New Grant: EAGER Proposal for Research in Measurement and Modeling: Dynamic STEM Assessment through Epistemic Network Analysis

While previous efforts have focused on whether students master specific scientific facts, math skills, and so on, epistemic network analysis (ENA) will enable us to research whether and how students link the skills, knowledge, identity, and so forth learned in-game in a coherent way of thinking about complex STEM problems. In other words, we won’t just be studying if students can solve problems, but whether they are learning to solve problems in the manner of an engineer or other scientist.

ENA is a new conceptual and statistical approach to STEM learning, and a potentially revolutionary one. While developed in the context of epistemic games, ENA is an approach which can be used in any complex STEM situation where the connections between things learned are more important than the isolated pieces themselves.

The PI and Co-PI on this grant are Dr. David Shaffer and Dr. André Rupp.  The grant, for $300,000, will begin on January 1, 2010 through the National Science Foundation’s Division on Research in Learning in Formal and Informal Settings (DRL).  The summary of the grant proposal can be viewed here.