Department of Chemistry, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, United States of America.
Department of Physics, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2020 Jun 16;15(6):e0234640. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0234640. eCollection 2020.
The importance of improving STEM education is of perennial interest, and to this end, the education community needs ways to characterize transformation efforts. Three-dimensional learning (3DL) is one such approach to transformation, in which core ideas of the discipline, scientific practices, and crosscutting concepts are combined to support student development of disciplinary expertise. We have previously reported on an approach to the characterization of assessments, the Three-Dimensional Learning Assessment Protocol (3D-LAP), that can be used to identify whether assessments have the potential to engage students in 3DL. Here we present the development of a companion, the Three-Dimensional Learning Observation Protocol (3D-LOP), an observation protocol that can reliably distinguish between instruction that has potential for engagement with 3DL and instruction that does not. The 3D-LOP goes beyond other observation protocols, because it is intended not only to characterize the pedagogical approaches being used in the instructional environment, but also to identify whether students are being asked to engage with scientific practices, core ideas, and crosscutting concepts. We demonstrate herein that the 3D-LOP can be used reliably to code for the presence of 3DL; further, we present data that show the utility of the 3D-LOP in differentiating between instruction that has the potential to promote 3DL from instruction that does not. Our team plans to continue using this protocol to evaluate outcomes of instructional transformation projects. We also propose that the 3D-LOP can be used to support practitioners in developing curricular materials and selecting instructional strategies to promote engagement in three-dimensional instruction.
提高 STEM 教育的重要性是一个长期存在的问题，为此，教育界需要找到方法来描述转型工作。三维学习（3DL）就是一种转型方法，它将学科的核心思想、科学实践和跨学科概念结合起来，支持学生发展学科专业知识。我们之前曾报道过一种评估方法，即三维学习评估协议（3D-LAP），它可以用来确定评估是否有可能让学生参与三维学习。在这里，我们提出了一种配套的方法，即三维学习观察协议（3D-LOP），这是一种观察协议，可以可靠地区分具有潜在三维学习参与性的教学和没有潜在三维学习参与性的教学。3D-LOP 超越了其他观察协议，因为它不仅旨在描述教学环境中使用的教学方法，还旨在确定学生是否被要求参与科学实践、核心思想和跨学科概念。我们在此证明，3D-LOP 可以可靠地用于编码 3DL 的存在；此外，我们还提供了数据，表明 3D-LOP 可用于区分具有促进 3DL 潜力的教学和不具有促进 3DL 潜力的教学。我们的团队计划继续使用该协议来评估教学转型项目的结果。我们还提出，3D-LOP 可以用于支持从业者开发课程材料和选择教学策略，以促进参与三维教学。
