Modeling Epistemological Messaging in College Science Courses

University Of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison WI

Investigators

Abstract

Some undergraduate students approach science learning as memorizing facts and formulas so they can pass examinations and courses. However, research shows that students' learning is deeper and more meaningful when science is approached as making sense of the world using broader concepts and practices of science. As such, improving student learning can involve changing students' understandings of what science learning entails. This project will seek to identify how different aspects of college science courses influence students' views of knowing and learning in science. Doing so is expected to provide college science instructors with ideas for how to change their courses to shift students toward viewing science as a useful way to make sense of the world, potentially leading to enhanced college science learning. This project seeks to build a mechanistic model for how students' epistemological understandings develop over the course of a semester. Specifically, the research team will unpack the epistemological landscape of three elements of undergraduate science courses – the instruction, the curriculum, and the assessments - to study how these elements affect students' views of knowledge and learning in science. The investigations will address the research questions: 1) Where and how are messages about valued knowledge products and processes embedded in undergraduate science courses? and 2) How do students experience and interact with these epistemological messages embedded in course systems? Across the three years of the project, these questions will be explored in the context of two college science courses: a large-enrollment general chemistry course at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and a small-enrollment introductory, conceptual physics course offered at a minimum-security state correctional institution. Very different course contexts were selected to examine whether the approach to modeling epistemological messaging is sufficiently robust and nuanced to be used in a range of settings. Three different types of data will be collected that each provide access to a part of the course system. First, all student-facing course materials will be collected including both formal artifacts such as syllabi and assessments as well as informal artifacts such as instructor communications. Second, multiple class sessions and small-group interactions across the semester will be recorded. Third, regular semi-structured interviews will be conducted with students to tap their in-the-moment reasoning about epistemologies embedded in the first two data sources. Both thematic and case-study analysis of epistemological messages will be conducted to identify consequential sources of messaging in undergraduate science courses as well as to model how students negotiate and respond to those messages across the semester. This project has the potential to advance theoretical understandings of the source and character of signals sent about valued knowledge products and processes in science and how those signals may combine to affect students' epistemologies. This work is also expected to provide insight into which components of course systems can be reformed to have maximal impact on student epistemological outcomes. 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.