Learning by evaluating: Engaging students in evaluation as a pedagogical strategy to improve design thinking

通过评估学习（LbE）项目将开发，完善和测试一项教育创新，其中9年级的学生将样本工作作为工程设计周期的起点进行评估。学生将比较和讨论完成的设计工件的质量和适合的上下文。教师将共同审查和完善LbE方法，并将LbE材料映射到课程中。以前的工作表明，这将使学生能够提高对指定项目的内容，背景和思维方式的理解;确定现有方法的优点和缺点;并在完成任务之前认识到与工作质量相关的关键特征。该项目将直接与格鲁吉亚亚特兰大的DeKalb县学区合作，并与国际技术和工程教育工作者协会STEM中心提供的国际实施的9年级课程相连接。从这个项目中出现的教学策略可以嵌入在K-12教室国际上提供的其他STEM中心课程中，或者由各个学科的教师通过免费提供的教学资源的传播来整合。 这个为期三年的探索性项目包括两年的设计为基础的定性研究，其次是一年的准实验混合方法研究，以测试的假设，LBE将显着提高学生的学习。本探究的理论基础是基于柯林斯，布朗，纽曼的“认知学徒”的方法：学生从模型中学习，表达知识，并反思个人经验。设计阶段的研究问题是：什么样的质量的例子应该在LbE中使用？范例与学生的专题应该有多大的关联？教师在LBE中的角色是什么？什么样的时机可以为LbE提供最佳影响？准实验将随机分配参与教师的班级到LbE或比较条件，并评估三个结果变量：学生设计思维心态，学生批判性思维和推理，以及学生的表现。项目领导团队由普渡大学、杨百翰大学和格鲁吉亚大学的设计教育研究人员、国际技术与工程教育协会STEM中心主任以及DeKalb县学区的职业技术和农业教育教学协调员组成。 探索研究preK-12计划（DRK-12）旨在通过研究和开发创新资源，模型和工具，显着提高preK-12学生和教师的科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）的学习和教学。DRK-12项目中的项目建立在STEM教育的基础研究以及为拟议项目提供理论和经验依据的先前研究和开发工作的基础上。该奖项反映了NSF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。

The Learning by Evaluating (LbE) project will develop, refine, and test an educational innovation in which 9th grade students evaluate sample work as a starting point in engineering design cycles. Students will compare and discuss the quality and fit to context of completed design artifacts. Teachers will collaboratively review and refine the LbE approaches and map the LbE materials into the curriculum. Prior work suggests this will allow students to improve understanding of the content, context, and ways of thinking for an assigned project; identify strengths and weaknesses of existing approaches; and recognize key features related to work quality before working on an assignment. The project will work directly with DeKalb County School District in Atlanta, Georgia, and connect to an internationally implemented 9th grade course offered through the International Technology and Engineering Educators Association STEM Center. The pedagogical strategies emerging from this project could be embedded in other STEM Center courses offered in K-12 classrooms internationally, or incorporated by individual teachers in a variety of disciplines through the dissemination of freely available instructional resources. This three-year exploratory project consists of two years of design-based qualitative research, followed by one year of quasi-experimental mixed-methods research to test the hypothesis that LbE will significantly improve student learning. The theoretical foundation of this inquiry is based on Collins, Brown, & Newman’s “cognitive apprenticeship” approach: students learn from models, articulating knowledge, and reflecting on personal experience. The design phase research questions are: What quality of examples should be used in LbE? How related should examples be to the students’ project? What is the teachers’ role in LbE? What timing provides optimal impact for LbE? The quasi-experiment will randomly assign participating teachers’ class sections to an LbE or a comparison condition, and assess three outcome variables: student design thinking mindset, student critical thinking and reasoning, and student performance. The project leadership team combines design education researchers from Purdue, Brigham Young, and the University of Georgia, the director of the International Technology and Engineering Education Association’s STEM Center, and the Career Technical and Agricultural Education Instructional Coordinator for the DeKalb County School District. The Discovery Research preK-12 program (DRK-12) seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of innovative resources, models and tools. Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects.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.