Collaborative Research: An Initial Learning Progression in Chemical Design

摘要在这个为期两年的探索性项目中，马萨诸塞州波士顿大学的科学教育工作者与亚利桑那大学的科学教育工作者合作，开发和测试化学学习的学习进展。可能的途径进行了调查，8-13年级学生的隐式假设如何发展的化学设计的五个主要线程-化学身份，结构-性能关系，化学因果关系和机制，化学控制和成本效益风险。 对化学设计的关注-化合物的识别和合成-促进了科学和工程实践，交叉概念和学科核心思想的连贯整合。 这种方法应该使化学更吸引各种各样的学生，包括那些在职业和技术教育。 该项目调查的核心隐含的假设，可以预期的特点和约束新手和复杂的学生推理的化学设计的五个主要线程。 它还提出了假设的“垫脚石”，其特征是从新手到复杂的推理化学设计的进展。 现有的研究文献的学生的想法和相关的发展心理学和认知科学的研究进行了审查。 项目工作人员与波士顿公立学校的12名高中和中学科学教师一起开发了一个框架，该框架可用于比较和对比或多或少复杂的思考方法，这些方法用于理解化学设计的基本思想，并从中得出关于理解化学设计含义的“垫脚石”的假设。 与以前的项目中所采用的类似的问卷和访谈协议被用于8年级，10年级，12年级的学生和大学新生以及他们的老师，以完善和丰富关于核心内隐假设沿着五条线索的演变的初始假设。 该研究由科学教育工作者和教育研究人员组成的咨询委员会使用书面协议进行评估。 内容由执业化学家审查。简明扼要的学习进展摘要是针对教师、课程开发人员和正在实施或修订课程的出版商的目标受众制作的。本摘要的传播包括对教师、课程开发者和高中化学材料出版商的简短市场调查。 还出版了经过验证的开放式反应工具的版本，这些工具可以很容易地由教师实施，作为对学生在研究所针对的领域的理解的形成性评估。 了解与实施下一代科学标准相关的一些挑战，以有意义地整合科学和工程实践，重要内容和交叉主题的方式学习化学设计。

ABSTRACTIn this two-year exploratory project, science educators at the University of Massachusetts Boston collaborate with those at the University of Arizona to develop and test a learning progression for the study of chemistry. Likely pathways are investigated for how grade 8-13 student's implicit assumptions develop on five major threads of chemical design - chemical identity, structure-property relationships, chemical causality and mechanism, chemical control and cost-benefit-risks. A focus on chemical design - the identification and synthesis of chemical compounds - facilitates the coherent integration of scientific and engineering practices, cross-cutting concepts, and disciplinary core ideas. This approach should make chemistry more engaging to a greater variety of students including those in Career and Technical Education. The project investigates the core implicit assumptions that can be expected to characterize and constrain novice and sophisticated student reasoning about each of the five major threads of chemical design. It also suggests the hypothetical "stepping stones" that characterize the progression from novice to sophisticated reasoning in chemical design. Existing research literature on student ideas and on related developmental psychology and cognitive science research is reviewed. Project staff together with twelve master high school and middle school science teachers in the Boston Public Schools develop a framework that can be used to compare and contrast more or less sophisticated ways of thinking about foundational ideas for the understanding of chemical design and from them derive hypotheses about "stepping stones" in understanding the implication of chemical design. Questionnaires and interview protocols similar to those employed in previous projects are used with students in grades 8, 10, 12 and college freshmen and their teachers to refine and enrich initial hypotheses about the evolution of core implicit assumptions along the five threads. The research is evaluated by an advisory board of science educators and educational researchers using a written protocol. Content is reviewed by practicing chemists. A concise and clear summary of the learning progression is produced with an intended audience of teachers, curriculum developers and publishers who are implementing or revising curriculum. The dissemination of this summary includes a brief market research survey of teachers, curriculum developers and publishers of high school chemistry materials. Versions of validated open-response instruments that can be easily implemented by teachers as formative assessments of student understanding in the areas targeted by the study are also published. An understanding is gained of some of the challenges associated with implementing the Next Generation Science Standards in a way that meaningfully integrates science and engineering practice, important content and cross cutting themes in the context of learning about chemical design.