Investigating Deliberative Argumentation in Large-Lecture Biology

研究大型讲座生物学中的审议性论证

• 批准号: 1822490
• 负责人: Erika Offerdahl
• 金额: $ 29.88万
• 依托单位: Washington State 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: 2018-10-01 至 2023-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1822490&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Investigating; Deliberative; Argumentation; Large; Lecture

Modern biology research rapidly generates new and complex expansive information. This flux of new knowledge makes it impossible to teach a complete body of knowledge to future biologists, much less to educate an informed public about biology. Instead, modern biology instruction increasingly emphasizes teaching of scientific practices, such as interpreting data and arguing from evidence. These topics have long been the purview of laboratory biology courses. However, embedding them into large introductory lecture courses has the potential to reach more students, especially those who enroll in the introductory courses to fulfill general education requirements and those taking their first science classes as they prepare to enter a STEM major. This project will develop approaches and measures to incorporate deliberative argumentation into large-lecture biology classes. Deliberative argumentation emphasizes collaborative approaches and active searches for alternative explanations, which are practices that are widely used by research scientists. Teaching students to take part in these practices lets them "think like a scientist" and encourages them to stick with science as a college major and to consider a career in a STEM field. Large introductory lecture courses often serve as gatekeeper courses, with high failure rates that discourage students from continuing in STEM majors. Even more troubling is that failure rates in these classes are often disproportionately high for underrepresented minority students. Incorporating deliberative argumentation into these classes is a strategy to help students develop a conceptual understanding of the topics that they study, which may in turn help students to earn better grades and pass the course, providing motivation to stick with a STEM major. Promoting practices in the classroom that improve the teaching and learning of science can help to retain students in STEM, which supports the national interest of developing an informed citizenry and building a larger scientific workforce.The goal of this three-year Exploration and Design project is to increase knowledge about how the rhetorical practices of scientists, specifically deliberative argumentation, can be implemented and leveraged for learning core concepts in large-lecture biology courses. Using Asterhan and Schwarz's argumentation-to-learn framework, the project will focus on individual characteristics of students (i.e. content knowledge and skills necessary to productively engage in argumentation), argumentation task design, and supports (i.e. teacher scaffolds and discourse instructions). The project is designed to determine how deliberative argumentation should be structured in large-lecture biology to support student learning by accomplishing four aims: 1) Optimize pre-class activities to support deliberative argumentation; 2) Refine and demonstrate feasibility of in-class argumentation activities; 3) Develop and validate measures of deliberative argumentation; and 4) Pilot argumentation activities in large-lecture introductory undergraduate biology courses. In doing so, the proposed research will lay the foundation for future efficacy and effectiveness studies by establishing the feasibility and potential of an argumentation-for-learning approach in large-lecture introductory biology. Project personnel will adopt a quasi-experimental design to identify effective pre-class activities for preparing students for argumentation (Aim #1). An iterative design-based research (DBR) approach will be used to test and refine the design of argumentation sessions for large-lecture biology (Aim #2). The project intends to develop and validate a measure of deliberative argumentation (Aim #3) to inform the iterative argumentation session design. Project efforts will conclude with a pilot study, which will apply a repeated measures experimental design to determine the potential impact of the argumentation intervention (Aim #4). The proposed research will broaden understanding about "what works" in creating student-centered undergraduate large-lecture biology courses. Specifically, the project will generate evidence regarding the efficacy of two pre-class activities in preparing students for active learning instruction and to identify key instructional supports for argumentation-to-learn. The study is designed to advance knowledge in the field of argumentation by creating a robust and replicable measure of deliberative argumentation.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.

现代生物学研究迅速产生了新的和复杂的广泛信息。 这种新知识的通量使得不可能向未来的生物学家传授完整的知识，更不用说教育知情的关于生物学的知情。 取而代之的是，现代生物学教学越来越强调科学实践的教学，例如解释数据并从证据中争论。 这些主题长期以来一直是实验室生物学课程的权限。 但是，将它们嵌入大型入门讲座课程中有可能吸引更多的学生，尤其是那些参加入门课程的学生，以满足通识教育要求，以及那些准备进入STEM专业的第一届科学课程的学生。该项目将制定方法和措施，将审议论证纳入大型生物学类别。 审议论证强调协作方法和积极寻找替代解释，这是研究科学家广泛使用的实践。 教学学生参加这些实践，使他们“像科学家一样思考”，并鼓励他们坚持科学作为大学专业，并考虑在STEM领域的职业。 大型介绍性讲座课程通常是看门人课程，高失败率不鼓励学生继续进入STEM专业。 更令人不安的是，这些班级中的失败率对于代表性不足的少数族裔学生来说通常不成比例。 将审议的论证纳入这些课程是一种策略，旨在帮助学生对他们研究的主题有一种概念性的理解，这反过来又可以帮助学生获得更好的成绩并通过课程，从而提供了坚持STEM专业的动力。 在课堂上促进改善科学教学和学习的实践可以帮助将学生保留在STEM中，这支持了发展知情公民并建立更大的科学劳动力的国家利益。这个为期三年的探索和设计项目的目标是为了增加有关如何在大型生物学课程中学习核心概念的科学家（特别是审议论点）的修辞实践的知识。使用Asterhan和Schwarz的论证 - 学习框架，该项目将重点关注学生的个人特征（即有效地参与论证所必需的内容知识和技能），论证任务设计以及支持（即教师支架和话语指导）。该项目旨在确定应如何在大型生物学中构建审议论点，以通过完成四个目标来支持学生学习：1）优化前类活动以支持审议论证； 2）完善并证明了课堂论证活动的可行性； 3）制定和验证审议的措施； 4）大型教学本科生物学课程中的试点论证活动。在这样做的过程中，拟议的研究将通过在大型教学入门生物学中建立论证 - 学习方法的可行性和潜力来为未来的功效和有效性研究奠定基础。项目人员将采用准实验设计，以确定有效的课前活动，以为学生做好论证的准备（AIM＃1）。基于迭代设计的研究（DBR）方法将用于测试和完善大型生物学论证会议的设计（AIM＃2）。该项目旨在制定和验证一定的审议论点（AIM＃3），以告知迭代论证会议设计。项目努力将以一项试点研究结束，该研究将采用重复测量的实验设计来确定论证干预的潜在影响（AIM＃4）。拟议的研究将扩大人们对创建以学生为中心的本科生生物学课程的“有效的方法”的理解。具体而言，该项目将生成有关两种前活动在为学生准备积极学习教学和确定论证与学习的关键教学支持方面的疗效的证据。该研究旨在通过创建强大而可复制的审议论证来推进论证领域的知识。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响审查标准，被认为值得通过评估来支持。

项目成果

Splicing it together: using primary data to explore RNA splicing and gene expression in large-lecture introductory biology

• DOI: 10.24918/cs.2022.11
• 发表时间: 2022-01-01
• 期刊: CourseSource
• 作者: Arneson, JB.;Woodbury, J.;Offerdahl, EG.
• 通讯作者: Offerdahl, EG.

Garden Variety Mutations: Using Primary Data to Understand the Central Dogma in Large-Lecture Introductory Biology

普通品种突变：利用原始数据理解大型讲座生物学入门的中心法则

• DOI: 10.24918/cs.2022.43
• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: CourseSource
• 作者: Woodbury, Jacob;Arneson, Jessie B.;Anderson, Jacey;Collins, Larry;Cavagnetto, Andy;Davis, William;Offerdahl, Erika G.
• 通讯作者: Offerdahl, Erika G.