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

本项目旨在通过开发和测试一套探索性学习活动来帮助学生理解本科STEM课程中的基础科学概念，从而为国家利益服务。在STEM课程中，学生经常被分配到合作小组中完成实验或背诵活动。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？每个学生单独学习是不是更好？小团体更有效吗？与另一名学生合作有什么区别吗？与另外两名学生合作有什么区别吗？本项目建立在表明三合会有明显优势的工作基础上，并在虚拟协作（学生完全在线互动）的背景下研究这一发现。在许多教育环境中，协作活动是一种流行的教学方法。与“三个臭皮匠可能比一个诸葛亮”的直觉一致，许多教师在课堂上依靠合作学习活动，他们的理想目标是同伴可以相互提供一些支持。然而，当与同伴一起学习的学生与单独学习的学生进行比较时，结果是喜忧参半的，并且很少有实验研究使用相同的教学材料测试小组规模效应。因此，这个项目的主要目标是测试哪种小组规模能带来更有效的学习。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。该项目将测试在一个多元化的城市公共机构的入门STEM课程（心理学研究方法导论）中，不同规模的小组（相对于个人）完成背诵活动在学习成果方面的差异。最初的研究结果表明，三合组学习的学生可能比二合组或单独学习的学生学得更好。然而，这些结果是面对面的。这项研究将测试是否同样的效果可能会发现通过虚拟模式课程交付的小组活动。将收集跟踪数据，以告知这些活动如何支持更好的学习。在保持活动（以及课程的所有其他方面）不变的情况下，将使用定量和定性方法来检查小组规模对学习的影响。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比单独学习更有利的可能性。此外，这些研究将产生丰富的互动语料库，以允许探索哪些学生可能或多或少可能从小组工作中受益，哪些互动模式可能由不同的小组规模或组成提供，以及哪种互动模式最有利于学习。我们将特别关注哪些教学条件能够为那些进入大学后对大学水平课程准备不足的学生提供最有力的支持。对社会的一个主要好处是，该项目将调查哪种教学环境为学生在入门STEM课程上的成功提供了最大的支持，特别是对于那些对大学水平的工作准备不足的学生，以促进和鼓励他们坚持以后的STEM课程和职业。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。

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.