CAREER: Shared Scientific Sense-Making and Bilingual Student Advancement in Science: Linking Family and School Learning Through Informal Learning Research

这项职业资助将研究和教学交织在一起，重点是了解社会团体如何在不同的学习环境(如教室、博物馆和家庭)的科学对话中构建意义。这项工作将被转化为正式的教育环境，并用于为职前大学和在职学区环境中的教学实践提供信息。研究和教育的重点将是在不同环境下的社会学习和在正式和非正式学习机构之间建立机会走廊之间建立概念上的联系。迄今为止，很少有人在非正式学习环境中对文化和语言少数群体的家庭，如拉丁裔家庭进行研究，几乎没有人将正式和非正式学习结合在一起，或影响教学。这个为期五年的项目将：1.进行研究1，旨在对蒙特利湾水族馆的家庭对话意义进行基本的跨文化比较，并将这项工作与家庭访谈、反思性对话和走访家庭联系起来；2.审查理论框架，进行研究2，其中将纳入研究1的经验教训，并将这项研究与正式课堂联系起来；3.(在每个阶段)利用研究结果为加州大学本科生(理科专业)和研究生(理科证书、硕士和博士)的教学实践提供信息。这项研究计划提供了一个机会来观察几种相互关联的机制，包括家庭互动和对话、引人入胜的科学内容、博物馆环境中的自然主义学习，以及最后，分析这些因素，以便为促进双语少数族裔学生达到科学家级别的教学实践提供信息。

This CAREER grant interweaves research and teaching focused on understanding how social groups construct meaning during scientific conversations across different learning contexts, such as classrooms, museums and the home. This work will be translated into formal educational settings and used to inform teaching practices within pre-service University and in-service school district settings. The research and educational emphasis will be on creating conceptual links between social learning in diverse settings and the creation of corridors of opportunity between formal and informal learning institutions.To date there has been little research with families from cultural and linguistic minority populations, such as Latino families, at informal learning settings and virtually none that integrates formal and informal learning, or impacts teaching. The five-year project will:1. Conduct Study 1, aimed at making fundamental cross-cultural comparisons of family conversational meaning making at the Monterey Bay Aquarium and linking this work with family interviews, reflective conversations and visits to family homes;2. Review the theoretical framework and conduct Study 2, which will incorporate lessons learned from Study 1, and linking this research to formal classrooms; and 3. Use the findings (at each stage) to inform teaching practice with UCSC undergraduate (Science majors) and graduate (Science credential, MA and Ph.D.) students, and, in collaboration with teacher research groups for new and experienced teacher in schools that serve predominantly Latino students.This research plan provides an opportunity for viewing several inter-connected mechanisms, including family interactions and conversations, compelling science content, naturalistic learning in museum settings, and, finally, analyzing these factors in order to inform teaching practices that promote bilingual minority students to the rank of scientists.