Collaborative Research: An Initial Learning Progression in Chemical Design

在这个为期两年的探索性项目中，马萨诸塞大学波士顿分校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，开发并测试了化学研究的学习过程。本研究探讨了8-13年级学生在化学设计的五个主要线索——化学同一性、结构-性质关系、化学因果关系和机制、化学控制和成本-收益-风险——上的隐性假设是如何发展的。专注于化学设计-化合物的识别和合成-促进科学和工程实践，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对更广泛的学生更有吸引力，包括职业和技术教育的学生。该项目调查了核心隐含假设，这些假设可以被期望描述和约束新手和复杂的学生对化学设计的五个主要线索的推理。它还提出了假设的“垫脚石”，描述了化学设计中从新手到复杂推理的进展。对现有的关于学生观念的研究文献以及相关的发展心理学和认知科学研究进行了综述。项目工作人员与波士顿公立学校的12名高级高中和初中科学教师一起开发了一个框架，可用于比较和对比关于理解化学设计的基本思想的或多或少复杂的思考方式，并从中得出关于理解化学设计含义的“垫脚石”的假设。本研究采用与以往研究类似的问卷调查和访谈方法，对八年级、十年级、十二年级学生和大学新生及其教师进行调查，以完善和丰富关于核心内隐假设沿袭的初步假设。该研究由科学教育者和教育研究人员组成的顾问委员会使用书面协议进行评估。内容由执业化学家审查。一个简洁明了的学习进度总结与教师，课程开发人员和出版商谁正在实施或修订课程的目标受众。本摘要的传播包括对高中化学教材的教师、课程开发人员和出版商的简短市场调查。我们还发布了经过验证的开放式回答工具的版本，这些工具可以很容易地由教师实施，作为对学生在研究目标领域理解程度的形成性评估。在学习化学设计的背景下，通过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，了解与实施下一代科学标准相关的一些挑战。

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.