CAREER: Motivating Effective Strategies to Transform Student Learning

如何激励学生学习和使用有效的学习策略？这个问题之所以重要，不仅仅是因为有效的策略更有可能导致掌握和知识增长，还因为它们更有效地利用了学习者非常有限的时间。也就是说，我们的目标是赋予人们懂得如何学习的技能——这是一种终极的生活技能，在正规学校学习期间很有用，但在正规学校学习之后也很有用。对学习科学的研究已经积累了很多关于促进有效长期学习的认知过程（和教学活动）的见解。然而，学生们通常不使用这些策略。本研究的重点是整合对有效自我调节学习至关重要的三组核心心理成分：(1)支持参与困难方式的动机因素；(2)关于有效和无效学习策略的元认知知识；(3)支持或阻碍学生有效学习决策和行为的情境因素。研究活动不仅推动了理论的发展，而且产生了见解，为教师培训和课堂教学政策提供了信息，并提供了实用的、可实施的产品，以加强和维持教育成果。提出的研究路线解决了现有文献中的理论和语用差距——一个理论差距，在教育背景下连接学习过程的认知研究和动机的社会心理学研究，以及研究人员对有效学习的了解与学生认识到的有效策略和在学习时间中所做的工作之间的语用差距。本项目首先绘制出使用不同策略的促进因素和障碍，使用混合方法创建一个框架，详细说明驱动学生学习选择的元认知信念、动机和上下文因素之间的交叉动态。从这项工作的结果，然后纳入干预措施的发展，以激励有效的学习和课程参与。干预措施的快速迭代开发与学生和教师共同设计，然后在实际课程中实施和评估。这项工作不仅推进了动机和自我调节的跨学科理论框架，而且将这些理论应用到实际的教育环境中。鉴于有效的自我调节学习在高等教育中尤为重要，所有的研究都集中在本科学习情境上。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。

How can students be motivated to lean into and use effective learning strategies? The reason why this question is important is not just that effective strategies are more likely to lead to mastery and knowledge growth, but also because they are a more efficient use of learners’ very limited time. That is, the goal is to empower people with the skill of knowing how to learn—the ultimate life skill, useful during, but also beyond, formal schooling. Research on the science of learning has accumulated a lot of insight into the cognitive processes (and pedagogical activities) that foster effective long-term learning. And yet, students often do not use these strategies. The present proposal focuses on the integration of three core sets of psychological components important for effective self-regulated learning: (1) motivational factors to support engaging in difficult ways, (2) metacognitive knowledge about effective and ineffective strategies for learning, and (3) contextual factors that support or hinder students’ effective study decisions and behaviors. Research activities not only advance theory but result in insights that inform policies around teacher training and classroom pedagogies and practical, implementable products to bolster and sustain educational outcomes. The proposed line of research addresses both theoretical and pragmatic gaps in the existing literature—a theoretical gap that bridges cognitive research on learning processes and social-psychology research on motivation within the context of education, and a pragmatic gap between what researchers know about effective learning and what students recognize as effective strategies and do in their study time. This project first maps out the facilitators and barriers to using different strategies using a mixed-methods approach to create a framework detailing the intersecting dynamics between metacognitive beliefs, motivational and contextual factors that drive students’ study choices. Results from this work are then incorporated into the development of interventions to motivate effective studying and course engagement. Rapid iterative development of interventions are co-designed with students and instructors, and then implemented and evaluated in real courses. This work not only advances interdisciplinary theoretical frameworks of motivation and self-regulation, but also brings these theories to bear in real educational contexts. All studies focus on undergraduate learning contexts, given that the need for effective self-regulated learning is particularly important in higher-education.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.