Assessing the changes in the brain representations of individual STEM concepts in the course of learning

评估学习过程中各个 STEM 概念的大脑表征的变化

• 批准号: 1748897
• 负责人: Robert Mason
• 金额: $ 54.94万
• 依托单位: Carnegie-Mellon University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-09-01 至 2022-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1748897&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Assessing; changes; brain; representations; individual

Discovering how STEM concepts are represented in the brain will allow us to both assess student learning of science and to teach STEM concepts more effectively. This project makes use of previous work by the investigators that demonstrated the remarkable new ability to determine the neural correlates (brain signature) of an individual concept, using fMRI brain imaging. Knowing the brain signature of physics concepts like gravity and velocity makes it possible to observe how the brain representations develop in a learner's brain, how they are organized, and how they depend on that person's learning background and on the teaching method. If we know the brain's way of organizing STEM concept knowledge, we can design curricula that teach to that organizational system and measure student learning at the brain level. This approach will not replace conventional tests, but it will provide a new type of basis for those tests such that they can assess alternative instructional methods. The investigators had previously shown that neural signatures can be decomposed into meaningful underlying dimensions that are remarkably similar across people, making it possible to precisely compare the neural representations of student learners to the representations of instructors or of other successful learners. What has not been attempted before, and is the major goal of this project, is relating the neural signatures of concept learning to various learning outcomes. Behavioral tests will assess the students? acquisition of the concepts and fMRI scans will assess the acquisition of the concomitant brain representations of the individual concepts. The students' neural representations will be analyzed for their intrinsic integrity, measured by a machine learning classifier's accuracy in identifying a concept from its fMRI signature. These will be compared to the neural representations of people with demonstrated mastery of the concepts (such as advanced students and the class instructors). Additionally, the project will assess changes in brain tissues (gray and white matter) that co-occur with concept learning, as well as changes in synchronization (functional connectivity) between brain regions involved in the concept representations. A central contribution of this project will be a brain-based understanding of how individual scientific concepts are learned and how this learning can be related to behavioral measures and individual differences. The long-term goal is to build the foundation for neuroscience findings to inform teaching techniques and assessments, and as inspiration for additional strategies to promote successful learning in both the general student population and students at risk for failure.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.

发现在大脑中如何表示STEM概念将使我们既可以评估学生学习科学的学习，又可以更有效地教授STEM概念。该项目利用了调查人员的先前工作，这些工作证明了使用fMRI脑成像确定单个概念的神经相关性（大脑签名）的非凡新能力。了解重力和速度等物理学概念的大脑签名使观察大脑表示如何在学习者的大脑中发展，他们的组织方式以及它们如何依赖该人的学习背景以及教学方法。如果我们知道大脑组织STEM概念知识的方式，我们可以设计为组织系统教授的课程，并在大脑层面上测量学生的学习。这种方法将无法替代常规测试，但是它将为这些测试提供新的基础，以便它们可以评估替代的教学方法。 研究人员先前表明，神经签名可以分解为有意义的基本维度，这些维度在整个人之间非常相似，因此可以精确地将学生学习者的神经表现与教师或其他成功学习者的表现进行比较。以前从未尝试过，并且是该项目的主要目标，就是将概念学习的神经签名与各种学习成果联系起来。 行为测试会评估学生吗？对概念和功能磁共振成像扫描的获取将评估对单个概念伴随的大脑表示的获取。 将根据机器学习分类器从其fMRI签名中识别概念的准确性来衡量学生的内在完整性。 这些将与表现出掌握这些概念的人的神经表现形式（例如高级学生和班级讲师）进行比较。此外，该项目将评估与概念学习共同发生的脑组织（灰质和白质）的变化，以及概念表示中涉及的大脑区域之间同步（功能连通性）的变化。该项目的核心贡献将是对如何学习单个科学概念以及该学习如何与行为措施和个体差异相关的理解。 长期目标是为神经科学发现建立基础，以告知教学技术和评估，并为促进在普通学生人群和处于失败风险的学生中促进成功学习的其他策略的灵感。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是通过基金会的智力和更广泛的影响来通过评估来审查CRITERIA的智力和更广泛的影响。