learning materials. The workshops are intended to increase the implementation of evidence-based instructional practices among organic chemistry instructors. Workshop participants will learn and practice teaching techniques that involve students actively in constructing knowledge as opposed to traditional “sit and get” lectures. Additional activities include efforts to sustain the effects of the workshop, disseminate results, and broaden the faculty community of practice. Specific activities include online faculty learning communities, mini-workshops, symposia at national meetings, newsletters, and publishing a book with detailed reports of classroom implementations of novel pedagogies. In addition to improving undergraduate organic chemistry education, this project has the potential to enhance understanding about the role of communities of practice in promoting instructional improvements. The overarching goal of this project is to improve student learning and outcomes in organic chemistry. This proposal plans to achieve this goal by increasing faculty awareness of evidence-based instructional practices through Active Learning in Organic Chemistry workshops, assisting faculty with implementation, expanding the community of practice, fostering the development of educational resources, coordinating ongoing faculty learning communities, examining the effectiveness of workshops, and revising the workshops to increase their effectiveness. The project team and workshop participants will generate active learning materials and post them on the Organic Education Resources website (https://www.organicers.org/) so they can be used by anyone, including organic chemistry instructors. The project will apply and study two theories of change: Roger's Diffusion of Innovation Theory and the Theory of Planned Behavior. The project’s education research component will examine (1) the process of change in teaching practices among workshop participants, (2) how a community of practice for organic chemistry instructors evolves, (3) factors that facilitate or impede transformation in teaching practices, and (4) best practices for sustaining a community of practice. Formative assessment of the workshops will be used for continuous improvement of the workshops throughout the course of the award. This project is supported by the NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education Program: Education and Human Resources, which 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 the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools to understand how institutions change to better support student learning.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.