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套探索性学习活动来服务于国家利益，该活动旨在帮助学生理解本科STEM课程中的基本科学概念。学生经常被分配到合作小组，完成他们STEM课程中的实验室或背诵活动。这项研究旨在回答许多教师提出的实际问题--多大规模的小组最适合学习？对每个学生来说，单独作业更好吗？小团体更有效率吗？与另一名学生结对合作，还是与另外两名学生在三合会中合作，有什么不同？这个项目建立在为三合会提供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。协作活动在许多教育环境中是一种流行的教学方式。与两个人可能比一个人更好的直觉一致，许多教师依赖于课堂上的协作学习活动，其抱负目标是同龄人可以相互提供一些支持。然而，当将与同伴合作的学生的学习与单独学习的学生进行比较时，结果好坏参半，而且很少有实验研究使用相同的教学材料来测试团队规模效应。因此，这个项目的主要目标是测试哪个小组的规模会导致更有效的学习。这个项目的结果有可能为有效地教授广泛的STEM课程提供信息，并将有助于确定有效的教学技巧和最佳实践，以促进学生的成功。本项目将测试在不同的城市公共机构完成不同规模的STEM课程(心理学研究方法导论)中不同规模的小组(而不是单独)背诵活动的学习结果的差异。初步研究结果表明，在三合会工作的学生可能比在三合会工作或单独工作的学生学得更好。然而，这些结果是根据面对面的设置得出的。这项研究将测试是否可以通过虚拟的课程交付模式在小组活动中发现同样的效果。将收集跟踪数据，以告知活动如何支持更好的学习。在保持活动(和课程的所有其他方面)不变的情况下，将使用定量和定性的方法来考察小组规模对学习的影响。有待探索的主要量化问题是，与其他学生在线互动完成背诵活动是否有利于学习，以及小组规模是否影响单独工作带来任何好处的可能性。此外，研究将产生丰富的互动语料库，以便探索哪些学生可能或多或少地从小组工作中受益，哪些互动模式可能由不同的小组规模或组成提供，以及哪些互动模式最能支持学习。将特别注意确定哪些教学条件为那些可能进入大学而准备较少大学水平课程的学生提供最强有力的支持。对社会的一个主要好处是，该项目将调查哪些教学环境对学生在入门STEM课程中的成功提供最大的支持，特别是对那些对大学水平的工作准备较少的学生，以促进和鼓励他们在以后的STEM课程和职业生涯中坚持不懈。NSF IUSE：EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生的STEM教育的有效性。通过参与的学生学习路径，该计划支持有前景的实践和工具的创建、探索和实施。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.