Experimental and Theoretical Analysis of Cognitive Processes Underlying Clicker Use in STEM Education

这项提案描述了科罗拉多大学的一个研究项目，该项目是关于在STEM内容的教学和学习中使用点击技术，在这种情况下是本科生的统计。通过这种技术，每个学生都会得到一个被称为点击器的手持响应设备，用于回答教师就最近在课堂上展示的材料提出的定期探查问题。在一堂课中，学生会在多个不可预测的时间点进行测试，这些测试的结果会以摘要的形式立即提供给教师和学生。研究人员利用他们在数学建模、认知心理学、劳动力培训、统计学教育、学习技术、评估和科学教育方面的专业知识，对一些相关变量进行初步的实验室和课堂研究，以确定在什么条件下使用点击器最有效，无论是对于学生的学习，还是作为教师的评估手段。这项研究的重点是已经在课堂上使用的一种真正的教育干预。分析实验方法被用来确定这种教育干预背后的认知机制，这种分析允许对其进行完善和改进。该项目进一步开发了不仅优化知识获取，而且优化学生学习的方法。能够保留这些知识，并将其转移到新的情况和领域。

This proposal describes a research project based at the University of Colorado on the use of clicker technology in the teaching and the learning of STEM content, in this case undergraduate statistics. With this technique, each student is given a hand-held response device called a clicker, which is used to respond to periodic probe questions asked by the instructor about material recently presented in a lecture. Students are tested at multiple unpredictable points during a lecture, and the results of these tests are immediately available to both the instructor and students in summary form. The investigators bring their expertise in mathematical modeling, cognitive psychology, workforce training, statistics education, learning technology, assessment, and science education to bear in an initial set of laboratory and classroom studies of a number of relevant variables in order to determine the conditions under which the use of clickers is most effective, both for learning by the student and as a means of assessment by the teacher. The research focuses on a real educational intervention already in use in classroom. An analytical experimental approach is used to identify the cognitive mechanisms that underlie this educational intervention, and this analysis allows for its refinement and improvement. The project further develops ways to optimize not just the acquisition of knowledge but also students? ability to retain that knowledge and transfer it to new situations and domains.