Collaborative Research: Engaging students in discourse about criteria for judging scientific models

这个项目的目标是研究中学生如何更好地理解自然科学的基本逻辑-新思想的建立与对它们的批判之间的关系。 科学教育传统上主要关注学生如何构建自然现象的模型。然而，批评是至关重要的模型的迭代细化，因为在专业科学，同行的解释模型的批评激励和指导的进展，更好地理解。这个项目让学生参与这个过程，并帮助他们理解批评与更好的解释的关系，通过让学生关注批评和理解通过课堂讨论共同发展的标准。该团队正在开发一套教学工具，扩展了以前开发的开源软件建模和证据映射环境，该环境构建了学生如何将证据直接连接到他们构建的模型。该项目的产品，包括增强的软件、课程和评估，旨在提高能力，让年轻学习者参与符合下一代科学标准的雄心勃勃的科学教育体验。该项目侧重于三个相互关联的实践，这三个实践对于成功地用科学模型的证据进行推理至关重要：参与同行对模型的批评，描述和证明关键的认识因素，以指导模型批评，并通过参加同行的批评，迭代地修改模型，使其更加准确。该项目通过添加一个脚手架套件来支持学生参与和评估社区批评的认识元级别，以提高模型的准确性和实用性，从而推进现有的模型和证据映射环境软件。一组设计实验提供了关于教师的活动和软件功能的有效支架的见解，并通知迭代设计的教学材料。在印第安纳州和新泽西的小规模和较大规模的异构课堂环境中测试整个合奏。测量结果包括学生的学习，基于访谈和书面的学生文物，以及课堂协作话语的考试。该项目正在产生关于学习者沿着这些理解科学的维度成长的批判性理论见解，以及支持它的实用材料和专业发展。该项目由NSF的EDU核心研究（ECR）计划支持。ECR计划强调基础STEM教育研究，产生该领域的基础知识。投资是在关键领域是必不可少的，广泛的和持久的：干学习和干学习环境，扩大参与干，干劳动力发展。该项目还得到了发现研究preK-12计划（DRK-12）的支持，该计划旨在通过研究和开发创新资源，模型和工具，显着提高preK-12学生和教师对科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）的学习和教学。DRK-12项目中的项目建立在STEM教育的基础研究以及为拟议项目提供理论和经验依据的先前研究和开发工作的基础上。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。

The goal of this project is to study how secondary students come to understand better an underlying logic of natural sciences--the relation between construction of new ideas and critique of them. Science education has traditionally focused mostly on how students construct models of natural phenomena. However, critique is crucial for iterative refinement of models because in professional science, peer critique of explanatory models motivates and guides progress toward better understanding. This project engages students in this process and helps them understand the relation of critique to better explanations, by focusing students on the criteria by which critique and understanding develop together through classroom discussions. The team is developing a suite of teaching tools expanding upon the previously developed open source software, Modeling and Evidence Mapping Environment, which structures how students connect evidence directly to models they construct. The products of this project, which include enhanced software, curriculum, and assessments, are intended to increase capacity to engage young learners in ambitious science educational experiences that are consistent with the Next Generation Science Standards.The project focuses on three interlinked practices critical for successful reasoning with evidence about scientific models in science: engaging in peer critique of models, describing and justifying key epistemic considerations to guide model critique, and iteratively revising models towards greater accuracy by attending to peer critique. This project advances the existing Model and Evidence Mapping Environment software by adding a scaffolding suite to support student engagement in, and valuing of, this epistemic meta-level of community critique for improving the veracity and utility of models. A set of design experiments provide insights regarding teachers' effective scaffolding of activities and software features, and inform iterative design of instructional materials. The entire ensemble is tested in small and larger scale heterogeneous classroom settings in Indiana and New Jersey. Measured outcomes include student learning, based on interviews and written student artifacts, as well as examinations of classroom collaborative discourse. The project is yielding critical theoretical insights about learners' growth along these dimensions of understanding science, and practical materials and professional development to support it. This project is supported by NSF's EDU Core Research (ECR) program. The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that generates foundational knowledge in the field. Investments are made in critical areas that are essential, broad and enduring: STEM learning and STEM learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development. The project is also supported by the Discovery Research preK-12 program (DRK-12), which seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of innovative resources, models and tools. Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects.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.