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

这项为期5年的研究计划提出了一系列研究，将在3个地点（加州大学河滨分校，西北大学和乔治敦大学）与18个月至6岁的儿童进行，以探索儿童与DVD和其他数字媒体中的虚构人物（称为parasocial）的关系如何利用智能代理影响他们对STEM概念的学习。这些研究虽然都集中在与媒体人物的社会依恋上，但使用了不同的测量方法和不同的刺激：一些评估儿童对已知媒体人物的看法，而另一些则引入了新的人工制品，如互动玩具。关于儿童与角色的关系如何穿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，合作小组的调查人员带来了发展和沟通的研究领域与学习科学的工作接触，在一系列的研究检查的形成和影响的准社会关系与字符在幼儿和学龄前的几年。该项目致力于儿童与电视，DVD或智能在线代理（称为化身）中的角色的社会经验，以及这些经验如何支持STEM学习。小孩子与他们最喜欢的角色建立了牢固的关系。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接触数学和科学（例如，家庭、学校）。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充斥着儿童日常经历的媒体角色，以改善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.