Collaborative Research: Examining the Nature and Impacts of Instructors' Communication with Students in Classroom-based Undergraduate Research Experiences

该项目旨在通过帮助定义导致学生在STEM课程中取得成功的要素来服务于国家利益。 研究表明，让学生参与研究的本科科学课程，称为基于课程的本科研究经验或CURE，提高了学生的毕业率和科学保留率。然而，这项研究才刚刚开始深入了解CURE如何以及为什么比不包括研究部分的传统实验室课程对学生更有效。本研究旨在探讨研究环境是否以及如何影响教师与学生的对话。 如果是这样的话，它还将研究不同的谈话方式是否影响学生的科学发展和动机。为了进行分析，将对教授CURE和同一课程的传统组成部分的教师或教授CURE和传统实验室课程的教师进行录音。这些录音将被分析，以确定教师问的问题类型和教师提供给学生的支持类型的差异。然后，将对分析结果进行统计检验，以确定教师的沟通方式是否与两种课程类型的学生成绩有关。预计该项目的结果将有助于确定使其对学生有效的CURE的特征，然后可用于为未来CURE的设计和现有CURE的改进提供信息，从而最大限度地提高其有效性，CURE被倡导扩大获得研究机会的机会，并促进学生作为科学家的发展，特别是在历史上被排除在科学之外的学生中。一些研究还表明，CURE有可能影响所有学生在科学领域的持久性和成功，提高毕业率和保留具有不同个人特征的STEM专业。然而，影响学生在科学上的坚持和成功的CURE的特征在很大程度上仍然是未知的。这个混合方法项目将探讨教师谈话作为一种潜在的机制，通过它CURE发挥他们的影响力。该项目将专门调查CURE教师是否以及在多大程度上向学生提出更实质性的问题，为学生提供更多的指导支持，并比传统的实验室课程教师使用更多的非内容谈话。该项目还将调查这些形式的教师谈话在多大程度上与预测学生在科学方面的继续和成功的几个心理社会和动机因素有关。研究分析将通过收集教师在讲授CURE或传统实验室课程时的录音来完成;使用演绎方法对录音进行内容分析，该方法通过对教师谈话，课堂话语和研究指导的研究以及归纳方法来确定教师谈话的新类型;从参加记录课程的学生那里收集关于他们的科学自我效能、科学身份以及对继续从事科学的价值和成本的看法的前/后数据;并利用混合效应回归模型进行定量分析，以探讨哪些形式的教师谈话与学生的成绩有关。项目结果旨在深入了解CURE有效性的理论基础，例如CURE是否有效，主要是通过让学生有机会看到研究可以提供的价值，通过建立学生对他们在研究中取得成功的能力的信心，通过帮助他们看到他们为科学做出贡献的潜力和他们在科学界的地位，或两者的结合。 NSF IUSE：EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。 该奖项反映了NSF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。

This project aims to serve the national interest by helping to define the elements that lead to student success in STEM courses. Research has shown that undergraduate science courses that engage students in research, called Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences or CUREs, improve students’ graduation rates and retention in science. However, this research has only just begun to yield insight into how and why CUREs are more effective for students than traditional lab courses that do not include a research component. This project intends to investigate whether and how the research environment of CUREs influences how instructors talk with students. If so, it will also examine whether different ways of talking influence students’ scientific development and motivation. For this analysis, audio recordings will be made of instructors teaching CURE and traditional components of the same course or pairs of instructors teaching CURE and traditional lab courses. These recordings will be analyzed to identify differences in the types of questions instructors ask and the types of support instructors provide to students. The results of this analysis will then be tested statistically to determine whether the ways instructors communicate relates to student outcomes in the two course types. It is anticipated that the project results will help determine features of CUREs that make them effective for students, which could then be used to inform the design of future CUREs and improvement of existing CUREs, thus maximizing their effectiveness.CUREs are championed for broadening access to research opportunities and promoting students’ development as scientists, especially among students from backgrounds historically excluded from science. Several studies have also shown the potential for CUREs to influence the persistence and success of all students in science, improving graduation rates and retention of STEM majors with diverse personal characteristics. However, the features of CUREs that influence students’ persistence and success in science remain largely unknown. This mixed methods project will explore instructor talk as a potential mechanism through which CUREs exert their influence. The project will specifically investigate whether and to what extent CURE instructors ask students more substantive questions, provide more mentoring support to students, and use more non-content talk than traditional lab course instructors. The project will also investigate the extent to which these forms of instructor talk relate to several psychosocial and motivational factors that predict students’ continuation and success in science. The research analysis will be accomplished by collecting audio recordings of instructors as they teach CUREs or traditional lab courses; conducting content analysis of the recordings using a deductive approach informed by research on instructor talk, classroom discourse, and research mentoring as well as an inductive approach to identify novel types of instructor talk; collecting pre/post data from students enrolled in the recorded courses on their science self-efficacy, scientific identity, and perceptions of the values and costs of continuing in science; and conducting quantitative analysis using mixed effects regression models to explore which, if any, forms of instructor talk are related to student outcomes. The project results are designed to yield insight into the theoretical underpinnings of CURE effectiveness, such as whether CUREs are effective primarily by affording students opportunities to see the value that research can offer, by building students’ confidence in their abilities to be successful in research, by helping them see their potential to contribute to science and their place in the science community, or some combination thereof. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.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.