Mapping Epistemologies that Shape College Chemistry Instructors' Assessment Practices

为了让学习者在生活中有效地运用科学知识，科学课程必须培养学生对认识和学习科学的理解（即他们的认识论）。本项目旨在通过培养研究人员进行基础化学教育研究的技能，在有机化学课程的背景下调查教师和学生的认识论，从而为国家利益服务。研究表明，教师可以传递关于知识和认知的隐性信息，从而塑造学生采用的认识论。因此，我们需要更好地理解科学教师如何传达在学校和生活中有用的认识论的价值。本项目假设在科学研究实验室中流行的认识论（“做科学”认识论）在生活中比典型的科学课程认识论（“做学校”，如记忆事实和寻求问题的单一正确答案）更有用。因此，支持教师在化学课程考试环境中激活“做科学”的认识论，有望导致学习环境的富有成效的变化。本计画将描绘在有机化学课程中塑造教师测试实践的认识论。项目团队还将探索鼓励教师在课程评估情景中采用“做科学”认识论的方法。在这项工作的过程中，首席研究者将通过课程作业和指导培养从行为中推断隐性认识论思想的专业知识。该项目将整合研究和专业发展目标，以支持首席研究员发展实现其长期目标所需的定性方法技能。该项目旨在对认识论进行建模，这些认识论塑造了有机化学教师在研究和教学环境中如何以及为什么提示和响应知识产品。在三年的时间里，研究小组将探索三位有机化学讲师的制定认识论，他们在化学系中代表不同的角色和认识论。该团队将进行半结构化访谈，重点关注教师如何以及为什么在考试中提示和回应学生的知识产品，记录研究小组会议，并试图在访谈设置的教学任务背景下引导教师采用“做科学”的认识论。在“做科学”和“做学校”时制定的认识论的专题和案例研究分析将用于支持关于生产性认识论思想的主张，即教师必须关注学生的思维，以及这些思想何时以及如何被激活。在从定性数据中引出、解释和得出含义的整个过程中，项目团队将由威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校的认识论专家进行指导。项目团队将经常与导师会面，讨论目标读物以及项目的进度和计划。PI还将完成定性方法的课程。预计项目成果将包括丰富的默示认识论描述，同时在不同的背景下提示和响应知识产品，从行为中推断教师认识论的分析方法，以及项目团队定性方法技能的发展。首席研究员将通过研讨会、演讲和研究出版物分享研究成果。导师和三位认识论学习专家顾问委员会成员将评估项目的成功与否。该项目由美国国家科学基金会EHR STEM教育研究核心研究能力建设项目（ECR: BCSER）支持，该项目旨在培养研究人员开展高质量STEM教育研究的能力。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。

To prepare learners to productively use scientific knowledge as they navigate life, science courses must develop students’ understandings of what it means to know and learn science (i.e., their epistemologies). This project aims to serve the national interest by developing a researcher’s skills to conduct fundamental chemistry education research that investigates both instructors’ and students’ epistemologies in the context of organic chemistry courses. Studies indicates that instructors can send tacit messages about knowledge and knowing that shape the epistemologies students adopt. Thus, we need to better understand how science instructors can communicate the value of epistemologies useful in school and in life. This project assumes that epistemologies prevalent in science research laboratories (“doing science” epistemologies) have the potential to be more useful in life than epistemologies that are typical of science courses (“doing school”, such as memorizing facts and seeking a single correct answer to a problem). Thus, supporting instructors in activating "doing science" epistemologies in chemistry course examination contexts would be expected to lead to productive changes in learning environments. This project will map the epistemologies that shape instructors’ testing practices in organic chemistry courses. The project team will also explore ways to encourage instructors to adopt "doing science" epistemologies in course assessment scenarios. In the process of this work, the principal investigator will cultivate expertise in inferring tacit epistemological ideas from behavior via coursework and mentoring.This project will integrate research and professional development objectives to support the principal investigator in developing the qualitative methods skills needed to achieve his long-term goals. The project is directed toward modeling the epistemologies that shape how and why organic chemistry instructors prompt for and respond to knowledge products in research and teaching settings. Across three years, the research team will explore the enacted epistemologies of three organic chemistry instructors who represent different roles and epistemologies in a chemistry department. The team will conduct semi-structured interviews focused on how and why instructors prompt for and respond to students’ knowledge products on exams, record research group meetings, and attempt to tip instructors into adopting "doing science" epistemologies in the context of teaching tasks in an interview setting. Both thematic and case-study analysis of epistemologies enacted while "doing science" and "doing school" will be used to support claims about productive epistemological ideas instructors have for attending to student thinking as well as when and how these ideas are activated. Throughout the process of eliciting, interpreting, and drawing implications from qualitative data, the project team will be mentored by an expert on epistemology from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. The project team will have frequent meetings with the mentor to discuss targeted readings as well as progress and plans for the project. The PI will also complete coursework on qualitative methods. Project outcomes are expected to include rich descriptions of tacit epistemologies activated while prompting for and responding to knowledge products in different contexts, analytic methods for inferring instructors’ epistemologies from behavior, and development of the project team’s qualitative methods skills. The principal investigator will share findings via workshops, presentations, and research publications. The mentor and three- member advisory board of experts in epistemological learning will assess the success of the project. The project is supported by NSF's EHR Core Research Building Capacity in STEM Education Research (ECR: BCSER) program, which is designed to build investigators’ capacity to carry out high-quality STEM education research.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.