Assessing Students' Integration of Knowledge for Deep Learning in Physics

该项目旨在通过分析和改善学生在入门物理课程中的关键概念的学习来服务于国家利益。为了在全国范围内推进STEM教育，一个需要是促进对各个STEM学科核心知识的深刻理解，沿着跨学科的概念。促进知识整合的教学方法已被证明在创建深度概念学习方面是有效的;然而，关于如何衡量这种深度学习的研究是有限的。在该项目中，项目团队计划开发评估方法，为评估单个学生的知识整合和深度学习水平提供新功能。通过探索学生在解决问题时遵循的具体路径，这些评估可以为教学提供信息，有效地帮助学生实现深刻的概念理解。由于许多物理概念背后的核心思想对于广泛的STEM学科至关重要，因此本项目中开发的评估应该为改善相关STEM领域的知识整合提供有用的工具。尽管有大量文献介绍了第一次学习物理的学生通常存在的误解，需要更多的研究来研究学生的知识结构，包括知识整合和深层概念理解。作为该项目的核心部分，项目团队计划为物理入门课程中通常教授的概念开发概念框架和相关评估。概念框架由概念的中心思想、语境特征、中间过程和这些组成部分之间的联系组成，并用于表示学生解决问题时的思维路径。计划的主要工作包括：（1）为物理学导论的选定课题制订概念架构，以模拟学生学习知识的整合过程;（2）制订评估工具，以量度学生在学习物理学选定课题时的知识整合进度;及（3）建立一个知识库，以评估结果及对学生在物理学上达成深层概念理解的影响。教育研究将主要探讨评估设计的特征-包括问题背景的熟悉程度，问题中的组件和连接，以及问题所需的概念模型方面-可以在多大程度上用于测量学生知识整合的发展水平。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 analyzing and improving students' learning of key concepts in introductory physics courses. To advance STEM education across the nation, one need is to foster deep understanding of core knowledge within the various STEM disciplines along with concepts that cut across the disciplines. Teaching methods that promote the integration of knowledge have been shown to be effective in creating deep conceptual learning; however, the research on how to measure such deep learning is limited. In this project, the project team plans to develop assessment methods that provide new features for evaluating the levels of knowledge integration and deep learning achieved by individual students. By probing the specific paths that students follow when solving problems, these assessments can inform instruction to effectively help students achieve deep conceptual understanding. Because the core ideas underlying many physics concepts are essential to a wide range of STEM disciplines, the assessments developed in this project should provide useful tools for improving knowledge integration in related STEM fields.Although there is a wealth of literature about the misconceptions that students taking physics for the first time commonly have, more research is needed to study the knowledge structures of students with regard to knowledge integration and deep conceptual understanding. As a central part of this project, the project team plans to develop conceptual frameworks and associated assessments for concepts typically taught in introductory physics courses. Conceptual frameworks are composed of central ideas of concepts, contextual features, intermediate processes, and links between those components, and are used to represent students' thinking pathways as they solve problems. Major activities in the project will include (1) developing conceptual frameworks for selected topics in introductory physics to model the knowledge integration process of student learning; (2) developing assessment instruments that measure the progression of knowledge integration in students' learning of selected topics in physics; and (3) producing a knowledge base of assessment outcomes and implications regarding students' achievement of deep conceptual understanding in physics. The education research will primarily explore the extent to which features of assessment design -- which include the familiarity of question contexts, components and connections within a question, and aspects of conceptual models required by a question -- can be used to measure the developmental levels of students' knowledge integration. 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.