Collaborative Research: Institutionalizing a Reform Curriculum in Large Universities

合作研究：将大型大学的改革课程制度化

• 批准号: 0618519
• 负责人: Michael Schatz
• 金额: $ 40万
• 依托单位: Georgia Tech Research Corporation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-10-01 至 2010-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0618519&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Institutionalizing; Reform; Curriculum

In universities with large science and engineering programs, the introductory calculus-based physics course plays a central role in the education of very large numbers of students who will become scientists and engineers. Despite repeated calls from the physics community for improvement and modernization of this introductory physics course, the content and structure of the traditional course taught at most such large institutions has changed very little in the past fifty years. Although science and engineering universities often play a lead role in setting the standards for courses taught at other institutions, the large enrollment in their introductory courses, and the involvement of a large number of research faculty and academic support staff, has made it difficult to implement substantive curricular changes. Recently three large universities (NC State, Purdue, and Georgia Tech) have begun the process of implementing the Matter & Interactions curriculum, which was initially developed at Carnegie Mellon University.Matter & Interactions is a calculus-based introductory physics curriculum in which twentieth century physics is integrated as a central part of the curriculum, in which a small set of fundamental principles are emphasized and used as the starting point for all analyses, and in which computation is an integral part of the course. The collaborative work in this project, focused on facilitating the implementation and on widening the base of dissemination, involves creating supporting infrastructure and activities, studying and documenting the changes and adaptations necessary to make the curriculum work well at different institutions, assessing the impact of this curriculum on both students and faculty, and working on further improvements to the instructional materials used by students. Workshops and working group meetings will initially involve participants from the three institutions; in subsequent years teams from other interested institutions are participating.Intellectual Merit: Research and development in this project focuses on documenting and studying in detail the issues that arise, as well as carrying out the adaptation and customization necessary to implementing a reform curriculum at different large institutions. The project is also studying student learning in the context of this curriculum, and identifying and remedying deficiencies in the instructional materials themselves. Documenting the process of dissemination on this scale can inform future large-scale content reforms, both in physics or in other physical science and engineering disciplines. The existing body of research in physics education does not cover some of the central concepts and skills students in this new curriculum need to acquire, so that continued research on student learning is also important. The involvement of nationally known cognitive scientists brings important expertise and a different perspective to this research.Broader Impact: None of the previous attempts to reform the content and emphasis of the introductory university-level calculus-based physics course have achieved long-term and broad institutionalization, despite the excellence of the content of textbooks such as the Feynman Lectures and the Berkeley Physics series. The importance of contemporary concepts and models is even more marked now than it was in the past, because science and engineering students need this background to work on contemporary problems such as the design of new conducting materials; fast, high density data storage and retrieval; new communication technologies; nanoscience and nanotechnology; and computer modeling of extremely complex systems, including climate and geophysical phenomena. NC State, Purdue, and Georgia Tech are large and highly visible universities with strong science and engineering programs. Effective implementation of an innovative curriculum at these institutions can inspire other large institutions to consider similar reforms. Smaller institutions may not need to make use of all of the materials and structures developed by this project, but much of the work is producing materials and methods also useful in institutions in which teaching is done on a smaller scale.

在拥有大型科学和工程项目的大学中，基于微积分的物理导论课程在培养大量学生成为科学家和工程师方面发挥着核心作用。尽管物理学界一再呼吁改进和现代化这门物理入门课程，但大多数此类大型机构教授的传统课程的内容和结构在过去五十年中几乎没有变化。尽管理工科大学通常在制定其他机构教授的课程标准方面发挥主导作用，但其入门课程的大量招生以及大量研究人员和学术支持人员的参与，导致实施起来困难重重。实质性课程变化。最近，三所大型大学（北卡罗来纳州立大学、普渡大学和佐治亚理工学院）开始实施物质与相互作用课程，该课程最初是在卡内基梅隆大学开发的。物质与相互作用是一门基于微积分的入门物理课程，其中二十世纪物理学被整合为课程的核心部分，其中强调了一小部分基本原理并将其用作所有分析的起点，并且计算是课程的组成部分。该项目的协作工作重点是促进实施和扩大传播基础，包括创建支持性基础设施和活动、研究和记录使课程在不同机构良好运行所需的变化和调整、评估该课程的影响课程，并致力于进一步改进学生使用的教学材料。讲习班和工作组会议最初将有来自三个机构的参与者参加；在随后的几年中，来自其他感兴趣机构的团队也参与其中。 智力优势：该项目的研究和开发重点是详细记录和研究出现的问题，以及进行在不同规模实施改革课程所需的调整和定制机构。 该项目还研究学生在本课程背景下的学习情况，并找出并纠正教学材料本身的缺陷。记录如此规模的传播过程可以为未来的大规模内容改革提供信息，无论是在物理学还是在其他物理科学和工程学科中。现有的物理教育研究并未涵盖学生在新课程中需要掌握的一些核心概念和技能，因此对学生学习的持续研究也很重要。全国知名认知科学家的参与为这项研究带来了重要的专业知识和不同的视角。 更广泛的影响：之前对大学水平微积分物理入门课程的内容和重点进行改革的尝试都没有取得长期和广泛的成果尽管《费曼讲座》和《伯克利物理系列》等教科书的内容非常出色，但它已经制度化了。当代概念和模型的重要性现在比过去更加明显，因为理工科学生需要这种背景来解决当代问题，例如新型导电材料的设计；快速、高密度的数据存储和检索；新的通讯技术；纳米科学和纳米技术；以及极其复杂系统的计算机建模，包括气候和地球物理现象。北卡罗来纳州立大学、普渡大学和佐治亚理工学院都是大型且知名度高的大学，拥有强大的科学和工程课程。在这些机构有效实施创新课程可以激励其他大型机构考虑类似的改革。较小的机构可能不需要使用该项目开发的所有材料和结构，但大部分工作是制作对小规模教学机构也有用的材料和方法。