Learning through Failure: Exploring how Setbacks in Science in the Context of Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences can Lead to Self-knowledge and Resilience

该奖项的全部或部分资金来自《2021年美国救援计划法案》(公法117-2)。这个博士后研究奖学金项目试图通过调查失败的可能性来重新定义科学失败的含义，这可能会导致本科生获得更多的学习机会。调查员将实施一项大规模研究，包括三条线索。首先是调查在本科生的研究环境中，失败可能会如何导致科学学习。其次是考察教师在学生失败时使用什么策略来讨论和支持学生。第三是确定这些互动可能如何影响学生应对未来科学挑战的应变能力和方法。该项目将为重新设计科学课程提供信息，以帮助学生在科学失败的过程中学到更多东西。它还将告诉如何支持学生作为创造性和批判性思考者的成长，将成功的范围扩大到他们是优秀的应试者之外。更广泛地说，培养学生的韧性将直接支持一支具有全球竞争力的多元化劳动力队伍的发展，这支队伍由科学家组成，他们能够深思熟虑地应对失败，在应对流行病和气候变化等全球挑战时找到创造性的解决方案。除了进行研究外，研究人员还建议在定量研究和分析、指导学生、教学和网络方面建立专业的自我能力。本研究旨在研究学生在以课程为基础的本科生研究经验(CURES)中的研究失败经验，以更好地了解这些经验如何影响学生的学习和积极的个人特质的发展。在STEM中，对失败的恐惧、目标导向、学生-教师信任和应对等有助于弹性的个人内部结构是已知的影响本科生学习经验、坚持性和成功的非认知属性。这些属性也很可能受到学生失败经历的影响。调查员将从以本科为主的机构、社区学院和研究密集型机构等不同机构招募治愈学生，参加这项为期两年的混合方法学习，为期四个学期。研究人员将结合定量和定性的方法来开发和测试一个新的解释模型，解释上述个人内部结构如何通过基于研究的治疗失败的经历而发生变化。定量方法将包括二元Logistic回归模型，定性研究将包括多种分析方法，如解释学方法论，以深入检查学生的经验。将定量和定性工作作为混合方法设计的一部分，将产生对学生失败经验的更丰富的理解，从而能够解释当前趋势和预测未来趋势。通过对失败的关注，该项目可以阐明失败导致STEM流失的情况，并帮助解释哪些支持和资源将支持弱势学生群体驾驭失败经历。这些知识可以用来开发干预措施，以减轻失败的心理社会影响，同时为建设性的认识论“失败”创造机会。该项目响应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、教育和相关学科的新近博士的研究知识、技能和实践，以促进他们从事基础和应用研究，促进该领域知识的进步。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 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 seeks to redefine what it means to fail in the sciences through investigating the potential for failure to be seen as a positive experience that results in increased learning for undergraduate science students. The investigator will implement a large-scale study that pursues three lines of inquiry. First is to investigate how failure may lead to science learning in an undergraduate research setting. Second is to examine what strategies instructors use to discuss and support students during failures. Third is to identify how those interactions may impact students’ resilience and approach to future science challenges. The project will inform the redesign of science curricula to help students learn more through the process of scientific failure. It will also inform how to support students’ growth as creative and critical thinkers, to expand the scope of success beyond their being good test-takers. More broadly, building student resilience will directly support the development of a globally competitive and diverse workforce consisting of scientists who can navigate failures thoughtfully to find creative solutions when tackling global challenges such as pandemics and climate change. In addition to conducting research, the investigator proposes to build professional self-competencies in quantitative research and analysis, mentoring students, teaching, and networks. This research project aims to study students’ experiences of research-based failure in course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) to better understand how these experiences can impact student learning and development of positive intrapersonal attributes. Intrapersonal constructs contributing to resilience, such as fear of failure, goal orientation, student-instructor trust, and coping are non-cognitive attributes that are known to impact the undergraduate learning experience, persistence, and success in STEM. These attributes are also highly likely to be influenced by students’ failure experiences. The investigator will recruit CURE students from diverse institutions such as predominantly undergraduate institutions, community colleges, and research-intensive institutions, to participate across four semesters in this two-year mixed-methods study. The investigator will integrate quantitative and qualitative approaches to develop and test a novel explanatory model of how the above intrapersonal constructs may change through experiences of research-based failure in CUREs. Quantitative approaches will include binary logistic regression models, and qualitative study will include multiple analytical approaches such as hermeneutic methodology to deeply examine students’ experiences. The integration of quantitative and qualitative work as part of the mixed methods design will yield a richer understanding of students’ failure experiences that will enable explanation of both current trends and predict future ones. Through the focus on failure, the project could elucidate the circumstances in which failure contributes to STEM attrition and help explain what supports and resources would support vulnerable populations of students in navigating failure experiences. This knowledge could be used to develop interventions to mitigate the psychosocial impact of failure while simultaneously creating opportunities for constructive epistemological “failures.” 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.