EXP: Understanding the Transformative Potential of Spoken Assessments of Science Understanding for Young Learners

这项探索性的建议解决了新科学框架中的一个重要目标，也是NRC报告中先前强调的一个目标：“把科学带到学校：在K-8年级学习和教授科学”。该项目的目标是教授和学习科学论证、解释的规范，以及对科学论述中生产性参与的证据进行评估，从早期年级开始。调查人员断言，即使一些学生阅读不好，但他们可能有重大的科学理解，除非开发出其他评估方法，如口头评估，否则这些理解将得不到承认。由教学机构进行的口头评估可以引起学生的解释，并让他们进行认真的对话，是人类口头评估的替代。该项目有两个目标：1)评估将口头提示纳入书面评估的好处；2)调查学生与虚拟或真人教师之间的口头对话，测试他们是否能够对科学理解以及用语言表达完整和准确的科学解释的能力进行详细和准确的评估。该项目的场地是博尔德谷学区的中低水平学校及其面向少数语言学生的科学夏令营计划。自由/开源软件、全选项科学系统、10万多名教师和200万学生使用的课程以及自由/开源软件总结性提问评估将用于课程和衡量学习情况。这项工作建立在My Science Tutor(MyST)的同一团队早期成功开发的基础上，My Science Tutor(MyST)是一个智能辅导系统，通过与多媒体环境中的虚拟科学导师Marni的口头对话，改善三、四、五年级学生的科学学习。基础科学也将是这个项目的内容领域。参与的主要组织是博尔德语言技术公司、博尔德山谷学区和科罗拉多大学。预计这些探索性研究将表明，替代评估形式是可行的，应该更广泛地使用，以提高语言少数民族学生和一般小学生的成绩水平。评估将包括外部专家审查和定期批评审查项目？S的方法和进展，分析程序，以及将数据解释为发现。拟议的研究将扩大可供早期年级学生，特别是那些阅读和写作能力较差的学生和英语学习者使用的评估条件的选择。该项目将扩大能够展示他们对科学的知识和理解的学生群体，以满足扩大从事科学学习的学生群体的迫切需要。

This exploratory proposal addresses a significant goal in the New Science Framework and one that was previously highlighted in the NRC report: "Taking Science to School: Learning and Teaching Science in Grades K-8". The goal of the project is the teaching and learning of the norms of scientific argument, explanation, and the evaluation of evidence for productive participation in the discourses of science, starting in the early grades. The investigators assert that even though some students do not read well, there may be significant scientific understanding which will go unrecognized unless alternative methods of evaluation are developed such as oral assessments. Oral assessments by pedagogical agents which can elicit explanations from students and engage them in serious dialog are an alternate to oral assessments by humans. The project has two goals: 1) assess the benefits of incorporating spoken prompts into written assessments, and 2) investigate spoken dialogs between a student and a virtual or human teacher testing if they can produce detailed and accurate assessments of science understanding as well as the ability to verbalize complete and accurate science explanations. The site for this project is the Boulder Valley School District's low and mid-performing schools and its Summer Science Camp program for language-minority students. FOSS, the Full Option Science System, a curriculum used by over 100,000 teachers and 2 million students, and the FOSS Summative ASK assessments will be used for the curriculum and to measure learning. This effort builds on an earlier successful development by the same team of My Science Tutor (MyST), an intelligent tutoring system to improve science learning by third, fourth, and fifth grade students through spoken dialogs with Marni, a virtual science tutor in multimedia environments. Elementary science will be the content area for this project as well. Primary organizations involved are Boulder Language Technologies, the Boulder Valley School District, and the University of Colorado. It is expected that these exploratory studies will show that alternative forms of assessment are feasible and should be used more widely to raise the achievement level of both language-minority students and elementary students in general. The evaluation will include an external expert review and regular critical review of the project?s methods and progress, analysis procedures, and interpretation of data into findings.The proposed studies will expand the options of assessment conditions available for students in early grades, particularly those who are weak readers and writers and English language learners. The project will expand the pool of students who can demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of science, addressing a critical need to expand the pool of students engaged in science learning.