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.

通常在引言生物学讲座和实验室中教授许多技能，对于作为生物学家的成功而言至关重要。这些技能之一是定量推理。定量推理是在生物学环境中使用数学概念的能力，其中包括处理和解释数值和图形数据。但是，引言中的许多学生都在为这些生物学环境中使用数学课和其他课程教授的定量推理技能。拟议的项目旨在通过使用访谈和观察来了解学生如何在引言生物学实验室中学习和运用定量技能，以表征学生在学习定量推理时注意到和关注的内容，从而为学生如何将定量技能从其他类别转移到生物学环境中。这些结果将提供有关如何最好地支持学生学习生物学班级定量推理的洞察力。此外，通过参加会议和研讨会以及与心理和顾问委员会的合作，该项目将为研究人员提供专业发展和支持STEM教育研究定性方法的支持。第二愿意和变更报告确定了定量推理是毕业生生物学学生的核心竞争力之一。尽管它很重要，但很少有工作来研究学生如何在生物学环境中学习定量推理，而大多数过去的工作都评估了特定的干预措施或测量学生参与者的定量推理。该项目将通过探索学生从数学到生物学课程的知识转移来研究学生如何学习定量推理。该项目将使用学生引人注目的框架来调查学生在创建，分析和解释引言生物学实验室中的图形数据时所认识和感知的内容，并探讨学生在学生中注意到如何塑造知识的转移。该项目将解决以下两个研究问题：1）当在引言生物学实验室中学习定量技能时，学生会注意到什么主题，模式和过程（即，识别，回忆和应用于其他情况）？ 2）该学生注意的差异如何影响学生对定量技能的学习？拟议的项目将涉及对学生在引言生物学实验室收集的定量数据工作的学生进行记录观察，从而使学生的重点中心表征。该项目还将涉及半结构化访谈，以便对学生的重点进行更多探索。经过验证的工具将用于衡量学生的定量推理能力和兴趣，并将跟踪更改，以查看焦点中的差异如何影响定量推理的学习。认为将大声进行访谈，以进一步确定学生在使用定量数据时的关注中心。这些数据将对学生在创建和分析图形数据时所感知的内容产生宝贵的见解，从而提供有关学生如何将知识转移到生物学的更多信息。最后，该项目将使PI能够通过有针对性的心理和参加研讨会和会议来发展关键的定性技能。该项目得到了NSF的EHR核心研究建设在STEM教育研究（ECR：BCSER）计划中的支持，该计划旨在建立研究人员进行高质量STEM教育研究的能力。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是通过基金会的智力和更广泛的影响来通过评估来获得支持的珍贵的，该奖项是珍贵的。