INSPIRE: Kreyol-based Cyberlearning for a New Perspective on the Teaching of STEM in local Languages

INSPIRE：基于 Kreyol 的网络学习为当地语言 STEM 教学提供新视角

• 批准号: 1248066
• 负责人: Michel DeGraff
• 金额: $ 100万
• 依托单位: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-01-01 至 2018-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1248066&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: INSPIRE; Kreyol; based; Cyberlearning; New

This INSPIRE award is partially funded by the Cyberlearning: Transforming Education program in the Division of Information and Intelligent Systems (IIS) in Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE), the Research and Evaluation on Education in Science and Engineering (REESE) program in the Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Environments (DRL) in Education and Human Resources (EHR), and the Linguistics program in the Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences (BCS) in Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE). This project addresses the issue of how to help those whose mother tongue is a language that does not include scientific and technological terminology to nonetheless learn STEM content and practices well. While research in linguistics and on how people learn suggests that learning in one's native language will promote deeper learning than learning in another language, no research has specifically been done around this question when the native language does not include scientific and technological terminology.The focus of this project is on the creation and innovative uses of Open Education Resources (OER) for STEM learning at the post-secondary level with Haitian Creole (Kreyol) as the language of instruction. As part of their work, the PI and his team are creating a set of Haitian Creole-based, technology-enabled active-learning resources for STEM higher education in Haiti. Haitian public policy is to teach in French, a distinct disadvantage for the Kreyol-speaking public. In addition, there are few materials, and almost no on-line materials, available in Kreyol that can serve as resources. Interactive materials and resources created at MIT (STAR; Software Tools for Academics and Researchers) are being translated into Kreyol and embedded within the active-learning framework for learning science and engineering created by and used successfully in large classes at MIT (TEAL; Technology-Enabled Active Learning). Professional development materials for TEAL are being translated into Kreyol as part of the project, and Haitian teachers are learning to use an active-learning approach. A variety of fundamental research questions are being addressed, pertaining to (i) the effects, impacts, and challenges of creating opportunities to learn in one's mother tongue, especially when it does not already contain relevant vocabulary (ii) the creation and diffusion of scientific and technical vocabulary in languages without technical words, called "language engineering", (iii) technical and socio-technical issues in adapting and incorporating learning technologies into the learning environments of underserved populations.The proposed project crosses goals of NSF programs in linguistics, education, and cyberlearning but does not fit directly into any existing NSF programs. With respect to linguistics, the project makes systematic use of Kreyol in the production of materials and includes substantial language engineering. As such, it is a translational linguistics project, putting knowledge about language structure to work in ways that may raise fundamental new questions for linguistics research. With respect to STEM education, the proposed project promotes large-scale adoptions of proven educational innovations, and its approach (systematic use of the language of discourse of a community) is quite different from other scale-up and dissemination projects. With respect to cyberlearning, the proposed work aims to study impacts of available educational software and other resources on learning and extend the reach of existing well-designed learning technologies. The infrastructure that will be set up may very well provide other researchers opportunities to learn more about personalizing learning for specialized populations. This project aims to bring together what is known across disciplines for positive societal change. In Haiti and other parts of the "Global South," education is offered only in the language of previous colonial powers rather than in the native language of the population. Because the colonial language is not the mother tongue of either teachers or students, most of the population are at a huge disadvantage with respect to STEM learning. This, in turn, contributes to perpetuating the poverty and lack of economic development in these countries. Two hypotheses form the foundation for this project: (1) Better science, technology, engineering, and math education in under-developed countries will lead to better economic development. (2) Education in the language of the community will qualitatively and transformationally improve learning. The investigators are therefore bringing together what is known across the fields of linguistics, education, and learning technologies to develop effective educational materials in the mother tongue of Haitian students and to help teachers learn up-to-date active-learning methodologies for teaching STEM subjects. They are studying the effects of these materials and approaches and learning how to design and integrate such materials into the learning environment and broader cultural environment of the learners. The project is being carried out across a variety of post-secondary institutions. Potential broader and transformational impacts include improved economic development in countries in the "Global South" and perhaps a paradigm shift in thinking about the role of local languages in STEM education. Such a paradigm shift could lead to improved access to education for all, both in countries where the spoken language is not a language with scientific and technical vocabularies and in developed countries where some of the population (e.g., refugees and new immigrants) do not yet speak the language of the country well.

