Collaborative Research: Curriculum Mapping Tool for Sociology: Implementation, Assessment, and Dissemination

在一个日益技术化的社会中，提高本科生对STEM领域的准备对科学，健康，繁荣和国防的进步至关重要。 有证据表明，许多本科STEM课程的学生在没有充分参与科学内容的情况下完成了他们的专业，特别是在数据分析和严格的科学探究方面。明确的学习目标加上有意义的评估很有希望解决这一问题。 拟议的研究旨在完善和传播课程开发工具，并促进其在150个本科社会学课程的使用。 该工具将协助教师在他们的努力，以评估方案的优势和弱点，相对于美国社会学协会的报告“高等教育不断变化的景观中的社会学专业：课程，职业和在线学习”提出的12个总体建议中包含的70个目标。“该工具将促进课程审查，指导教师通过课程修订的过程，并提供基准数据。 该项目旨在帮助各部门了解他们与同行机构的比较情况。 如果成功，课程规划工具可以修改，用于其他STEM领域。 这项研究有四个明确的目标。 目标1是利用研究人员开发的一个已经测试过的工具，开发一个社会学课程规划工具。 该工具将在调查平台内集成电子表格、视频和其他补充组件。目标2是让150个社会学系参与课程规划活动，其中包括向教师讲授课程规划的过程，并衡量他们对所确定的见解的反应。目标3是对推荐的课程标准的一致性进行基准测试，这需要分析各个部门开发的课程地图。目标4是评估课程规划对课程质量的影响，包括确定课程规划对课程设置和课程结构产生有意义变化的程度。系主任将在三年的过程中在三个点进行调查，提供有关教师接受课程规划的详细信息，并对他们所在机构的课程设计产生影响。 将采用随机实验设计检查暴露于基准数据的影响。 生成的课程图将记录各部门遵守纪律标准的程度。 除了公布成果外，其他STEM领域的教学和学习领域的领先学者将展示课程规划如何在社会学项目中运作。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

In an increasingly technological society, the improvement of undergraduate preparedness for STEM fields is of vital interest to the advancement of science, health, prosperity, and national defense. Evidence indicates that students in many undergraduate STEM programs progress through their majors without sufficient engagement with scientific content, especially with respect to data analysis and rigorous scientific inquiry. Clear learning objectives coupled with meaningful assessment have great promise to address this concern. The proposed study seeks to refine and disseminate a curriculum development tool and facilitate its use in 150 undergraduate sociology programs. The tool will assist faculty members in their efforts to evaluate programmatic strengths and weaknesses with respect to seventy objectives contained within twelve overarching recommendations advanced by the American Sociological Association's report "The Sociology Major in the Changing Landscape of Higher Education: Curriculum, Careers, and Online Learning." The tool will facilitate curriculum review, guide faculty members through the process of curriculum revision, and provide benchmarking data. The project is designed to help departments understand how they compare to peer institutions. If successful, the curriculum mapping tool can be modified for use in other STEM fields. The study has four distinct goals. Goal 1 is to develop a curriculum mapping tool for sociology, which draws upon an already tested tool developed by the researchers. The tool will integrate spreadsheets, videos, and other supplemental components within a survey platform. Goal 2 is to engage 150 sociology departments in curriculum mapping activities, which involves teaching faculty the process of curriculum mapping and gauging their response to insights identified. Goal 3 is to benchmark conformance to recommended curricular standards, which requires analyzing the curriculum maps developed in individual departments. Goal 4 is to assess the impact that curriculum mapping has on program quality, which involves identifying the extent that curriculum mapping produced meaningful changes to course offerings and program structures. Department chairs will be surveyed at three points over the course of three years, providing detailed information on faculty receptivity to curriculum mapping and impacts on program design at their institutions. Impact of exposure to benchmarking data will be examined with a randomized experimental design. Curriculum maps generated will document the extent to which departments conform to disciplinary standards. In addition to publication of results, leading scholars of teaching and learning in other STEM fields will be shown how curriculum mapping operates within sociology programs.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.