Project Grant 2225025

This National Science Foundation Project Grant of $346,505 supports research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to map the epistemologies that shape organic chemistry instructors' assessment practices and encourage the adoption of "doing science" epistemologies in course assessments. Funded through the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Education program under the Core Research: Building Capacity in STEM Education Research program, the project aims to develop the principal investigator's skills in conducting fundamental chemistry education research investigating instructors' and students' epistemologies in organic chemistry courses. Over three years, the research team will explore the enacted epistemologies of three organic chemistry instructors through interviews, observation of research group meetings, and attempting to prompt instructors to adopt "doing science" epistemologies in teaching tasks. Outcomes will include descriptions of tacit epistemologies activated in different contexts, methods for inferring instructors' epistemologies from behavior, and development of the team's qualitative research methods. Findings will be shared via workshops and publications. The award was effective October 1, 2022.