Advancing the Cognitive Science of Active Learning: Pinpointing Instructional Features that Maximize Equity, Self-Efficacy, and Student Learning in STEM

该奖项全部或部分由《2021年美国救援计划法案》（公法117-2）资助。该博士后研究奖学金项目将研究如何将主动学习有效地整合到讲座中，以促进STEM课程的公平、自我效能和学生学习。通过在一个拥有不同学生群体的西班牙裔服务机构进行研究，该研究员能够对教学实践产生见解，从而提高在STEM研究领域中代表性不足的学生群体的学业成功。一个专业发展计划是根据研究员的职业目标量身定制的，包括能够使研究员加深与进行理论驱动和应用研究相关的知识和技能的活动。这反过来又为未来为大学教师制定循证教学指南的研究生涯奠定了基础。本研究将包括三个实验，操纵主动学习和讲课的剂量时间表和顺序，以评估主动学习对学生成功完成STEM入门课程的影响。药量计划的操纵包括阻断主动学习与讲课和穿插主动学习与讲课。对剂量顺序的操纵将提供(a)第一讲座和第二主动学习以及(b)第一主动学习和第二讲座。前两个实验将在严格控制的实验室环境中进行，第三个实验将在由两位生物学教授共同教授的生物学导论课上进行。在这三个实验中，学生将在四种不同的教学条件下学习生物学概念，他们在这些条件下的成功程度将使用自我效能感和学习工具来衡量。还将比较代表性不足和非代表性不足的学生的自我效能评分和学习分数，以检查是否存在不成比例或不成比例的收益或损失。该项目响应了STEM教育博士后研究奖学金（STEM Ed PRF）计划，该计划旨在提高STEM、STEM教育、教育、教育领域近期博士的研究知识、技能和实践。以及相关学科，以促进他们从事基础和应用研究的准备，从而促进该领域的知识。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 award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). This postdoctoral research fellowship project will investigate how active learning can be effectively integrated into lectures to promote equity, self-efficacy, and student learning in STEM courses. By conducting the research at a Hispanic-Serving Institution with a diverse student population, the fellow is in a position to produce insights into instructional practices that enhance the academic success of groups of students who are underrepresented in their participation in STEM fields of study. A professional development plan is in place that is tailored to the career goals of the fellow and includes activities that will enable the fellow to deepen knowledge and skills related to conducting theoretically driven and applied research. This in turn lays the groundwork for a future research career of developing evidence-based teaching guidelines for college instructors. This research study will include three experiments that manipulate the dosage schedule and order of active learning and lecture to assess the impact of active learning on student success in introductory STEM coursework. The manipulation of dosage schedule will involve blocking active learning and lecture and interspersing active learning and lecture. The manipulation of dosage order will provide (a) lecture first and active learning second and (b) active learning first and lecture second. The first two experiments will occur in an highly controlled laboratory environment and the third experiment will occur in an introductory biology class co-taught by two biology professors. Students in the three experiments will learn biology concepts in four different instructional conditions, and their level of success in these conditions will be measured using self-efficacy and learning instruments. A comparison between underrepresented and non-underrepresented students on their self-efficacy ratings and learning scores will also be conducted to examine whether there are any proportionate or disproportionate gains or losses. The results of the study could be used to guide college course transformations by producing evidence about how to implement active learning effectively,The project responds to the STEM Education Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (STEM Ed PRF) program that aims to enhance the research knowledge, skills, and practices of recent doctorates in STEM, STEM education, education, and related disciplines to advance their preparation to engage in fundamental and applied research that advances knowledge within the field.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.