Diagnostic Question Clusters to Improve Student Reasoning and Understanding in General Biology Courses

生物科学（61）。这个项目针对普通生物学教学的两个挑战：1)大多数学生没有用生物学家使用的原理和推理来解决生物学问题，2)大多数教师没有教学生如何使用实践生物学家的原理和思维。为了应对这些挑战，该项目使用了一套相互关联的生物诊断问题集（dqc），旨在“吸引”生物学教师提问并了解学生对核心生物学概念的理解和思考生物学的方式。dqc评估学生通过生物复杂性（亚细胞-生态系统）四个层次追踪能量和物质的能力。通过教师发展项目，来自不同院校的教师组成团队，将dqc作为改变普通生物学教学方式的基础。我们正在研究教师志愿者如何修改他们的资源，以深入了解dqc在各种环境下改变生物学入门教学的效用。通过分析学生对核心生物学概念和思想问题的回答，DQC的研究人员发现了学生思维中的问题模式，从而以系统的方式构建生物学内容，并最终更好地理解。智力优势：教育研究基于清晰的生物推理框架和基于学生反应的DQC发展和完善的迭代过程。更广泛的影响：使用dqc的教师正在改变许多机构（包括社区学院和服务不足地区）学生的生物学入门教学。

Biological Sciences (61). This project targets two challenges to the teaching of General Biology: 1) Most students do not address biological questions with the principles and reasoning used by biologists, and 2) Most faculty do not teach students how to use the principles and thinking of practicing biologists. To address these challenges, the project is using a set of interrelated Biological Diagnostic Question Clusters (DQCs) designed to "hook" biology faculty to question and learn about their students' understanding of core biological concepts and ways of thinking about biology. The DQCs assess students' abilities to trace energy and matter through four levels of biological complexity (subcellular-ecosystem). With a faculty development program, faculty from a range of institutions are working in teams to use the DQCs as the basis for changing how they teach general biology. How faculty volunteers modify their resources is being studied to gain insight about the utility of DQCs to change introductory biology teaching in a variety of settings. By analyzing students' responses to questions about core biological concepts and ideas, the DQC researchers identified problematic patterns in students' thinking to frame content in ways that lead to systematic approaches to biology content, and ultimately, better understanding. Intellectual Merit: the education research is based on a clear framework for biological reasoning and an iterative process of DQC development and refinement based on students responses. Broader Impact: faculty who are using the DQCs are changing introductory biology instruction for students in a wide range of institutions, including community colleges and underserved areas.