Understanding the Role of Student Engagement in Active Learning Outcomes in General Chemistry through Discourse Analysis

“主动学习”（AL）战略一直是国家呼吁采用循证教学实践来改变科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）领域教育的核心。虽然有强有力的证据支持这些策略的有效性，但在实践中，学生的结果差异很大，AL策略有时没有可衡量的效果。因此，了解是什么使AL策略在某些情况下有效，而在其他情况下无效是至关重要的。本项目研究了一系列AL方法的核心组成部分：小组讨论的使用。该项目调查了学生在小组工作中的参与度，影响这种参与度的因素，以及学生在小组工作中参与讨论与他们对课程材料的理解之间的关系。该项目的研究结果将有助于实施依赖于小组活动的学习策略。该项目使用了认知参与的互动-建构-主动-被动（ICAP）框架来深入了解学习策略何时以及如何促进不同学习者的成功，并通过话语分析来确定这种情况发生的机制。该项目的总体目标是了解认知参与在主动学习成果中的中介作用。具体的目标是确定模式，通过他们的话语在AL活动中的小组工作，确定这些模式与活动设计的特点和互动的动态，并评估学生的认知参与AL活动的程度涉及到他们的课程为基础的化学评估结果。为了实现这些目标，项目组将收集视频记录的小组工作在AL活动在本科普通化学课程。这些记录将被转录并进行初步分析，以确定学生在这些活动中观察到的参与程度与基于活动设计的计划参与程度相匹配。然后，将使用会话分析对记录的重点部分进行更仔细的分析。随后的工作将评估学生在每个活动中的认知参与与他们对所涵盖主题的理解之间的关系，使用成绩单中的学生参与水平以及学生定期的课程评估，为每个活动进行重复测量多变量协方差分析（MANCOVA）。该项目将由一个三人咨询委员会通过年度审查进行评估。除了有助于对化学小团体AL期间学生认知参与的基础研究外，拟议的项目预计将对改善STEM教育产生影响。首先，这项研究的结果将为STEM教育工作者在评估AL在其特定学习环境中的功效时提供证据基础。第二，本项目中采用的研究方法可以作为一个模型，并应用于广泛的AL方法，使用小组工作。一个专业发展讲习班以及数据和培训材料的档案将支持其他人的进一步应用。第三，该项目将为应用语言学和化学教育的研究生提供交叉培训，使他们接触到这两个领域更广泛的研究社区，并促进下一代STEM教育和应用语言学研究人员之间的跨学科合作。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。

“Active learning” (AL) strategies have been at the center of national calls for the adoption of evidence-based instructional practices to transform education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. While there is strong evidence to support the effectiveness of such strategies overall, in practice student outcomes vary widely, with AL pedagogies sometimes having no measurable effect. Thus, it is critical to understand what makes AL strategies effective in some cases but not in others. This project examines a central component of a wide range of AL approaches: the use of small-group discussions. The project investigates students’ engagement in group work, the factors that influence this engagement, and the relationship between students’ engagement in discussions during group work and their understanding of course material. Findings from the project will help inform the implementation of AL strategies that rely on group work.The project uses the Interactive-Constructive-Active-Passive (ICAP) framework of cognitive engagement to gain insight into when and how AL works in promoting the success of different learners, and discourse analysis to identify the mechanisms through which this occurs. The overarching goal of the project is to understand the mediating role of cognitive engagement in active learning outcomes. The specific objectives are to identify patterns in students’ cognitive engagement through their discourse during group work in AL activities, determine how these patterns relate to both activity design features and interactional dynamics, and evaluate the degree to which students’ cognitive engagement in AL activities relates to their course-based chemistry assessment outcomes. To accomplish these objectives, the project team will collect video recordings of group work during AL activities in an undergraduate general chemistry course. These recordings will be transcribed and initially analyzed to determine the extent to which students’ observed engagement during these activities matches the planned level of engagement based on the activity design. Focal segments of the transcripts will then be more closely analyzed using conversation analysis. Subsequent work will evaluate the relationship between students’ cognitive engagement in each activity and their understanding of the topic covered, using individual student engagement levels from the transcripts together with students’ regular in-course assessments to perform a repeated measures multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) for each activity. The project will be assessed through annual reviews by a three-person advisory board. Beyond contributing to fundamental research on students’ cognitive engagement during small-group AL in chemistry, the proposed project is expected to have implications for improving STEM education. First, findings from the study will inform the evidence base available to STEM educators when evaluating the efficacy of AL in their specific learning environments. Second, the research methods employed in this project can serve as a model and be applied across a wide array of AL approaches that use group work. A professional development workshop and archive of data and training materials will support further application by others. Third, the project will provide cross-training for graduate students from both applied linguistics and chemistry education, exposing them to the wider research community in both fields and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration among the next generation of STEM education and applied linguistics researchers. 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.