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: 0618647
• 负责人: Mark Haugan
• 金额: $ 60万
• 依托单位: Purdue University
• 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 2011-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0618647&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.

在具有大型科学和工程课程的大学中，基于微积分的物理课程在教育大量将成为科学家和工程师的学生中起着核心作用。尽管物理学界一再呼吁改进和现代化此入门物理学课程，但在过去的五十年中，最多大型机构教授的传统课程的内容和结构发生了很小的变化。尽管科学和工程大学在设定其他机构教授的课程，介绍课程的大量注册以及大量研究教师和学术支持人员的参与方面经常发挥主导作用，使其难以实施实质课程变化。最近，三所大型大学（NC State，Purdue和Georgia Tech）已经开始实施问题和互动课程的过程，该课程最初是在卡内基·梅隆大学（Carnegie Mellon University）开发的。物理学被整合为课程的核心部分，其中强调并将一小部分基本原理用作所有分析的起点，其中计算是该课程不可或缺的一部分。该项目中的合作工作着重于促进实施并扩大传播基础，涉及创建支持基础设施和活动，研究和记录使课程在不同机构中良好工作所必需的更改和适应性，以评估这一点的影响学生和教师的课程，并为学生使用的教学材料进行进一步的改进。研讨会和工作组会议最初将涉及三个机构的参与者；在随后的几年中，来自其他感兴趣的机构的团队正在参与。智能优点：该项目的研发重点是详细记录和研究出现的问题，以及在不同大型大型大型大型大型大型改革课程中所必需的适应和自定义机构。 该项目还在本课程的背景下研究学生学习，并在教学材料本身中识别和补救缺陷。在这种规模上记录传播过程可以为未来的大规模内容改革提供依据，无论是物理科学和工程学科中的。现有的物理教育研究机构并不涵盖本新课程中需要的一些中心概念和技能学生，因此对学生学习的持续研究也很重要。全国知名的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观点。Broader的影响：以前的尝试改革了基于大学级的演算的物理学课程的内容和重点是长期和广泛的。制度化，尽管教科书的内容卓越，例如Feynman演讲和伯克利物理系列。当代概念和模型的重要性现在比过去更明显，因为科学和工程专业的学生需要这种背景来处理当代问题，例如设计新导电材料的设计；快速，高密度数据存储和检索；新的通信技术；纳米科学和纳米技术；以及非常复杂的系统的计算机建模，包括气候和地球物理现象。 NC State，Purdue和Georgia Tech是具有强大科学和工程计划的大型且高度可见的大学。在这些机构中有效实施创新的课程可以激发其他大型机构考虑类似的改革。较小的机构可能不需要利用该项目开发的所有材料和结构，但是许多工作都在生产材料和方法，在较小规模的教学的机构中也有用。