Assessing Attentiveness to Student Ideas in Physics

这个项目旨在通过改进物理教育来服务于国家利益。它将通过制定一项评估来评估物理教师准备计划来做到这一点。这项评估将衡量教师对学生在物理上的想法做出准确解释和有效回应的能力。拟议的评估工具旨在解决物理教育者准备计划的共同措施的迫切需要。这样的评估工具可以指导个人物理教师教育计划的改进。它还将实现跨项目的可靠比较，将该领域引向最有希望的方法。此外，开发评估工具所需的研究有望进一步细化教师在物理上的注意结构，探索核心教学知识和核心教学知识在职前教师中的发展和互动。该项目既关注物理教师培养计划层面的重点，也着眼于培养能够在实践中有效分析和回应学生思维的教师。因此，该项目打算制定一项选择性反应评估，重点放在注意力的可操作性方面的真实性。专注力，又称响应性，是一个复杂的过程，其特征是教师能够识别学生思想的实质，认识到学生思想中的学科联系，并根据学科目标接受和追求学生思维的实质。该项目的物理注意力评估项目的多阶段开发是仿照教学实践中的数学注意力项目开发过程，在开发选择性反应评估的过程中收集学生和教育工作者的真实反应。项目开发的不同阶段将使物理教育者参与到注意力所需的认知过程中。该模型的三个维度包括：(1)确定特定学生任务的教学意图和关键学科概念(S)。(2)对学生对所针对的学科概念的理解做出基于证据的推断；以及(3)根据学生个人的想法和任务的学科意图来决定适当的教学反应。该项目旨在为学生开发每个物理主题(运动、力、能量和波)的至少三个任务(三个项目)。教师的每个主题至少有两个任务(每个任务有4-5个选定的回答项目)。在这一发展过程中使用的真实的学生和教育者的反应可以帮助物理教育项目有效地测量物理教师的注意力。这项工作可以为确定成功的物理教育者培养计划提供支持。预计这将有助于更好地了解物理教师培训的关键要素，并允许继续开展有关物理教育中注意力结构的理论工作。NSF IUSE：EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生的STEM教育的有效性。通过参与的学生学习路径，该计划支持有前景的实践和工具的创建、探索和实施。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 serve the national interest by improving physics education. It will do so by developing an assessment to evaluate physics teacher preparation programs. This assessment will measure a teacher’s ability to accurately interpret and productively respond to students’ ideas in physics. The proposed assessment tool is intended to address a critical need for common measures of physics educator preparation programs. Such an assessment tool could guide the improvement of individual physics teacher education programs. It would also enable reliable comparisons across programs, pointing the field towards the most promising approaches. In addition, the research required to develop the assessment tool is expected to further refine the construct of teacher attentiveness in physics, exploring the development and interaction of core content knowledge and core pedagogical content knowledge among preservice teachers. The project has both a focus at the physics teacher preparation program level, and an end-goal of preparing teachers who can effectively analyze and respond to student thinking in practice. Therefore, the project intends to develop a selected-response assessment, with a focus on authenticity in the operationalization of attentiveness. Attentiveness, also referred to as responsiveness, is a complex process characterized by the ability of the teacher to identify the substance of students’ ideas, to recognize the disciplinary connections in students’ ideas, and to take up and pursue the substance of student thinking in light of disciplinary goals. The project’s multi-phased development of assessment items for attentiveness in physics is modeled after the Mathematical Attentiveness in Pedagogical Practice item-development process, which gathers authentic responses from both students and educators in the development of a selected-response assessment. The distinct phases of item development will engage physics educators in the cognitive processes needed for attentiveness. The three dimensions of this model include the following: (1) Identifying the pedagogical intent and key disciplinary concept(s) of a specific student task. (2) making evidence-based inferences about a student’s understanding of the disciplinary concept being targeted; and (3) deciding on an appropriate pedagogical response that builds both on an individual student’s thinking and toward the disciplinary intent of the task. The project intends to develop at least three tasks (3 items) for each physics topic (motion, forces, energy, and waves) for students. There will be at least two tasks (4-5 selected-response items for each task) for each topic for teachers. The authentic student and educator responses used during this development process could assist physics education programs to efficiently measure physics teachers’ attentiveness. This work could support the identification of successful physics educator preparation programs. It is expected to allow for better understanding of key elements of physics teacher preparation, as well as allow for continued theoretical work on the construct of attentiveness in physics education. 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.