Collaborative Research: Building reflective scientists: Linking course-based authentic research experiences to develop metacognitive skills and scientific fluency

这个项目的总体目标是通过将元认知实践整合到实验室经验中，使本科生能够像科学家一样思考。大多数科学家在完成本科教育后，在实验室里通过一对一的指导内隐地学习元认知实践。一个直接的目标是设计包含开放式研究项目的本科生实验室，并制定元认知提示，帮助学生在计划和执行实验并解释结果时检查自己的思维。由于时间和资金的限制，许多本科生不能参加在教职研究实验室工作的标准研究体验。该项目将增加所有学生对真实研究的参与，并在他们教育的早期阶段加强他们作为科学家的自我认同；它将特别有益于来自服务不足群体的学生。这个项目的具体目标是开发和验证工具，以评估学生的科学思维在从事真实研究时如何因应元认知干预而发生变化。这些工具将允许评估学生在入学时如何改变他们解决问题的态度和方法，通过一系列与元认知培训相关联的实验室课程。学生访谈将被用于在学生从200级到300级再到400级课程的过程中向他们进行经过验证的调查。除了量化工具，访谈和学生作业将被用来定性分析学生的进步。个案分析和跨年访谈将评估学生思维习惯的变化。实验室课程干预措施将包括：1)在200-400级的四门实验室课程中使用模式系统热嗜热四膜虫和秀丽线虫获得真实的研究经验；2)对同一四门实验室课程的学生进行元认知培训；3)通过将这些课程与课程相联系，使学生多次接触元认知培训。这个项目意义重大，因为新颖的实验室课程将给更多的学生提供从事真实研究的机会，而且所开发的评估工具将适用于广泛的STEM研究经验。该项目将使所有背景的学生受益，并通过增加招生和留住学生，帮助增加西华盛顿大学STEM学生的多样性。由于元认知是科学思维的先决条件，结合研究经验和促进学生自我反思的教学很可能会提高学生解决科学问题的能力；本项目中开发的工具将在未来的研究中用于测试这一假设。该项目由美国国家科学基金会本科教育部门和国家科学基金会生物基础设施部门联合支持，因为它与这两个部门的目标的一个重要子集保持一致，这两个部门的目标都表达了在本科生物学教育中的愿景和变化(参见http://visionandchange.org/).

The overarching goal of this project is to enable undergraduate students to think like scientists by integrating metacognitive practice into laboratory experiences. Most scientists implicitly learn metacognitive practice through one-on-one mentoring in the laboratory after finishing their undergraduate education. One immediate goal is to design undergraduate labs with projects involving open-ended research and formulate metacognitive prompts to help student examine their own thinking as they plan and execute experiments and interpret results. Many undergraduate students are not able to participate in a standard research experience working in a faculty research lab because of time and financial constraints. This project will increase the participation of all students in authentic research and strengthen their self-identification as scientists at an earlier stage in their education; it will be particularly beneficial for students from underserved groups. The particular goal of this project is to develop and validate tools for assessing how students' scientific thinking changes in response to metacognitive interventions when engaged in authentic research. These tools will allow assessment of how students change their attitudes and approaches to problem solving as they matriculate through a series of linked laboratory courses with metacognitive training. Student interviews will be used to inform validated surveys administered to students as they move from 200- to 300- to 400-level courses. In addition to quantitative tools, interviews and student work will be used for qualitative analysis of student improvements. Case-by-case analysis, and cross-year interviews will assess changes in students' habits of mind. The laboratory course interventions will include 1) authentic research experiences in four laboratory courses from the 200-400 level using the model systems Tetrahymena thermophilae and Caenorhabditis elegans; 2) metacognitive training for students in the same four laboratory courses; 3) multiple exposures to metacognitive training by linking these courses in the curriculum. This project is significant because the novel laboratory courses will give more students the chance to engage in authentic research, and because the assessment tools that are developed will be adaptable for a wide array of STEM research experiences. This project will benefit students of all backgrounds, and help increase the diversity of STEM students at Western Washington University through increased recruitment and retention. Because metacognition is prerequisite for scientific thinking, it is likely that a combination of research experiences coupled with instruction to promote student self-reflection will enhance students' ability to resolve scientific problems; the tools developed in this project will be used to test this hypothesis in a future study.This project is being jointly supported by the NSF Division of Undergraduate Education and the NSF Division of Biological Infrastructure as it aligns with an important subset of the objectives of both divisions that is expressed in the "Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education" effort (see http://visionandchange.org/).