Using Perceptual and Adaptive Learning to Advance Chemistry Education

描述(由申请人提供)：使用感知和适应性学习促进化学教育本建议涉及广泛的挑战领域12)科学、技术、工程和数学教育以及具体挑战主题12-OD-101：促进STEM能力的教育方法的有效性。这项工作将完善和测试化学学习模块的有效性，这些模块结合了先进的感知学习和自适应学习技术，这两种技术都有很大的潜力，但在很大程度上尚未开发，以改善STEM学习。目标学习群体将是正在学习基础化学课程的社区大学学生。这一学生群体是一个庞大而重要的群体，代表着相当大的人才库，适用于广泛的健康和科学相关职业。该项目旨在解决限制学生学习的两个主要问题。一个是学生流利地掌握和处理关键结构和关系的能力。最近的研究表明，这个问题可以通过学习技术中嵌入的知觉学习原则来解决，并取得巨大成功。第二个问题是，学习不适应个体学习者的需要。这些限制可以通过使用自适应学习技术来克服，在自适应学习技术中，学习事件根据学习者的准确性和速度进行排序。被测试的学习干预采用知觉学习模块(PLM)的形式。PLM通过简短的互动试验，提高学习者快速、准确地处理复杂领域中的关键结构和关系的能力。PLM是基于网络的；它们通过互联网上的标准浏览器提供学习和评估；它们可以很容易地扩大到更广泛的使用。这项技术将结合最近获得专利的自适应学习算法，这些算法使用连续的性能数据流来优化学习和记忆的原理，从而提高学习和评估的效率。该项目小组由认知科学、学习技术、课程开发和评估、化学和化学教育方面的专家组成，将改进以前开发的两个化学PLM，并使用现有的自适应学习软件开发一个新的PLM，以便对这些技术进行广泛测试。将在社区大学化学课程中进行实验室试点研究和全面功效研究。有效性研究将包括按参与者随机化；治疗组将与使用常规材料的对照组进行比较；以及测试感知/适应性学习特定组成部分的有效性的条件将包括在内。拟议的功效研究预计将产生强劲的学习收益，表明知觉学习产生模式识别和流利性的潜力，以及自适应学习技术适合个人学习需求和产生掌握的潜力。研究结果将对其他STEM领域的化学教育和学习产生影响，特别是对那些与传统教学方法作斗争的学生。 公共卫生相关性：拟议的项目将测试网络交付的感知和适应性学习技术在社区大学生化学学习中的有效性，社区大学生是一个庞大而重要的群体，包括大多数进入大学的学生，他们中的许多人属于传统上在STEM领域代表性不足的群体。该项目所取得的成果将为教育实践提供信息；成功的成果可能导致在STEM课程中广泛有效地使用感知性和适应性学习技术，以消除障碍并提高学习效率，从而实现与健康相关的各种职业。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Using Perceptual and Adaptive Learning to Advance Chemistry Education This proposal addresses broad Challenge Area 12) Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Education and specific Challenge Topic 12-OD-101: Efficacy of educational approaches toward promoting STEM competencies. The work will refine and test the efficacy of Chemistry learning modules that incorporate advanced perceptual learning and adaptive learning technologies, both of which have great, but largely untapped, potential to improve STEM learning. The target learning group will be community college students taking basic chemistry courses. This student population is a large and important group, representing a considerable pool of talent for a broad spectrum of health and science-related occupations. The project seeks to address two major problems that limit student learning. One involves students' abilities to grasp and process fluently crucial structures and relations. Recent work suggests that this problem can be addressed with dramatic success by perceptual learning principles embedded in learning technology. A second problem is that learning does not adapt to the needs of the individual learner. These limitations can be overcome by the use of adaptive learning technology in which learning events are sequenced based on learner accuracy and speed. The learning interventions to be tested take the form of Perceptual Learning Modules (PLMs). PLMs accelerate, through short, interactive trials, learners' abilities to quickly and accurately process key structures and relationships in complex domains. PLMs are web-based; they deliver learning and assessment via standard browsers over the Internet; and they can be easily scaled-up for broader use. The technology will incorporate recently patented adaptive learning algorithms that use a continuous stream of performance data to optimize principles of learning and memory, producing improved efficiency of learning and assessment. The project team, consisting of experts in cognitive science, learning technology, curriculum development and evaluation, chemistry and chemistry education, will refine two previously developed Chemistry PLMs and develop one new one using existing adaptive learning software, allowing a broad test of these technologies. Both laboratory pilot studies and full-scale efficacy studies in community college Chemistry courses will be carried out. Efficacy studies will include randomization by participant; treatment groups will be compared to control groups who spend comparable amounts of time using conventional materials; and conditions that test efficacy of specific components of perceptual/adaptive learning will be included. The proposed efficacy studies are expected to yield robust learning gains, indicating the potential of perceptual learning to produce pattern recognition and fluency, and the potential of adaptive learning technologies to fit individual learning needs and produce mastery. Results will have implications for Chemistry education and learning in other STEM fields, particularly for students who struggle with traditional instructional methods. Public Health Relevance: The proposed project will test the efficacy of web-delivered perceptual and adaptive learning technologies in Chemistry learning by community college students, a large and important group that includes a majority of all students enrolled in colleges, many of whom belong to groups traditionally under-represented in STEM fields. Results obtained in this project will inform educational practice; successful outcomes could lead to widespread effective use of perceptual and adaptive learning technologies to remove barriers and improve learning efficiency for large numbers of students in STEM curricula leading to a full-spectrum of health-related occupations.