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

在一个日益科技化的社会，提高大学生对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项目的学生在专业学习过程中没有充分接触科学内容，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对解决这一问题大有希望。本研究旨在完善和推广课程开发工具，并促进其在150个本科社会学课程中的使用。该工具将帮助教师根据美国社会学协会报告《高等教育变化中的社会学专业：课程、职业和在线学习》中提出的12项总体建议中的70项目标，评估课程的优势和劣势。该工具将促进课程审查，指导教师完成课程修订过程，并提供基准数据。该项目旨在帮助各院系了解它们与同行机构的比较情况。如果成功，课程映射工具可以进行修改，用于其他STEM领域。这项研究有四个不同的目标。目标1是开发一个社会学课程映射工具，它借鉴了研究人员开发的一个已经测试过的工具。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测绘活动，这包括教授教师课程测绘的过程，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图。目标4是评估课程映射对课程质量的影响，包括确定课程映射对课程设置和课程结构产生有意义变化的程度。在三年的时间里，将对系主任进行三次调查，提供有关教师对课程规划的接受程度及其对所在机构课程设计的影响的详细信息。暴露于基准数据的影响将通过随机实验设计进行检查。生成的课程地图将记录各部门符合学科标准的程度。除了发表研究结果外，其他STEM领域的教学和学习的主要学者将展示课程映射如何在社会学项目中运作。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.