Supporting Feedback Loop Learning in Natural and Social Science Courses

该项目旨在通过提高大学生理解复杂系统的能力，以及这些系统如何被“影响”到理想的结果，从而为国家利益服务。该项目侧重于反馈循环，即一个初始行动触发一系列影响的系统，这些影响要么放大，要么抵消初始行动。反馈回路驱动着许多重要的自然和工程系统。它们可能促进增长/衰退/不稳定（如流行病传播、核连锁反应或环境变化）或稳定（如汽车的巡航控制系统或捕食者/猎物系统）。随着反馈循环思维变得越来越普遍，社会将在不同的环境中受益。例如，每当一个人能够分辨出他们可能陷入了一个破坏性的反馈循环，并制定出一条出路；或者每当领导者使用反馈循环思维来稳定令人担忧的局面时；或者每次专业人士使用反馈循环思维来催化朝着理想结果的增长。这是IUSE参与学生学习轨道的一级项目，旨在解决让所有本科生都能接触到反馈循环思维的挑战。该项目的学习目标是让学生能够在不熟悉的环境中识别反馈回路，并使用反馈回路思维来解释、预测和改进他们所关心的系统的行为。一个跨学科团队将设计、开发并实地测试一套6个迷你课程，这些课程可以适用于任何目前正在教授至少一个反馈回路的本科课程。这些课程旨在将学生从理解一个反馈回路作为一门课程中一个现象的解释机制，提升到将反馈回路作为一种适用于多个学科的可推广的解释策略。最初教学材料的试验台是心理学、种族和性别研究、环境科学和神经解剖学课程。为了评估第一个学习目标（在不熟悉的环境中识别反馈循环），项目团队正在开发和验证一个新的工具，在这个工具中，参与者阅读简短的叙述，并说明每个叙述是积极的还是消极的反馈循环。第二个学习目标将通过学生每节课的学习成果和教师每节课后的反思日志来评估。外部咨询委员会将通过每年两次的会议，对项目的知识价值和更广泛的影响提供评价指导。从该项目中产生的见解和材料将通过教育工作者的研讨会和网络研讨会，以及通过一个广泛使用的网络门户网站进行传播，该门户网站为本科教学资源提供服务和审查。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。通过参与学生学习轨道，该计划支持有前途的实践和工具的创建，探索和实施。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。

This project aims to serve the national interest by improving undergraduates’ ability to understand complex systems and how such systems may be "influenced" towards desirable outcomes. The project focuses on feedback loops, which are systems in which an initial action triggers a chain of influences that either amplifies or counteracts the initial action. Feedback loops drive many important natural and engineered systems. They may foster growth/decay/instability (as in pandemic disease spread, nuclear chain reactions, or environmental change) or stability (as in a car’s cruise control system or a predator/prey system). As feedback loop thinking becomes more common, society will benefit in different settings. For example, each time an individual is able to discern that they may be trapped in a damaging feedback loop and strategize a way out; or each time a leader uses feedback loop thinking to bring stability to a fraught situation; or each time a professional uses feedback loop thinking to catalyze growth towards a desirable outcome. This is a Level 1 project, in the IUSE Engaged Student Learning Track, tackling the challenge of making feedback loop thinking accessible to all undergraduates. The project's learning goals are that students will be able to recognize feedback loops when they encounter them in an unfamiliar context, and use feedback loop thinking to explain, predict and improve the behavior of systems they care about. An interdisciplinary team will design, develop, and field test a suite of six mini-lessons that can be adapted for any undergraduate course in which at least one feedback loop is currently being taught. These lessons aim to elevate students from understanding one feedback loop as an explanatory mechanism for one phenomenon in one course, to grasping feedback loops as a generalizable explanatory strategy applicable across multiple disciplines. Test beds for the initial instructional materials are in psychology, race and gender studies, environmental science, and neuroanatomy courses. To assess the first learning goal (recognize feedback loops in unfamiliar context), the project team is developing and validating a new instrument, in which participants read short narratives and state whether each is or is not a positive or negative feedback loop. The second learning goal will be assessed via student products from each lesson and instructors’ reflective journaling after teaching each lesson. An external Advisory Board will provide evaluative guidance on both the intellectual merit and the broader impacts of the project through twice-yearly meetings. Insights and materials emerging from the project will be disseminated by workshops and webinars for educators, and through a widely-used web-based portal that serves and reviews undergraduate instructional resources. 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.