Managing Small Groups to Meet the Social and Psychological Demands of Scientific and Engineering Practices in High School Science.

这项研究项目由马萨诸塞大学阿默斯特分校的研究人员领导，分析、评估和比较了高中理科课程中探究性任务和工程设计任务的小组工作。以研究为基础的科学教育改革建议强调教授和学习科学和工程实践，以便学生了解和体验科学家和工程师是如何工作的，以及科学知识是如何产生的，工程解决方案是如何开发的。然而，与工程师相比，科学家在专业实践中注意到的根本区别，因此高中科学中生产性小组作业的性质应该根据任务涉及科学探索还是工程设计而有所不同。研究人员考察了个体为各种问题解决任务带来的认知、社会和情感资源。推测学生在探究和工程设计活动中需要哪些社会、心理和认知资源，将加强科学教师的专业发展，为小组工作提供更好的支架。此外，这项研究的结果可能被用来创建有效的诊断工具来评估学生的不同优势和劣势，并使用这些简档来将学生组织成对科学学习最有利的小组。它还应该帮助教师监控正在进行的小组过程，这将指导他们决定如何以及何时介入，以支持小组在不同结构的基于探究和工程设计的任务中。

This research project headed up by investigators from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, analyzes, evaluates, and compares small group work on inquiry-based tasks and engineering design tasks in high school science classes. The research based recommendations for the reform of science education stress the teaching and learning of scientific and engineering practices in order for students to understand and experience how scientists and engineers work, and how scientific knowledge is produced and engineering solutions are developed. Yet, fundamental differences that have been noted in the professional practices of scientists compared to engineers, so it follows that the nature of productive group work in high school science should vary depending on whether the task involves scientific inquiry or engineering design. The investigators look at the cognitive, social, and affective resources individual bring to various problem solving tasks.Gauging what social, psychological and cognitive resources students need for inquiry and engineering design activities will strengthen professional development for science teachers about providing better scaffolding for group work. Furthermore, results of this research may be used to create valid diagnostic tools to evaluate students' varying strengths and weaknesses and to use these profiles to assemble students in small groups that are optimal for science learning. It should also help teachers to monitor on-going group process, which will guide themas they decide how and when to intervene to support groups in differentially structured inquiry-based and engineering design tasks.