CAREER: Examining Factors that Foster Low-Income Latino Middle School Students' Engineering Design Thinking in Literacy-Infused Technology and Engineering Classrooms

这是一份教师早期职业发展计划（Career）提案，响应项目征集NSF 15-555。CAREER计划是一项国家科学基金会范围内的活动，提供最负盛名的奖项，以支持通过杰出的研究，优秀的教育和教育与研究的整合来体现教师学者角色的初级教师。该项目将调查基于读写能力的教学策略，以及背景因素，如何调解低收入拉丁裔中学生，包括英语学习者，在他们参加技术和工程课程时的工程设计思维的发展。工程设计思维将侧重于本学科的基本方面，如识别问题；考虑可能的解决方案；制定解决方案；制定、实施和测试计划；评估结果，重新设计计划，并再次测试。基于读写能力的教学策略将包括理解（总结、预测、推断和质疑书面文本）；词汇（通过联系学生的背景知识构建明确的定义）；写作学习启发式（识别需求、定义问题、生成解决方案、测试、观察结果、根据经验证据提出主张、优化和反思想法如何变化）；和论证（思考和阐明主张和证据之间的关系）。技术和工程课程是基于现有技术在工程领域的应用，通过使用基本的工程原理和技术技能，同时解决国家素养，科学和工程标准。这些课程的目的是让学生熟悉各州的劳动力市场和就业机会，他们可以为之做好准备。本研究将聚焦于三个研究问题：(1)基于读写能力的教学策略如何中介工程设计思维的发展？(2)技术和工程课堂设置的特点如何支持学生的素养和工程设计？(3)背景因素如何支持或限制中学技术和工程教师使用基于素养的教学策略？采用基于交错设计的研究及其设计、实施和回顾性分析的迭代周期；该项目将与(a) 10所城市和农村中学、(b) 10名教授强制性技术和工程课程的教师、(c) 22间教室和(d) 660名学生合作，在7个学期的课程中，将工程设计和识字结合起来。每个教室将被组织成代表英语语言熟练程度的小组（对学生）（例如，不同熟练程度的英语学习者；非英语学习者），以促进合作学习，促进扫盲策略的实施，并在工程思维的背景下寻找概念变化的证据。数据收集策略将包括课堂观察、成对工作的录像和录音、前后调查以及对学生和教师的访谈。数据解释策略将包括回顾性分析、微遗传学习分析、个案分析、跨个案分析和持续比较分析，以确定支持学生参与识字的技术和工程课堂设置的特征。案例研究将产生特定学习环境中学生学习的情境化概况，适合于确定可归因于治疗的后果，并描述这些关系在目标人群中发生的机制和条件。这项研究的主要成果将是为拉丁裔中学生提供一种以读写能力为基础的工程设计、基于研究和实地测试的教学模式，这种模式可能适用于其他类似的环境。一个由工程、工程设计和识字教学专家组成的四人顾问委员会将每年监督这项工作，并评估已完成的任务。外部研究人员将负责项目的形成性和总结性评估。

This is a Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) proposal responsive to Program Solicitation NSF 15-555. The CAREER program is a National Science Foundation-wide activity that offers the most prestigious awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research. The project will investigate how literacy-based instructional strategies, as well as contextual factors, mediate the development of engineering design thinking of low-income Latino middle school students, including English learners, as they attend technology and engineering courses. Engineering design thinking will focus on fundamental aspects of this discipline, such as identifying a problem; considering possible solutions; formulating a plan for the solution; developing, implementing, and testing the plan; evaluating results, redesigning the plan, and testing it again. Literacy-based instructional strategies will include comprehension (summarizing, predicting, inferring, and questioning written text); vocabulary (constructing explicit definitions by making connections to their students' background knowledge); writing-to-learn heuristic (identifying a need, defining a problem, generating solutions, testing, observing results, making claims based on empirical evidence, optimizing, and reflecting on how ideas change); and argumentation (thinking and articulating the relationships between claims and evidence). Technology and Engineering courses are based on the application of existing technology within the field of engineering through the use of basic engineering principles and technical skills, while simultaneously addressing national literacy, science, and engineering standards. These courses are designed to acquaint students with the states' labor markets and the employment opportunities for which they can prepare.The study will focus on three research questions: (1) How do literacy-based instructional strategies mediate the development of engineering design thinking?; (2) How do features of technology and engineering classroom settings seem to support students' literacy and engineering design?; and (3) How do contextual factors appear to afford or constrain middle school technology and engineering teachers' use of literacy-based instructional strategies? Employing a staggered design-based research and its iterative cycle of design, implementation, and retrospective analysis; the project will work with (a) 10 urban and rural middle schools, (b) 10 teachers who teach mandatory technology and engineering courses, (c) 22 classrooms, and (d) 660 students over the course of 7 trimesters, as they integrate engineering design and literacy. Each classroom will be organized in small groups (pairs of students) representative of English language proficiencies (e.g., English learners at different proficiency levels; non-English learners) to promote cooperative learning, facilitate the implementation of the literacy strategies, and trace evidence of conceptual change in the context of engineering thinking. Data gathering strategies will include classroom observations, video- and audio-taped of pairs working, pre- and post-surveys, and interviews with students and teachers. Data interpretation strategies will include retrospective analysis, microgenetic learning analysis, within-case analysis, cross-case analysis, and constant comparative analysis to identify the features of the technology and engineering classroom settings that support students' engagement with literacy. Case studies will result in contextualized profiles of student learning in particular learning environments, suitable for identifying the consequences attributable to the treatments and describing the mechanisms and conditions under which these relationships occur within the target population. The key outcome of the proposed study will be a literacy-infused engineering design, research-based and field-tested model of instruction for middle school Latino students, potentially adaptable in other similar settings. A four-member advisory board with expertise in engineering, engineering design, and literacy instruction will oversee the work annually and assess completed tasks. An external researcher will be responsible for the formative and summative evaluation of the project.