The Development of Scientific Thinking and Conceptions of Science in College Science Students

大学生科学思维和科学观念的发展该项目是一项为期三年的比较研究，将大学科学导论教学的一般（而不是特定领域的）学生成果与传统教学的结果进行比较。评估将在一所大型州立大学、几所私立大学和几所专科大学进行。将采用丰富的多式联运评估方法，包括以下部分：学生访谈以评估他们的科学认识论。将采用科学性质访谈的修改版本。对学生高阶科学探究和基本定量技能的在线论文式评估。在以前的研究中开发的两种新仪器将被合并和改进用于这个项目。在线学生调查，包括学生的人口统计、态度和动机。课堂观察，包括教学方法和内容的详细编码。将采用以前研究中制定的观测方案。5. 教师面试。该方法将在三个相互关联的子项目中部署。首先，学生的成绩将被评估，并与教学实践和人口变量在12门课程中进行关联，这些课程按因素分布在三种类型的机构、两个创新水平和两个学科领域（生物学和地球/环境科学）。这个项目将为当今大学生的高阶认知以及与各种教学实践相关的认知收益提供一幅丰富的图景。其次，从12门课程中抽取学生样本，在项目进行期间进行纵向跟踪。将评估认知技能和认识论早期收益的持续和进一步发展。学生选择的专业领域将被添加到该数据的人口统计分析中。该项目将提供有关当代大学生科学认识论和认知技能发展的丰富数据，并将允许评估早期接触探究导向教学引发持续认知和动机变化的假设。第三，将进行三项干预研究，在这些研究中，研究人员与教师合作，对第一年评估的课程进行重新设计，以提高学生的总体成绩。然后课程将被重新评估。干预项目涉及一所大型大学的化学入门课程、一所小型学院的跨学科普通科学课程和一所小型学院的地球科学课程。该项目将尝试利用评估研究的早期发现和教学设计的认知知情原则来提高学生在一般探究和定量技能以及认识论复杂性方面的收益。总体而言，该项目将产生研究成果和新的评估技术，这将对改变大学科学教育产生影响，以满足提高学生对科学本质的理解和科学推理技能的国家标准。

The Development of Scientific Thinking and Conceptions of Science in College Science StudentsThe project is a three-year comparative study of general (as opposed to field-specific) student outcomes of introductory college science instruction will be compared with those resulting from more traditional instruction. Assessments will be conducted in a large state university, several private colleges, and several junior colleges. A rich, mutimodal assessment methodology will be employed, including the following components: 1. Interviews of students to assess their scientific epistemologies. A modified version of the Nature of Science Interview will be employed.2. On-line essay-style assessments of students' higher-order scientific inquiry and basic quantitative skills. Two new instruments developed in previous research will be combined and refined for this project.3. On-line student surveys covering student demographics, attitudes, and motivation.4. Classroom observation, including detailed coding of teaching method and content. An observational protocol developed in previous research will be employed. 5. Faculty interviews. The methodology will be deployed in three interrelated subprojects. First, student outcomes will be assessed and correlated with instructional practices and demographic variables in 12 courses distributed factorially across the three types of institution, two levels of innovation, and two disciplinary areas (biology and earth/environmental science). This project will produce a rich picture of higher-order cognition in today's college student and of the cognitive gains associated with various instructional practices. Second, a sample of students from the 12 courses will be followed longitudinally for the duration of the project. The persistence and further development of early gains in cognitive skills and epistemology will be assessed. Students' choices of major field of study will be added to the demographic analyses of this data. This project will produce rich data on the development of scientific epistemology and cognitive skills in contemporary college students, and it will allow the assessment of the hypothesis that early explosure to inquiry-oriented instruction triggers persistent cognitive and motivational change. Third, three intervention studies will be undertaken in which the researchers work with faculty members for courses that were assessed in the first year to redesign their courses to improve general student outcomes. The course will then be reassessed. The intervention projects concern the introductory chemistry curriculum at a large university, an interdisciplinary general science course at a small college, and geoscience course at a small collge. This project will attempt to use early findings of the assessment research and cognitive-informed principles of instructional design to improve student gains in general inquiry and quantitative skills and in epistemological sophistication. Overall the project will produce research findings and new assessment techniques that will have an impact on changing college science education to meet national standards for improving students' understanding of the nature of science and skills in scientific reasoning.