Collaborative Research: Building a Culture of Active Learning through Course-Based Communities of Transformation

该项目旨在为2万多名学生改进本科STEM教学，并帮助开发能够在全国各地的项目中改善学习的模式。该项目的主要目标是发展和支持一种重视将积极学习实践纳入本科生STEM课程和计划的大学文化。教师、研究生和本科生团队将被聚集在一起，形成基于课程的转型社区，以支持这些变化。在项目过程中，将在四个STEM系创建社区，向数千名学生教授有针对性的数学、物理、生物和计算机科学的入门课程。这些多代人的社区将接受关于主动学习技术的培训。利用这些知识，并在学习社区网络的支持下，他们将开发强调积极学习和学生参与的材料和评估。社区领导人将接受有关基层领导力和高等教育组织变革的额外培训。这些领导者将展示主动学习技术的价值，鼓励那些更犹豫不决的教职员工在他们的课程中做出改变。吸引大量教职员工，以及能够更广泛地推动这些努力的管理人员，将有助于改变整个大学的教学规范。该项目将调查如何利用以课程为基础的转型社区来发展STEM的积极和基于探究的学习文化。大量研究表明，积极和基于探究的学习可以改善学生的态度、保持能力和理解力，特别是对STEM中代表性不足的群体。然而，激励教员改变他们的教学实践仍然是一项挑战。数学、物理、生物和计算机科学系以课程为基础的转型社区将在特定的高招生本科课程中引领教学变革。跨部门并包括关键大学领导层的学习社区将支持以课程为基础的社区，并提供自上而下的努力，以补充自下而上的以课程为重点的变革。通过对访谈、调查、课程材料和其他关键文件的分析，该项目将研究文化变革过程如何在教职员工、部门和组织层面展开。分析还将侧重于部门一级的变化与组织学习之间的关系。结合更好地理解大学环境中的组织变化，多代人的社区转型模式将帮助其他机构成功地努力改变自己的校园教学文化。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project aims to improve undergraduate STEM teaching for more than 20,000 students and help develop models that can improve learning in programs across the country. The primary goal of the project is to develop and support a university culture that values the incorporation of active learning practices in undergraduate STEM courses and programs. Teams of faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students will be brought together to form course-based communities of transformation that will support these changes. Over the course of the project, communities will be created in four STEM departments that teach thousands of students in targeted gateway courses in Mathematics, Physics, Biology, and Computer Science. These multi-generational communities will receive training on active learning techniques. Using this knowledge and with support from a network of learning communities, they will develop materials and assessments that emphasize active learning and student engagement. Community leaders will receive additional training on grassroots leadership and organizational change in higher education. These leaders will demonstrate the value of active learning techniques, encouraging faculty who are more hesitant to make changes in their courses. Engaging a large number of faculty members, along with administrators who can promote these efforts more widely, will help change teaching norms throughout the university.The project will investigate how course-based communities of transformation can be used to develop a culture of active and inquiry-based learning in STEM. A significant body of research has shown that active and inquiry-based learning improves student attitudes, retention, and understanding, particularly for underrepresented groups in STEM. Nevertheless, motivating faculty to change their teaching practices remains a challenge. Course-based communities of transformation in the Mathematics, Physics, Biology, and Computer Science Departments will lead instructional changes in specified high-enrollment undergraduate courses. Learning communities that span departments and include key university leadership will support the course-based communities and provide top-down efforts to complement the bottom-up course-focused change. Through analysis of interviews, surveys, course materials, and other key documents, the project will examine how the culture change process unfolds at the faculty, department, and organizational levels. Analysis will also focus on the relationship between department-level change and organizational learning. Combined with a better understanding of organizational change within the university setting, the multi-generational community of transformation model will help other institutions succeed in efforts to change their own campus teaching cultures.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.