Comparing student success, team dynamics, and cost in three different active learning formats in undergraduate physics education

该项目旨在通过促进学生在大学物理入门课程中取得成功来服务于国家利益。该项目计划在物理教学中实施并比较三种不同的主动学习形式。所有三种形式均基于经过验证的最佳实践，可提高学生的成功率。然而，每种形式在如何在课堂上融入团队动力和学生领导力方面有所不同。每种格式的成本也有所不同。通过比较三种形式的学生成绩，该项目希望解决如何将学生领导力和团队合作结合起来，以经济有效的方式提高学生在大学物理课上的成功和学习。这可以增进有关建立多元化和包容性劳动力队伍的知识，并扩大对 STEM 的参与。该项目具有创建低成本模式的潜在意义，可以在本科生 STEM 课堂上广泛实施，以促进学生的成功和保留，同时培养学生的领导能力和团队合作技能，这两种技能都是非常有价值的职场技能。 该项目的总体目标是在大学物理入门背景下开发、实施和评估三种主动学习课堂形式。该项目将比较三种主动学习形式，所有形式的成本各不相同，并使用不同的主动学习、学生领导力和团队合作元素。这三种形式将在四个学期的课程中并行实施，其特点是：(a) 没有本科生学习助理担任领导角色，(b) 以前完成过课程的带薪本科生学习助理担任领导角色，或 (c) 从课程中的当前学生中轮流担任同伴领导。该项目计划从多个维度评估这三种方法的有效性，包括成本、学生保留率和课程完成率、学生在主题评估方面的表现以及评估学生领导能力和态度的调查。虽然众所周知，主动学习实践可以提高学生的成功和学习，但不同方式的具体成本和功效可能有所不同，并且尚不清楚。该项目位于西班牙裔服务机构，希望提供有关本科 STEM 教育中可持续、低成本主动学习形式的见解，这些形式可能具有广泛的相关性。此外，该项目还应促进人们理解如何在 STEM 课程中实施不同的学生领导角色方法，从而促进学生的成功和保留，同时培养学生的领导技能。 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，该计划支持有前景的实践和工具的创建、探索和实施。该项目还得到 NSF IUSE: HSI 计划的支持，该计划的目标是提高本科 STEM 教育的质量，并提高攻读 STEM 副学士学位或学士学位的学生的招收率、保留率和毕业率。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力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 promoting student success in an introductory college physics course. This project plans to implement and compare three different active learning formats in physics teaching. All three formats are based on proven best practices known to improve student success. However, each format differs in how it incorporates team dynamics and student leadership in the classroom. Each format also differs in cost. By comparing student outcomes in the three formats, this project hopes to address how the incorporation of student leadership and teamwork could cost-effectively improve student success and learning in college physics class. This could advance knowledge about building a diverse and inclusive workforce, as well as broadening participation in STEM. The project has the potential significance of creating a low-cost model that can be implemented in undergraduate STEM classrooms broadly to promote student success and retention, while also developing students’ leadership capacity and teamwork skills, both highly valued workplace skills. The overarching goal of this project is to develop, implement, and evaluate three active learning classroom formats in the context of introductory college physics. The project will compare three active learning formats, all of which vary in cost and use different active learning, student leadership, and teamwork elements. The three formats will be implemented in parallel over the course of four semesters and are distinguished by having: (a) no undergraduate student learning assistants in leadership roles, (b) paid undergraduate learning assistants who have previously completed the course in leadership roles, or (c) rotating peer leaders drawn from current students in the course. The project plans to assess the effectiveness of these three approaches across several dimensions, including cost, student retention and course completion rates, student performance on subject matter assessments, and surveys assessing student leadership capacity and attitudes. While active learning practices are generally known to improve student success and learning, the specific cost and efficacy of different modalities may vary and is not well understood. Situated in a Hispanic Serving Institution, this project hopes to provide insights about sustainable, low-cost active learning formats in undergraduate STEM education that could be broadly relevant. Also, the project should advance understanding of how implementing different approaches to student leadership roles into STEM courses might promote student success and retention, while also developing students’ leadership skills. 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 project is also supported by the NSF IUSE: HSI program, which has the goals of enhancing the quality of undergraduate STEM education, and increasing the recruitment, retention, and graduation rates of students pursuing associate’s or baccalaureate degrees in STEM.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.