Collaborative Research: Unifying Science for Students: Investigating transfer within a coherent, interdisciplinary set of science courses

这个探索和设计项目在改善本科科学教育计划的学生学习轨道，旨在解决学习转移到新的设置棘手的概念。大多数教育制度的一个核心假设是，学生将能够在最初学习的环境之外应用知识和技能，从而转移他们的学习。然而，现有的研究表明，成功的转移非常罕见。在这个项目中，转移将在现有的一系列本科科学课程中进行研究，旨在促进物理，化学，地球科学和生物学中对能量的连贯理解。能量是大多数科学学科中重要的统一概念，是科学素养的核心，也是学生应该能够应用于各种情况的想法。综合课程在各个学科之间连贯地呈现能量，是在认知研究的基础上设计的，并在多个机构进行了广泛的课堂测试。因此，课程序列作为一个自然的实验室，以研究在高度有利但仍然可实现的条件下，有多少转移是可能的。统一科学的学生将衡量和描述转让，以及文件的具体组成部分，促进转让的指令。将特别注意了解如何支持传统上代表性不足的群体的学生之间的转移。调查结果将有助于知识基础的工作，在支持跨环境的能源概念的应用，为所有学生。 这个项目也可能有助于建立一个连贯的，跨学科的本科科学教育的国家模式的综合课程序列。综合课程包括四门课程：物质和能量在物理系统，地球系统，生命系统和化学系统中的流动。统一科学的学生将汇集物理，化学，生物学，地质学和认知科学在两个机构的专业知识，以增加转移的研究基础，使用本系列课程。为此，它将：（1）评估学生在连贯的、基于建构主义的科学课程序列中成功转移对能量的理解的程度;（2）记录当学生将关于能量的想法转移到新的情境中时出现的生产性和问题性推理方法;（3）确定促进转移的教学线索;（4）探讨元认知外显教学对能量概念的理解、保持和跨学科迁移的影响。 将采用定量和定性方法来实现这些目标。一项纵向研究将产生能量概念从原始学习环境（物理）转移到目标领域（化学）的定量测量。访谈，课堂观察和书面工作的分析将被用来描述什么样的转移“看起来像”通过发展一个分类学的学科特定的迁移尝试。最后，本研究将通过准实验研究探讨元认知写作作业对迁移的影响。通过这个项目产生的一般和学科特定的知识将被定位为通知课程设计，使转移可以成为高等教育中更可实现的目标。 罗伯特·诺伊斯教师奖学金计划为该项目提供共同资助，以表彰其与诺伊斯努力的更广泛的教师准备目标保持一致。

This Exploration and Design project in the Engaged Student Learning track in the Improving Undergraduate Science Education program seeks to address the intractable concept of transfer of learning to new settings. A central assumption in most systems of education is that students will be able to apply knowledge and skills beyond the context in which they are originally learned and hence transfer their learning. Existing research studies indicate, however, that successful transfer is exceedingly rare. In this project, transfer will be examined within an existing series of undergraduate science courses intended to promote coherent understanding of energy in physics, chemistry, Earth science, and biology. Energy, a unifying concept important in most science disciplines, is central to scientific literacy and is an idea students should be able to apply to a variety of situations. The integrated curriculum presents energy coherently across disciplines, was designed on the basis of cognitive research, and has been extensively classroom tested at multiple institutions. The course sequence thus serves as a natural laboratory to investigate how much transfer is possible under highly favorable, yet still realizable, conditions. Unifying Science for Students will measure and describe transfer, as well as document the specific components of instruction that promote transfer. Special attention will be paid to understanding how to support transfer among students from traditionally underrepresented groups. Findings will contribute to the knowledge base of what works in supporting application of energy concepts across contexts, for all students. This project may also help to establish the integrated course sequence as a national model for coherent, cross-disciplinary undergraduate science education. The integrated curriculum spans four courses: The Flow of Matter and Energy in Physical Systems, Earth Systems, Life Systems, and Chemical Systems. Unifying Science for Students will bring together expertise in physics, chemistry, biology, geology, and cognitive science at two institutions to add to the research base on transfer, using this course series. It will do so by: (1) evaluating the extent to which students successfully transfer understanding of energy in a coherent, constructivist-based sequence of science courses; (2) documenting the productive and problematic reasoning approaches that arise when students transfer ideas about energy to new contexts; (3) identifying instructional cues that facilitate transfer; and (4) investigating the impact of explicit instruction in metacognition on the understanding, retention, and transfer of energy concepts across disciplines. Quantitative and qualitative methods will be employed to address these goals. A longitudinal study will generate quantitative measures of the transfer of energy concepts from the original learning context, physics, to a target domain, chemistry. Interviews, classroom observations, and analysis of written work will be used to describe what transfer "looks like" by developing a taxonomy of discipline-specific transfer attempts. Finally, a quasi-experimental study will investigate the impact of metacognitive writing assignments on transfer. The general and discipline-specific knowledge generated through this project will be situated to inform curriculum design so that transfer can become a more realizable goal in higher education. The Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship program is providing co-funding for this project in recognition of its alignment with the broader teacher preparation goals of the Noyce effort.