Discipline-Based Education Research Understanding and Improving Learning in Undergraduate Science and Engineering (2012) / Chapter Skim
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3 Overview of Discipline-Based Education Research
3 Overview of Discipline-Based Education Research
Pages 45-56
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SCOPE AND FOCUS Across the fields of DBER, broad-level learning goals drive instruction and the concomitant research on instruction. The different disciplines of science and engineering continue to clarify goals regarding core ideas, crosscutting concepts, and science and engineering practices.
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As a result of this shift, current physics education research addresses the following topics: • characterizing students with respect to conceptual knowledge, problem solving, use of representations, attitudes toward physics and toward learning more broadly, knowledge of scientific pro cesses, and knowledge transfer; • defining goals for physics instruction based on rates of student learning, needs for future learning, transfer, or population diversity; • developing curricular materials and pedagogies to facilitate concep tual change, improve problem-solving skills and the use of repre sentations, improve attitudes toward physics and general learning, or provide experiences with the practices of science; • investigating how students and instructors use curricular materi als and pedagogies such as textbooks, problems, group work, or electronic feedback;
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. Engineering Education Research Guided by the ABET accreditation criteria (ABET, 2009)
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Engineers pursue solutions to problems or improvements in the current state of the art, and engineering education researchers do the same. In aeronautical engineering courses, for example, prototypes such as sailplanes are used to demonstrate conceptual understanding, higher order thinking skills, and other dimensions of learning (Hansen, Long, and Dellert, 2002)
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Thus, a current challenge for biology education researchers is to identify instructional approaches that can help overcome the math phobia of many biology students and introduce more quantitative skills into the introductory curriculum, as computational biology and other mathematical approaches become more central to the field of biology (National Research Council, 2003)
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For example, astronomy is a quantitative science conducted by scholars with formal training in quantitative scientific methods, and the early history of astronomy education research was similarly dominated by quantitative research. Only recently has astronomy education begun to address questions similar to those pursued in the behavioral and social sciences, including questions that are best answered with qualitative methods (Bailey, Slater, and Slater, 2010)
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Conducting and interpreting research in introductory courses poses a number of challenges. A particular challenge in introductory biology courses is the breadth of the various divergent biology subfields, which further encourages broad, shallow introductory surveys of the discipline and hampers development of conceptual assessments that measure general biological knowledge across subfields of biology.
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. Some DBER studies on collaborative learning are also influenced to varying degrees by sociocultural learning perspectives, which argue that students generate meaning and understanding by interacting in groups that share a common interest and learn together (Lave and Wenger, 1991)
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These efforts were designed to make the ABET criteria actionable and ground them in broader research. The coalition used Bloom's taxonomy of learning domains to develop a conceptual map linking ABET student learning criteria with learning objectives in the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains; assessments of those objectives; theories of cognition; and instructional approaches (see McGourty, Scoles, and Thorpe, 2002)
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At a time when the undergraduate population is becoming increasingly socially, economically, and ethnically diverse, a rich opportunity exists to enhance the understanding of the learning experiences of different groups. In a related vein, DBER could paint a more complete picture of undergraduate learning by taking into account differences among majors and nonmajors in introductory courses and structural differences among introductory courses, service courses for majors in other disciplines, and courses for majors.
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Our synthesis draws on relevant theoretical frameworks and findings from those disciplines to explain, extend, and contextualize DBER, while highlighting DBER's unique contribution of deep disciplinary knowledge to the understanding of these topics. In reading Chapters 4 through 7, it is important to keep in mind that the nature of engineering and engineering education, combined with the strong influence of the ABET accreditation criteria on engineering education research, distinguish engineering education research from the other disciplines in this study.
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3) Applicable Sections of the Report A: Ability to apply knowledge of Conceptual Understanding and Conceptual mathematics, science, and engineering Change (Ch.
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