Understanding Optimal Size for Group Work in Face to Face and Virtual Research Methods Courses for Undergraduate Psychology Majors

该项目旨在通过开发和测试一系列探索性学习活动来服务于国家利益，这些活动旨在帮助学生理解本科STEM课程中的基础科学概念。学生经常被分配到协作小组中工作，以完成STEM课程中的实验室或背诵活动。本研究旨在回答许多教师提出的实际问题--什么规模的小组最适合学习？是不是每个学生单独作业比较好？小团体更有效吗？与另外一个学生合作，或与另外两个学生合作，在三人组中有什么不同？这个项目建立在工作上，提出了三合会的独特优势，并在虚拟合作（学生完全在线互动）的背景下研究这一发现。协作活动是许多教育环境中流行的教学方法。与两个人可能比一个人更好的直觉相一致，许多教师在课堂上依靠协作学习活动，其理想目标是同龄人可以相互提供一些支持。然而，结果是喜忧参半，当学习的学生谁与同龄人一起工作的学生相比，谁单独工作，很少有实验研究测试组规模的影响，使用相同的教学材料。因此，本项目的主要目标是测试哪种小组规模会导致更有效的学习。该项目的结果有可能为广泛的STEM课程的有效交付提供信息，并将有助于确定有效的教学技术和最佳实践，以促进学生的成功。该项目将测试学习成果的差异，作为完成不同规模小组的背诵活动的函数（与单独）在网关STEM课程（介绍心理学研究方法）在一个多样化的，城市，公共机构。初步研究结果显示，学生在黑社会工作可能比学生在二人组或单独工作的学习效果更好。然而，这些结果是从面对面的设置。本研究将测试是否可以通过虚拟模式的课程交付与小组活动发现同样的效果。将收集跟踪数据，以告知活动如何支持更好的学习。小组规模对学习的影响将被检查，同时保持活动（和课程的所有其他方面）不变，使用定量和定性方法。要探讨的主要定量问题是，与其他学生在线互动以完成背诵活动是否有利于学习，以及小组的规模是否会影响单独工作的任何好处的可能性。此外，这些研究将产生一个丰富的互动语料库，以允许探索哪些学生可能或多或少受益于小组工作，哪些互动模式可能由不同的小组规模或组成提供，以及哪些互动模式最能支持学习。特别注意将致力于确定哪些教学条件提供最有力的支持，学生谁可能进入大学与大学水平的课程准备较少。对社会的一个主要好处是，该项目将调查哪些教学环境为学生在入门STEM课程中的成功提供最大的支持，特别是对于那些对大学水平的工作准备不足的学生，以促进和鼓励在以后的STEM课程和职业生涯中的坚持。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。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。

This project aims to serve the national interest by developing and testing a set of exploratory learning activities designed to help students understand foundational scientific concepts in undergraduate STEM courses. Students are often assigned to work in collaborative groups to complete laboratory or recitation activities in their STEM courses. This study intends to answer practical questions that many teachers have asked – What size groups are best for learning? Is it better for each student to work individually? Are small groups more effective? Are there differences between working with one other student as a pair, or working with two other students in a triad? This project builds on work suggesting distinct advantages for triads, and study this finding in the context of virtual collaborations (where students interact fully online). Collaborative activities are a popular instructional approach in many educational settings. Consistent with the intuition that two heads may be better than one, many teachers rely on collaborative learning activities in their classrooms with the aspirational goal being that peers can provide some support to each other. Yet, results are mixed when the learning of students who work with peers is compared to students who work alone, and few experimental studies have tested for group size effects using the same instructional materials. Thus, the main goal of this project is to test which group size leads to more effective learning. Results from this project have the potential to be informative for effective delivery across a broad range of STEM courses and will help to identify effective instructional techniques and best practices to promote student success.This project will test for differences in learning outcomes as a function of completing recitation activities in different size groups (versus individually) in a gateway STEM course (Introduction to Research Methods in Psychology) at a diverse, urban, public institution. Initial findings suggest that students working in triads may learn better than students working in dyads or alone. However, these results are from face-to-face settings. This study will test whether the same effects may be found with small group activities through a virtual mode of course delivery. Trace data will be collected to inform how the activities support better learning. The effects of group size on learning will be examined while holding the activities (and all other aspects of the course) constant, using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The main quantitative questions to be explored are whether interacting online with other students to complete recitation activities benefits learning, and whether the size of the group affects the probability of any benefit over working alone. In addition, the studies will generate a rich corpus of interactions to allow for the exploration of which students might be more or less likely to benefit from working in groups, which patterns of interaction might be afforded by different group sizes or compositions, and which patterns of interaction best support learning. Special attention will be devoted to determining which instructional conditions provide the strongest support for students who may enter college with less preparation for college-level coursework. A major benefit to society is that the project will investigate which instructional contexts provide the most support for student success in gateway STEM courses, and especially for those students who are less prepared for college-level work, to promote and encourage persistence in later STEM courses and 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.