Learning through Failure: Exploring how Setbacks in Science in the Context of Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences can Lead to Self-knowledge and Resilience

从失败中学习：探索基于课程的本科生研究经历中的科学挫折如何导致自我认识和复原力

• 批准号: 2222293
• 负责人: Sandhya Krishnan
• 金额: $ 30万
• 依托单位: University of Colorado at Boulder
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-09-01 至 2025-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2222293&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Learning; through; Failure; Exploring; how

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). This postdoctoral research fellowship project seeks to redefine what it means to fail in the sciences through investigating the potential for failure to be seen as a positive experience that results in increased learning for undergraduate science students. The investigator will implement a large-scale study that pursues three lines of inquiry. First is to investigate how failure may lead to science learning in an undergraduate research setting. Second is to examine what strategies instructors use to discuss and support students during failures. Third is to identify how those interactions may impact students’ resilience and approach to future science challenges. The project will inform the redesign of science curricula to help students learn more through the process of scientific failure. It will also inform how to support students’ growth as creative and critical thinkers, to expand the scope of success beyond their being good test-takers. More broadly, building student resilience will directly support the development of a globally competitive and diverse workforce consisting of scientists who can navigate failures thoughtfully to find creative solutions when tackling global challenges such as pandemics and climate change. In addition to conducting research, the investigator proposes to build professional self-competencies in quantitative research and analysis, mentoring students, teaching, and networks. This research project aims to study students’ experiences of research-based failure in course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) to better understand how these experiences can impact student learning and development of positive intrapersonal attributes. Intrapersonal constructs contributing to resilience, such as fear of failure, goal orientation, student-instructor trust, and coping are non-cognitive attributes that are known to impact the undergraduate learning experience, persistence, and success in STEM. These attributes are also highly likely to be influenced by students’ failure experiences. The investigator will recruit CURE students from diverse institutions such as predominantly undergraduate institutions, community colleges, and research-intensive institutions, to participate across four semesters in this two-year mixed-methods study. The investigator will integrate quantitative and qualitative approaches to develop and test a novel explanatory model of how the above intrapersonal constructs may change through experiences of research-based failure in CUREs. Quantitative approaches will include binary logistic regression models, and qualitative study will include multiple analytical approaches such as hermeneutic methodology to deeply examine students’ experiences. The integration of quantitative and qualitative work as part of the mixed methods design will yield a richer understanding of students’ failure experiences that will enable explanation of both current trends and predict future ones. Through the focus on failure, the project could elucidate the circumstances in which failure contributes to STEM attrition and help explain what supports and resources would support vulnerable populations of students in navigating failure experiences. This knowledge could be used to develop interventions to mitigate the psychosocial impact of failure while simultaneously creating opportunities for constructive epistemological “failures.” The project responds to the STEM Education Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (STEM Ed PRF) program that aims to enhance the research knowledge, skills, and practices of recent doctorates in STEM, STEM education, education, and related disciplines to advance their preparation to engage in fundamental and applied research that advances knowledge within the field.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.

该奖项全部或部分由《2021年美国救援计划法案》（公法117-2）资助。这个博士后研究奖学金项目旨在通过调查失败的可能性来重新定义科学失败的含义，失败被视为一种积极的经历，从而增加理科生的学习。研究者将实施一项大规模的研究，该研究遵循三条调查线。首先是调查在本科研究环境中，失败如何导致科学学习。其次是检查教师在失败时使用什么策略来讨论和支持学生。第三是确定这些互动如何影响学生的适应能力和应对未来科学挑战的方法。该项目将为科学课程的重新设计提供信息，帮助学生通过科学失败的过程学习更多知识。它还将告知如何支持学生成长为创造性和批判性思考者，以扩大成功的范围，而不仅仅是优秀的应试者。更广泛地说，培养学生的适应能力将直接支持发展一支具有全球竞争力和多样化的劳动力队伍，其中包括科学家，他们能够在应对流行病和气候变化等全球挑战时深思熟虑地应对失败，找到创造性的解决方案。除了进行研究，研究者还建议在定量研究和分析、指导学生、教学和网络方面建立专业的自我能力。本研究项目旨在研究学生在基于课程的本科研究体验（CUREs）中基于研究的失败体验，以更好地了解这些体验如何影响学生的学习和积极的内在属性的发展。对韧性有贡献的个人内在构念，如对失败的恐惧、目标导向、师生信任和应对，是已知会影响本科生在STEM中的学习经历、持久性和成功的非认知属性。这些特质也极有可能受到学生失败经历的影响。研究者将招募来自不同机构的CURE学生，如主要的本科机构、社区学院和研究密集型机构，参加为期四个学期的这项为期两年的混合方法研究。研究者将整合定量和定性方法来开发和测试一个新的解释模型，该模型可以解释上述人际结构如何通过基于研究的失败经历而改变。定量方法将包括二元逻辑回归模型，定性研究将包括多种分析方法，如解释学方法，以深入研究学生的经验。作为混合方法设计的一部分，定量和定性工作的整合将对学生的失败经历产生更丰富的理解，从而能够解释当前的趋势并预测未来的趋势。通过对失败的关注，该项目可以阐明失败导致STEM人员流失的情况，并帮助解释哪些支持和资源可以帮助弱势群体的学生度过失败的经历。这些知识可以用来开发干预措施，以减轻失败的社会心理影响，同时为建设性的认识论“失败”创造机会。该项目响应STEM教育博士后研究奖学金（STEM Ed PRF）计划，旨在提高STEM， STEM教育，教育和相关学科的近期博士的研究知识，技能和实践，以促进他们从事基础和应用研究的准备，从而推进该领域的知识。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。