Collaborative Research: Using Educational DVDs to Enhance Young Children's STEM Education

这项为期5年的研究计划列出了一系列研究，将在3个地点(加州大学河滨分校、西北大学和乔治城大学)对18个月至6岁的儿童进行，以探索儿童与DVD和其他利用智能代理的数字媒体中的虚拟角色(称为副社会)形成的关系如何影响他们对STEM概念的学习。尽管这些研究都集中在与媒体人物的社交依恋上，但使用了不同的衡量标准和不同的刺激：一些评估儿童对已知媒体角色的感知，而另一些则引入了互动玩具等新的人工制品。关于儿童与角色的关系如何跨越不同的媒体平台，以及类似的学习原则是否适用于不同的媒体环境，人们知之甚少。在这项研究中，研究人员合作小组将发展和沟通研究领域与学习科学中的工作联系起来，在一系列研究中考察了与幼儿和学龄前儿童性格的副社会关系的形成和影响。该项目介绍了儿童与电视、DVD上的角色或作为智能在线代理(称为化身)的社交体验，以及这些体验如何支持STEM学习。年幼的孩子与他们最喜欢的角色形成了牢固的关系。这些角色可以作为儿童的积极榜样，也有可能为儿童提供连续性，因为他们在不同的环境中(例如，家庭、学校)接触到数学和科学。从这项工作中得出的指导方针和原则应该有助于政策制定者、教育工作者和公司更好地利用弥漫在儿童日常经验中的媒体角色来改进STEM教育。

This 5-year research proposal lays out a set of studies that will be conducted across 3 sites (UC-Riverside, Northwestern University, and Georgetown University) with 18 month old to 6 year old children to explore how the relationships that children form with fictional characters (called parasocial) in DVDs and other digital media utilizing intelligent agents influence their learning of STEM concepts. The studies, though all focused on social attachment with media figures, use different measures and different stimuli: some assess children's perceptions of known media characters, while others introduce novel artifacts such as interactional toys. Little is known about how children's relationships with characters traverse different media platforms and whether similar learning principles apply in different media environments. In this research, the collaborative group of investigators brings the developmental and communication research areas into contact with the work in the learning sciences in a series of studies examining the formation and impact of parasocial relationships with characters in the toddler and preschool years. This project addresses children's social experiences with characters on TV, DVDs, or as intelligent on-line agents (called avatars), and how these experiences can support STEM learning. Young children form strong relationships with their favorite characters. These characters can be used as positive role models for children and also have the potential to provide continuity for children as they are exposed to math and science in different environments (e.g., home, school). The guidelines and principles derived from this work should help policy makers, educators, and companies make better use of the media characters that pervade the daily experiences of children to improve STEM education.