Interdisciplinary Assessment of Supplemental Instruction and Attitudes in STEM

这个项目是对补充教学(SI)在四个广泛的本科STEM学科中的影响的彻底研究，该机构已经将补充教学完全制度化，作为其教学方法的一部分。尽管PI们认为SI既有效，又是常规课堂教学的有效辅助，但关于它的工作原理，仍有许多不清楚之处。这个项目的挑战是加深对SI提高学生在内容理解方面的表现以及他们对科学和数学课程学习的态度和信念的机制的理解。更好的理解是改进SI设计的先导。该项目将通过对SI的影响进行全面的、跨学科的研究来实现这一点。本项目将记录SI对4个系的8门目标课程的学生概念理解的影响程度：生物、化学、数学和物理。调查将在4个学期的每门课程中进行。所采用的衡量标准是学生成绩、利用已开发的概念清单对概念理解的变化，以及学生对科学和数学的信念和态度的变化。同声传播者的情感领域也将通过访谈同声传播者领导人，用解释学分析他们的访谈录音来调查。主办大学在开发和使用补充教学方面是全国公认的领导者。因此，这项工作的结果将有助于进一步告知或启发许多使用SI或正在建立SI过程中的许多机构的其他教员指导。

This project is a thorough study of the impact of supplemental instruction (SI) across four broad undergraduate STEM disciplines in an institution that has fully institutionalized it as part of their instructional methods. Although the PIs believe that SI is both effective and an efficient adjunct to regular classroom instruction, there is still much that is not understood about how it works. The challenge being addressed in this project is to develop increased understanding of the mechanisms by which SI improves students' performance in content understanding and their attitudes and beliefs about learning in science and math courses. Improved understanding is the precursor to improved designs for SI. The project would approach this through a comprehensive, cross-disciplinary program of study of the impact of SI. This project will document the extent to which SI impacts student conceptual understanding in 8 target courses across 4 departments: biology, chemistry, mathematics, and physics. Surveys will be conducted in each course administered over 4 semesters. Measures employed are student grades, changes in conceptual understanding using already developed concept inventories, and changes in students' beliefs and attitudes towards science and mathematics. The affective realm of SI will also be investigated by interviewing SI leaders, analyzing their recorded interviews using hermeneutics. The host university is a nationally recognized leader in the development and use of Supplemental Instruction. Consequently, the results of this work will serve to further inform or enlighten the many other faculty instructions in numerous institutions that use SI or are in the process of instituting SI.