Student Noticing of Quantitative Data in Introductory Biology Labs

学生在入门生物学实验室中对定量数据的注意

• 批准号: 2225255
• 负责人: Jeremy Hsu
• 金额: $ 34.9万
• 依托单位: Chapman University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-01-01 至 2025-12-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2225255&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Student; Noticing; Quantitative; Data; Introductory

Many skills are typically taught in introductory biology lectures and labs and are important for success as a biologist. One of these skills is quantitative reasoning. Quantitative reasoning is the ability to use mathematical concepts in biological contexts, which encompasses processing and interpreting numerical and graphical data. However, many students in introductory biology struggle to apply quantitative reasoning skills taught in math classes and other classes to these biological contexts. The proposed project seeks to understand how students learn and apply quantitative skills in introductory biology labs by using interviews and observations to characterize what students notice and attend to when learning quantitative reasoning, generating new knowledge into how students transfer quantitative skills from other classes to biological contexts. These results will provide insight into how to best support student learning of quantitative reasoning in biology classes. In addition, through attending conferences and workshops and working with the mentor and advisory board, the project will provide the investigator with professional development and support for learning qualitative methods for STEM education research.The seminal Vision & Change report identified quantitative reasoning as one of the core competencies for undergraduate biology students. Despite its importance, there have been very few works examining how students learn quantitative reasoning in biological contexts, with most past work instead assessing specific interventions or measuring student attitudes towards quantitative reasoning. This project will examine how students learn quantitative reasoning by exploring students’ transfer of knowledge from mathematics to biology classes. The project will use the student noticing framework to investigate what students recognize and perceive when creating, analyzing, and interpreting graphical data in introductory biology labs, and explore how such differences in student noticing shape the transfer of knowledge. The project will address the following two research questions: 1) What themes, patterns, and processes are students noticing (i.e., recognizing, recalling, and applying to other contexts) when learning quantitative skills in introductory biology labs? 2) How do differences in this student noticing influence students’ learning of quantitative skills? The proposed project will involve running record observations of students working with the quantitative data they collect in introductory biology labs, allowing for characterization of students’ centers of focus. The project will also involve semi-structured interviews, allowing for more exploration of students’ centers of focus. Validated instruments will be used to measure students’ quantitative reasoning ability and interest, and changes will be tracked to see how differences in centers of focus may influence learning of quantitative reasoning. Think aloud interviews will be held to further determine students’ centers of focus when working with quantitative data. These data will generate valuable insight on what students perceive when creating and analyzing graphical data, leading to more information on how students transfer knowledge into biology. Finally, the project will allow the PI to develop key qualitative skills through targeted mentoring and participation in workshops and conferences. The project is supported by NSF's EHR Core Research Building Capacity in STEM Education Research (ECR: BCSER) program, which is designed to build investigators’ capacity to carry out high-quality STEM education research.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.

许多技能通常在介绍生物学讲座和实验室中教授，对于生物学家的成功至关重要。这些技能之一是定量推理。定量推理是在生物学背景下使用数学概念的能力，包括处理和解释数值和图形数据。然而，许多生物学导论的学生很难将数学课和其他课程中教授的定量推理技能应用到这些生物学背景中。拟议的项目旨在了解学生如何学习和应用定量技能在介绍生物实验室通过使用访谈和观察来描述学生注意到什么，并参加学习定量推理时，产生新的知识到学生如何转移定量技能从其他类生物环境。这些结果将提供洞察如何最好地支持学生在生物课上学习定量推理。此外，通过参加会议和研讨会，并与导师和顾问委员会合作，该项目将为研究者提供专业发展和支持，以学习STEM教育研究的定性方法。开创性的Vision Change报告将定量推理确定为本科生物学学生的核心能力之一。尽管它的重要性，有很少的作品研究学生如何在生物学背景下学习定量推理，与大多数过去的工作，而不是评估具体的干预措施或测量学生对定量推理的态度。这个项目将通过探索学生从数学到生物课的知识转移来研究学生如何学习定量推理。该项目将使用学生注意框架来调查学生在创建，分析和解释入门生物实验室中的图形数据时所识别和感知的内容，并探索学生注意的这种差异如何塑造知识的转移。该项目将解决以下两个研究问题：1）学生注意到什么主题，模式和过程（即，识别，回忆，并应用到其他情况下）时，学习定量技能在介绍生物实验室？2)学生注意力的差异如何影响学生的数量技能的学习？拟议的项目将涉及运行记录观察学生的工作与定量数据，他们收集在介绍生物学实验室，允许表征学生的重点中心。该项目还将涉及半结构化面试，允许更多地探索学生的焦点中心。经验证的工具将被用来衡量学生的定量推理能力和兴趣，并将跟踪变化，看看焦点中心的差异如何影响定量推理的学习。将举行大声思考面试，以进一步确定学生在处理定量数据时的焦点。这些数据将产生有价值的洞察力，了解学生在创建和分析图形数据时的感受，从而了解学生如何将知识转移到生物学中。最后，该项目将允许PI通过有针对性的指导和参加研讨会和会议来发展关键的定性技能。该项目由NSF的EHR Core Research Building Capacity in STEM Education Research（ECR：BCSER）项目提供支持，该项目旨在培养研究人员开展高质量STEM教育研究的能力。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，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。