I-Corps for Learning: Fostering Evidence-based Innovation for STEM Education

通过该项目，美国工程教育学会正在开展美国国家科学基金会学习创新团(i-Corps-L)系列活动，通过传播和扩大教育创新来帮助实现教育转型的目标。ASEE将与卡尔·史密斯博士领导的指导团队合作。I-Corps for Learning项目解决了培养一支准备充分的STEM劳动力的问题，这对国家的经济健康和繁荣至关重要。I-Corps for Learning帮助以可持续的方式加速和扩大由教育创新者开发的新颖和有效的做法。这一加速进程是通过一系列讲习班和对一组团队的指导来完成的，这些团队试图在教育实践中取得更广泛的进展。I-Corps-L所采取的方法是基于对如何将产品发现推向市场并在更广泛的经济中商业化的见解的应用。这种方法创造了一种企业家心态，将学习创新带入能够最大限度地造福社会的情况。这种情况下的教育创新适用于针对K-12、本科生、研究生和博士后研究的发展，以及在非正式科学教育环境中的学习。通过传播有效的教育创新并帮助以可持续的方式实现规模扩大，该项目有可能帮助实现在全国不同环境中改善STEM教育的目标。i-Corps for Learning模式的中心是三人团队的参与。每个团队由一名首席研究员、一名创业带头人和一名导师组成。首席研究员是一名个人，他通过国家科学基金会的先前支持开发了一项教育创新。创业带头人在理解放大过程的过程中担任团队领导。导师利用对成功的教育创新的本质的理解来帮助指导团队。I-Corps-L进程基于一系列面对面和在线互动研讨会。培训从为期三天的介绍性培训课程开始。随后是五次在线课程，以及为期两天的闭幕培训课程。I-Corps-L遵循了一个调查和假设检验的过程，以澄清用户需求。除了后勤和组织服务外，ASEE正在进行一项评价，以评估面对面会议中的个别会议、为期数天的培训讲习班的总体要素以及会议后勤的处理。该项目旨在填补在促进学生学习方面被证明有效的教育创新与这种做法的广泛使用之间的差距。开发一种系统的假设驱动的方法，以确定教育创新的好处与潜在采纳者的具体需求之间的一致性，将通过扩大科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)教学创新的影响来帮助研究人员。

Through this project the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) is conducting as series of NSF Innovation Corps for Learning (I-Corps-L) activities to help achieve the goal of educational transformation through propagation and scale-up of educational innovations. ASEE will work in collaboration with an instructional team led by Dr. Karl Smith. The I-Corps for Learning project addresses the problem of developing a well-prepared STEM workforce that is crucial to the Nation's economic health and prosperity. I-Corps for Learning helps accelerate and scale-up in a sustainable manner the novel and effective practices developed by educational innovators. The acceleration process is accomplished through a series of workshops and mentoring of a cohort of a group of teams seeking to achieve wider impact of their advances in educational practice. The approach taken in I-Corps-L is based on the application of insights concerning how product discoveries are brought to market and commercialized in the broader economy. This approach creates an entrepreneurial mindset in to bringing learning innovations into situations where they can maximize benefit to society. An educational innovation in this case applies to developments that address K-12, undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral research, as well as learning in informal science education environments. By propagating effective educational innovations and helping to achieve scale up in a sustainable manner, this project has the potential of helping to achieve the goal of improving STEM education in diverse environments across the nation.The center of the I-Corps for Learning model is the participation of three-person teams. Each team is composed of a principal investigator, an entrepreneurial lead, and a mentor. The principal investigator is an individual who has developed an education innovation through prior support from the National Science Foundation. The entrepreneurial lead serves as team leader in the process of understanding the scale-up process. The mentor draws on an understanding of the nature of successful educational innovations to help guide the team. The I-Corps-L process is based on a series in-person and online interactive workshops. Training begins with an introductory three-day training session. This is followed by five online sessions, and a closing two-day training session. I-Corps-L follows a process of investigation and hypothesis testing to clarify user needs. In addition to logistical and organizational services ASEE is conducting an evaluation to assess individual sessions within the face-to-face meetings, overall elements of the multi-day training workshops, and handling of meeting logistics. This project is designed to fill the gap between educational innovations of proven effectiveness in enhancing student learning and the widespread use of such practices. The development of a systematic hypothesis-driven approach to determining the alignment between the benefits of an educational innovation and the specific needs of potential adopters will help researchers by broaden the impact of innovations in teaching and learning science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).