NRT-IGE: Mixed Reality Integrated Teaching Training for STEM Graduate Teaching Assistants

当前和未来高校教师的培训对任何教学或课程改革的采用都至关重要。然而，那些既为学术工作而接受培训，又被推向学术工作的研究生，却没有准备好承担这些工作的一项关键责任：教学。佛罗里达州立大学研究生教育创新（IGE）轨道的国家科学基金会研究培训（NRT）奖将研究混合现实综合培训计划的设计模型和效果，为STEM研究生助教（gta）提供教学实践。本次STEM GTA培训项目将3D虚拟现实技术与身体感知技术相结合，拓展现有STEM GTA培训的研发，使STEM GTA能够在各种教学环境中实践、观察和反思教学，并通过积极的实验和解决问题的方式，让STEM GTA深入理解教学策略。由此产生的STEM GTA教学培训模式预计将改善STEM入门课程的教学，通过扩大STEM入门课程中使用的教学实践，改善STEM学科中代表性不足群体的持久性，并解决与各种STEM研究生相关的具体挑战和需求。该项目将采用迭代评估过程来改进该模型，评估结果将有助于了解学生教师技术集成专业发展的有效性。项目团队将为STEM gta设计和开发一个混合现实综合教学培训计划，该计划由三个部分组成：(1)环境，一个名为MILE（混合现实综合学习环境）的3D混合现实平台，可以在各种环境下进行模拟和沉浸式教学实践；(2)活动，一种半结构化的、基于mile的培训计划，将正式的小组培训与非正式的自我调节教学排练相结合；(3)技能发展模拟场景，为STEM gta在MILE中体验的基于问题的教学场景集合，将有针对性的STEM教学技能情境化。采用基于设计的研究方法，该项目将包括迭代设计过程，以完善混合现实综合教学培训计划，并在STEM gta跨学科小组中研究其对教学自我效能感和能力发展的影响。将通过定性和定量方法收集数据，为STEM gta混合现实综合教学培训计划的设计概括和有效性建立证据体系。项目团队包括来自不同学科的教师，包括教育心理学和学习系统、计算机科学、化学和物理。美国国家科学基金会研究实习生（NRT）计划旨在鼓励开发和实施大胆的、新的、具有潜在变革性的STEM研究生教育培训模式。研究生教育创新轨道专门用于试点，测试和评估新颖，创新和潜在的变革性研究生教育方法。这项工作在一定程度上得到了本科教育司的支持。

The training of current and future college and university instructors is critical to any adoption of teaching or curriculum reforms. Yet graduate students who are both trained for and pushed toward academic jobs remain unprepared for a key responsibility of these jobs: teaching. This National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) award in the Innovations in Graduate Education (IGE) Track to Florida State University will study the design model and effects of a mixed reality integrated training program to provide teaching practice to STEM graduate teaching assistants (GTAs). Integrating 3D virtual reality and body sensory technology, this training program for STEM GTAs will extend the research and development of current STEM GTA training by enabling STEM GTAs to practice, observe, and reflect on teaching in a variety of instructional settings, and it will provide them with a deep understanding of teaching strategies through active experimentation and problem solving. The resulting STEM GTA teaching training model is anticipated to improve teaching in introductory STEM courses, to improve the persistence of underrepresented groups in STEM disciplines by broadening the teaching practices used in introductory STEM courses, and to address specific challenges and needs associated with the variety of STEM graduate students. The project will employ an iterative evaluation process to improve the model over the course of the award, and the results will inform understanding of the effectiveness of technology-integrated professional development for student instructors. The project team will design and develop a mixed-reality integrated teaching training program for STEM GTAs comprised of three components: (1) Environment, a 3D mixed-reality platform, called MILE (Mixed reality Integrated Learning Environment), that enables the simulation and immersive practice of teaching in a variety of contexts; (2) Activity, a semi-structured, MILE-based training program that integrates formal group training sessions with informal self-regulated teaching rehearsal; and (3) Simulated scenarios for skills development, a collection of problem-based teaching scenarios for STEM GTAs to experience in MILE, which will contextualize targeted STEM teaching skills. Adopting a design-based research approach, this project will encompass iterative design processes to refine the mixed-reality integrated teaching training program, and examine its impact on the development of teaching self-efficacy and competence in an interdisciplinary group of STEM GTAs. Data will be collected via both qualitative and quantitative methods to build up a body of evidence on the design generalizations and effectiveness of the mixed-reality integrated teaching training program for STEM GTAs. The project team includes faculty from diverse disciplines including educational psychology and learning systems, computer science, chemistry, and physics.The NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) Program is designed to encourage the development and implementation of bold, new, potentially transformative models for STEM graduate education training. The Innovations in Graduate Education Track is dedicated solely to piloting, testing, and evaluating novel, innovative, and potentially transformative approaches to graduate education.This work is supported, in part, by the Division of Undergraduate Education.