An Interdisciplinary Exploration of Student Engagement in Scientific Practices in Undergraduate Biology, Chemistry, and Physics Laboratory Courses

本科生物、化学和物理实验课程中学生参与科学实践的跨学科探索

• 批准号: 2044432
• 负责人: Norda Stephenson
• 金额: $ 29.94万
• 依托单位: Western Washington University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-03-01 至 2025-02-28
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2044432&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Interdisciplinary; Exploration; Student; Engagement; Scientific

This project aims to serve the national interest in undergraduate STEM education by examining student learning in laboratory courses. Many students enroll in introductory laboratory courses for multiple disciplines at the same time. As a result, there is a need for interdisciplinary investigation into how students experience scientific practices in such courses. This project focuses on the eight scientific practices described in the Framework for K-12 Education and embedded in the Next Generation Science Standards. Scientific practices are important because they are fundamental to scientific discovery, inherently interdisciplinary, and applicable across scientific contexts in higher education. This project will investigate similarities and differences in the scientific practices incorporated into introductory laboratory courses in biology, chemistry, and physics. It will focus on how students, staff, faculty, and teaching assistants value scientific practices that are perceived as more technical (such as analyzing data) or more social (such as communicating information). This project will determine whether and how students engage with specific scientific practices in biology, chemistry, and physics laboratory courses and how that engagement is encouraged and rewarded. The findings from this project will expand current understanding of scientific practices in introductory science courses. In doing so, this work will lay a foundation for making these laboratory courses more equitable and supportive of a greater diversity of learners. The goal of this interdisciplinary project is to explore the incorporation and gendering of scientific practices in introductory biology, chemistry, and physics lab courses at a primarily undergraduate institution using a comparative case study research design. This project will blend three theoretical lenses: the Framework for K-12 Science Education, accountable disciplinary knowledge (ADK), and technical-social dualism (TDS). These three lenses operationalize what counts as a scientific practice (the Framework), what it means for students to be accountable for engaging in a practice (ADK), and the gendering of scientific practices that are perceived to be more technical/masculine versus more social/feminine (TDS). The comparative case study approach will enable critical analyses of data from a variety of sources, including surveys, interviews, and classroom observations and artifacts. Case studies of biology, chemistry, and physics lab courses will provide insight into structural and interpersonal equity with regard to how scientific practices are valued, as well as examine how and by whom scientific practices are enacted across disciplines. Structural perspectives include those practices that are targeted by departmental and instructor learning goals, as well how those practices are assessed. Interpersonal perspectives include the ways that instructors and teaching assistants facilitate student engagement in scientific practices, and how students participate in them. This work will help to fill a significant gap in the discipline-based education research literature, namely the lack of interdisciplinary studies across biology, chemistry, and physics at the undergraduate level. Further, this project will provide insight into how structural and interpersonal mechanisms in laboratory courses may contribute to perceptions of some scientific disciplines as more social/feminine or technical/masculine than others. Finally, the findings from this work will provide guidance to support faculty, staff, and other instructors in their efforts to improve their interactions, instruction, and mentorship of students in the early stages of their science careers. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, 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.

本项目旨在通过检验学生在实验课程中的学习情况，服务于国家对本科STEM教育的兴趣。许多学生同时选修多学科的实验入门课程。因此，有必要对学生如何在这些课程中体验科学实践进行跨学科的调查。本项目重点关注《K-12教育框架》中描述并嵌入《下一代科学标准》的八项科学实践。科学实践很重要，因为它们是科学发现的基础，本质上是跨学科的，并且适用于高等教育的各个科学背景。本项目将探讨生物、化学和物理入门实验课程中科学实践的异同。它将关注学生、教职员工和助教如何评价那些被认为更具技术性（如分析数据）或更具社会性（如交流信息）的科学实践。该项目将决定学生是否以及如何参与生物、化学和物理实验课程的具体科学实践，以及如何鼓励和奖励这种参与。这个项目的发现将扩展目前对科学入门课程中科学实践的理解。这样，这项工作将为使这些实验课程更加公平和支持更多样化的学习者奠定基础。这个跨学科项目的目标是通过比较案例研究设计，探索在一个主要的本科院校的入门生物学、化学和物理实验课程中科学实践的结合和性别。该项目将融合三个理论视角：K-12科学教育框架、负责任的学科知识（ADK）和技术-社会二元论（TDS）。这三种视角定义了什么是科学实践（框架），学生对参与实践负责意味着什么（ADK），以及科学实践的性别化，即被认为更技术性/男性化与更社会性/女性化（TDS）。比较案例研究方法将能够对来自各种来源的数据进行批判性分析，包括调查、访谈、课堂观察和人工制品。生物、化学和物理实验课程的案例研究将提供关于如何评估科学实践的结构和人际公平的见解，以及研究如何以及由谁制定跨学科的科学实践。结构视角包括部门和教师学习目标所针对的实践，以及如何评估这些实践。人际关系视角包括教师和助教促进学生参与科学实践的方式，以及学生如何参与其中。这项工作将有助于填补以学科为基础的教育研究文献中的一个重大空白，即在本科阶段缺乏跨生物、化学和物理的跨学科研究。此外，本项目将深入了解实验课程中的结构和人际机制如何导致某些科学学科的社会/女性化或技术/男性化程度高于其他学科。最后，这项工作的发现将为支持教职员工和其他讲师提供指导，以努力改善他们在科学生涯早期阶段对学生的互动、指导和指导。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。通过参与学生学习轨道，该计划支持有前途的实践和工具的创建，探索和实施。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。