INSPIRE奖部分由网络学习资助：计算机与信息科学与工程（CISE）信息与智能系统（IIS）部门的教育转型项目，教育与人力资源（EHR）正式和非正式环境学习研究（DRL）部门的科学与工程教育研究与评估（REESE）项目，以及社会、行为和经济科学（SBE）行为与认知科学（BCS）部门的语言学项目。本项目旨在解决如何帮助那些母语不包含科学技术术语的学生学好STEM内容和实践的问题。虽然语言学和人们如何学习的研究表明，用母语学习比用另一种语言学习能促进更深层次的学习，但当母语不包括科学和技术术语时，没有专门针对这个问题进行研究。该项目的重点是创建和创新使用开放教育资源（OER），以海地克里奥尔语（Kreyol）为教学语言，用于高等教育阶段的STEM学习。作为他们工作的一部分，PI和他的团队正在为海地的STEM高等教育创建一套基于海地克里奥尔语的、技术支持的主动学习资源。海地的公共政策是用法语教学，这对讲克雷约尔语的公众来说是一个明显的劣势。此外，在Kreyol中很少有材料，几乎没有在线材料可以作为资源。麻省理工学院创建的互动材料和资源（STAR；学者和研究人员的软件工具）正在被翻译成Kreyol，并嵌入在麻省理工学院大班创建并成功使用的主动学习框架中。作为项目的一部分，正在将TEAL的专业发展材料翻译成克雷约尔语，海地教师正在学习使用主动学习方法。各种基础研究问题正在得到解决，这些问题涉及(1)创造用母语学习的机会的效果、影响和挑战，特别是在母语尚未包含相关词汇的情况下；(2)在没有技术词汇的语言中创造和传播科学和技术词汇，称为“语言工程”；（三）使学习技术适应和纳入服务不足人口的学习环境方面的技术和社会技术问题。拟议的项目跨越了NSF在语言学、教育和网络学习方面的项目目标，但并不直接适合任何现有的NSF项目。在语言学方面，该项目在材料生产中系统地使用了Kreyol，并包括大量的语言工程。因此，这是一个翻译语言学项目，将语言结构的知识运用到语言学研究中，可能会提出根本性的新问题。在STEM教育方面，拟议的项目促进大规模采用经过验证的教育创新，其方法（系统地使用社区的话语语言）与其他扩大和传播项目有很大不同。关于网络学习，建议的工作旨在研究可用的教育软件和其他资源对学习的影响，并扩展现有精心设计的学习技术的范围。即将建立的基础设施可能会很好地为其他研究人员提供机会，让他们更多地了解针对特定人群的个性化学习。该项目旨在汇集跨学科的知识，以促进积极的社会变革。在海地和“全球南方”的其他地区，教育只使用以前殖民国家的语言，而不是使用当地居民的母语。由于殖民地语言不是教师或学生的母语，大多数人在STEM学习方面处于巨大的劣势。这反过来又助长了这些国家的贫穷和缺乏经济发展。两个假设构成了这个项目的基础：(1)欠发达国家更好的科学、技术、工程和数学教育将导致更好的经济发展。(2)社区语言教育将从质量上和转型上改善学习。因此，研究人员正在汇集语言学、教育和学习技术领域的知识，以海地学生的母语开发有效的教育材料，并帮助教师学习最新的主动学习方法来教授STEM科目。他们正在研究这些材料和方法的效果，并学习如何将这些材料设计和整合到学习者的学习环境和更广泛的文化环境中。该项目正在多所大专院校开展。潜在的更广泛和变革性影响包括改善“全球南方”国家的经济发展，也许还包括对当地语言在STEM教育中的作用的思考范式转变。这种模式的转变可以改善所有人接受教育的机会，无论是在口语不是具有科学和技术词汇的语言的国家，还是在一些人口（例如难民和新移民）还不能很好地说本国语言的发达国家。