Promoting Foundational Scientific Literacy Skills in Introductory Psychology

要求改进科学教育的呼声日益高涨，这凸显了在大学一年级科学课程中加强科学思维技能训练的重要性和意义。本项目通过开发、评估和传播一套科学思维教材来解决这一需求，这些教材已在各种大学环境中证明了其有效性。教材将运用心理学导论的核心主题，结合现实世界的问题和争议，培养学生的科学思维能力。该项目以人类学习的认知心理学研究为基础，建立了科学教育的最佳实践。该项目的总体目标是开发、评估和传播一套灵活的、以研究为基础的教学模块，以提高心理学入门课程中科学素养和定量推理技能的培训。该项目将开发一套科学思维教学模块，主要涉及心理学导论的主要主题。该项目的一个独特之处在于它的协作框架，它涉及俄勒冈州四个学术站点的教师网络，包括两个社区学院（CCs），一个大型四年制研究机构（R1）和一个选择性的文科本科学院（SLAC）。这个机构间网络将合作开发和评估所有资源，包括确定适合不同课程形式和学生需求的模块。综合评估计划将对所有三种机构类型（CC/R1/SLAC）的教学模块的有效性进行总结性评估，然后再向心理学教学界广泛传播。

A rising tide of calls for improved science education underscores the importance and significance of incorporating stronger training of scientific thinking skills into first-year college science courses. This project addresses that need by developing, evaluating, and disseminating a set of scientific thinking teaching materials with proven efficacy in a variety of college settings. The materials will use core topics in Introductory Psychology in combination with real world issues and controversies to train students' scientific thinking skills. The project builds on cognitive psychology research on human learning and established best-practices for science education.The overarching goals of the project are to develop, evaluate, and disseminate a set of flexible, research-based teaching modules to improve the training of scientific literacy and quantitative reasoning skills in Introductory Psychology. The project will develop a set of scientific thinking instructional modules, keyed to the major topics covered in Introductory Psychology. A unique element of the project is its intentionally collaborative framework, which involves a network of faculty from four academic sites in Oregon including two community colleges (CCs), a large four-year Research 1 institution (R1), and a selective, liberal arts undergraduate college (SLAC). This inter-institutional network will collaborate on the development and formative assessment of all resources, including identifying adaptations of modules for different course formats and student needs. A comprehensive assessment plan will provide a summative assessment of the effectiveness of the teaching modules at all three institution types (CC/R1/SLAC) prior to broader dissemination to the psychology teaching community.