Project PLURIS: Purposeful Learning in Undergraduate Research and Independent Studies

这个项目正在创建一个“中介系统”，以调解教师和学生之间的互动，他们首先要确定共同感兴趣的主题，以进行独立学习和/或研究经验，然后探索要考虑的问题，最后就项目需要的内容达成正式协议。本科研究和独立学习中的有目的学习（PLURIS）系统有助于：i)将个别学生的学习议程与监督教师的目标保持一致；Ii)厘清学生预期的学习成果；Iii)监察及记录实际的学习成果；四是公开学生的学习成果。这个项目的智力价值在于它的“基于社区的协同设计”方法，在这种方法中，教师和学生都在迭代地开发和测试这个模型系统的组件。这种发展方式使PLURIS能够使教师和学生协商预期的学习成果，反映了对科学至关重要的关键协作话语。该项目更广泛的影响包括：科学家、教育工作者和教育技术专业人员之间的合作建模，以培养STEM教师的科学教育专业知识，并为本科生、博士后和教师研究人员提供一种对研究经验和一般学习进行元认知思考的手段。此外，通过将本科生独立研究的丰富学习经验与具体可衡量的成果联系起来的方法，该项目旨在提高STEM独立学习课程和研究活动的成本效益和学术一致性，以便更多和更多样化的学生可以利用这些高影响力的活动。

This project is creating a "brokering system" to mediate the interaction among faculty and students who want first to identify topics of mutual interest for independent study and/or research experiences, then to explore what questions to consider, and finally to negotiate a formal agreement on what the project would entail. The Purposeful Learning in Undergraduate Research and Independent Studies (PLURIS) system helps: i) to align individual student learning agendas with the goals of supervising faculty; ii) to clarify the intended student learning outcomes; iii) to monitor and document actual learning outcomes; and iv) to make public the learning achievements of the students. The intellectual merit of the project lies in its "community-based co-design" approach in which faculty and students are iteratively developing and testing components of this model system. This development approach carries into the way that PLURIS enables faculty and students to negotiate intended learning outcomes, reflecting the critical collaborative discourse essential to science. The project's broader impacts include: the modeling of collaboration among scientists, educators, and educational technology professionals that develops the science education expertise of STEM faculty, and the provision of a means for undergraduate, postdoctoral, and faculty researchers to think meta-cognitively about research experiences and learning in general. Furthermore, through its approach that links rich learning experiences of undergraduate independent research studies with specific measurable outcomes the project seeks to improve the cost-effectiveness and academic consistency of STEM independent study courses and research activities, so that larger and more diverse numbers of students may take advantage of these high-impact activities.