Disciplinary Experts in Science Education Research: A University of Maryland Program for Producing STEM Education Researchers

对科学教育的研究在几个不同的社区进行，年轻年级的研究通常由具有认知心理学和教育背景的人进行，而较高级别的研究则由具有科学学科背景的人进行。最近的工作表明，这些努力之间需要密切联系，因为该领域正在走向理解儿童的智力资源，如他们对日常现象的知识以及他们抽象、论证和类比的能力，是他们在更高水平上取得成功所需的新形式。该项目正在培养在自然科学和学习科学方面都有深厚背景的学者，他们从童年科学推理的萌芽到成年后的学科专长，对各个年龄段的学习和发展进行研究。该项目是马里兰大学位于学院园区的科学系和教育系之间的合作，包括物理学、化学和生物化学、细胞生物学和分子遗传学，以及课程和指导。五名研究生将获得为期五年的资助，以在一门科学学科中获得硕士水平的专业知识，并在科学教育研究中完成课程作业和完成论文。该计划使他们做好准备，1)与教育和发展心理学家以及基于学科的科学教育研究人员就跨越年龄的问题进行合作，2)开发和教授课程，打破教师科学教学方法课程和科学内容课程之间的传统障碍。在科学和学习科学方面的坚实背景使计划毕业生能够在从K-18开始的学习和教学研究以及课程、材料和方法的开发方面担任领导者，帮助学生从一年到下一年建立和完善他们的知识和能力。

Research in science education takes place within several different communities, with studies at younger grades typically conducted by people with backgrounds in cognitive psychology and education, and studies at higher levels by people with backgrounds in science disciplines. Recent work suggests the need for close contact between these efforts, as the field moves toward understanding how children's intellectual resources, such as their knowledge of everyday phenomena and their abilities for abstraction, argumentation, and analogy, are nascent forms of what they will need for success at higher levels. This project is producing scholars with strong backgrounds in both the natural sciences and in the learning sciences, who conduct research on learning and development over the full range of ages, from the seeds of scientific reasoning in childhood through disciplinary expertise as adults. The program is a collaboration among science and education departments at the University of Maryland in College Park, including Physics, Chemistry & Biochemistry, Cell Biology & Molecular Genetics, along with Curriculum & Instruction. Five graduate students are supported for five years to achieve masters-level expertise in a science discipline and pursue coursework and complete dissertations in science education research. The program prepares them to 1) collaborate with educational and developmental psychologists and with discipline-based science education researchers on issues that cut across ages, and 2) to develop and teach courses that break down the traditional barriers between science teaching methods courses and science content courses for teachers.Strong backgrounds in both science and the learning sciences prepare program graduates to serve as leaders in research on learning and teaching from K-18, as well as in the development of curriculum, materials, and methods to help students build and refine their knowledge and abilities from one year to the next.