STEM Guides: professional brokers in rural STEM ecosystems
STEM Guides: professional brokers in rural STEM ecosystems
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STEM 指南：农村 STEM 生态系统中的专业经纪人
DOI：
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发表时间：
2019
期刊：
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通讯作者：
Scott Byrd
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文献类型：
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作者：
S. Allen;Kate Kastelein;J. Mokros;J. Atkinson;Scott Byrd
摘要 我们描述了一项由 NSF 资助的为期五年的实验计划的研究和开发，该计划旨在加强五个农村社区青少年的非正式（校外）STEM 学习。该模型的核心组成部分是一群被称为“STEM 指南”的社区成员，他们被聘为年轻人和他们可能获得的 STEM 学习资源之间的经纪人。这些 STEM 指南都是受人尊敬的成年人，他们与年轻人有可靠的联系、灵活的日程安排、能够在社区内出差，并且热衷于寻找当地的 STEM 资源。这些指南得到了一家教育研究与发展非营利组织的项目工作人员的培训和支持，该组织的研究人员研究了这些指南多年来的经验，反思了他们如何支持青少年在校外追求 STEM 的方法。该项目的不同寻常之处在于，它培养了嵌入式农村居民，让他们在邻近几个城镇的地区担任 10 至 18 岁青少年的专业经纪人角色，而不是依靠父母或老师机会主义地为自己的青少年提供这种联系。本文从生态系统的角度出发，重点介绍了这些 STEM 经纪人在试图促进社区中年轻人的联系时所面临的一些机遇和挑战。
ABSTRACT We describe the research and development of an NSF-funded, five-year experimental program to strengthen informal (out-of-school) STEM learning by youth in five rural communities. The central component of the model was a cadre of community members known as ‘STEM Guides’ who were hired to work as brokers between youth and the STEM learning resources potentially available to them. These STEM Guides were respected adults with credible connections to youth, flexible schedules, the ability to travel within the community, and enthusiasm for identifying local STEM resources. The Guides were trained and supported by the project staff of an educational research and development non-profit, whose researchers studied the Guides’ experiences over several years as they reflected on the ways they could support youth to pursue STEM outside of school. This project was unusual in developing embedded rural residents to take a professional brokering role with youth aged 10–18 throughout a region of several neighbouring towns, instead of relying on parents or teachers to provide such connections opportunistically and only for their own youth. Taking an ecosystems perspective, this article highlights some of the opportunities and challenges these STEM brokers faced as they tried to catalyze connections for youth in their communities.