Collaborative Research: Mobilizing Teachers to Increase Capacity and Broaden Women's Participation in Physics

探索研究K-12计划（DRK-12）旨在通过研究和开发创新资源，模型和工具（RMT），显着提高学前班学生和教师的科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）的学习和教学。DRK-12方案中的项目建立在STEM教育的基础研究以及为拟议项目提供理论和经验依据的先前研究和开发工作的基础上，该项目评估了扩大对11年级和12年级女生的物理学和工程学教学的影响，特别是在保留方面。 几十年来，妇女在物理和工程领域的参与率低的问题一直是一个令人关切的问题。女性在物理和工程领域的代表性持续不足不仅是一个公平问题，也反映了一个未实现的人才库，可以帮助应对社会面临的当前和未来挑战。其目的是动员高中物理教师“吸引和招募”女生从事科学（物理）和工程职业。该项目寻求的基本问题是，利用研究得出的、经过实地检验的课堂做法，提高女生的物理学身份，从而增加从事物理学和工程学职业的女性人数。该项目将推进科学（物理学）身份研究，测试基于研究的方法/干预措施与更大的教师群体，并连接研究实践的方式，都是广泛部署和实际的教师实施。该项目还将影响女性对工程的参与，因为发展物理学身份与选择工程密切相关。核心区教师将接受培训，以解决学生的身份作为一个物理学家或工程师。在这个项目中，两个研究型大学（佛罗里达国际大学，得克萨斯州A& M-商务）和两个最大的国家组织在物理学（美国物理学会和美国物理教师协会）将共同努力，使用从先前的研究结果中得出的方法/干预措施，这些研究结果将在三个州的教师中进行测试。（24名教师，每个州8名）使用控制组和治疗组的实验设计。该项目提出了三个阶段：1。完善已经建立的干预措施，以提高女性物理学身份，用于大规模的国家层面，这将通过以前验证和可靠的调查和合理的研究设计进行评估; 2.发起一场大规模的全国运动，包括讲习班、培训模块和大众传播方法，以接触并试图动员全国27，000名物理教师中的16，000名教师，利用第一阶段改进的干预方法和其他课堂方法吸引和招募至少一名女学生学习物理; 3.通过对高中物理教师的调查（主观数据）和高等教育研究所的数据来评估运动的成功，以监测运动后几年中宣布主修物理的新生中女生的增加情况（客观数据）。干预措施将侧重于发展女学生的物理身份，这一结构已被发现与职业选择和坚持物理学密切相关。该项目有可能减少或消除物理学领域的性别差距。此外，女性物理身份的增加也可能增加工程专业的女性代表性。因此，这项工作将为采用类似的方法解决其他学科中女性人数不足的问题奠定基础。所涉及的社团（美国物理学会和美国物理教师协会）在该学科中具有独特的地位，以确保向全国物理教师成功地开展信息传播运动，并确保其他学科，特别是工程学领域的女性代表人数不足。

The Discovery Research K-12 program (DRK-12) seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of innovative resources, models and tools (RMTs). Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects.This project assesses the impact of scaling-up the teaching of physics and engineering to women students in grade levels 11 and 12, particularly in reference to retention. The problem of low participation of women in physics and engineering has been a topic of concern for decades. The persistent underrepresentation of women in physics and engineering is not just an equity issue but also reflects an unrealized talent pool that can help respond to current and future challenges faced by society. The aim is to mobilize high school physics teachers to "attract and recruit" female students into science (physics) and engineering careers. The fundamental issues that the project seeks is to affect increases in the number of females in physics and engineering careers using research-informed and field-tested classroom practices that improve female students' physics identity. The project will advance science (physics) identity research by testing research-based approaches/interventions with larger groups of teachers and connecting research to practice in ways that are both widely deployable and practical for teachers to implement. The project will also affect female participation in engineering since developing a physics identity is strongly related to choosing engineering. The core area teachers will be trained in addressing student identity as a physicist or engineer.In this project, two research universities (Florida International University, Texas A&M-Commerce) and the two largest national organizations in physics (American Physical Society and American Association of Physics Teachers) will work together using approaches/interventions drawn from prior research results that will be tested with teachers in three states (24 teachers, 8 in each state) using an experimental design with control and treatment groups. The project proposes three phases: 1. Refine already established interventions for improving female physics identity for use on a massive national level which will be assessed through previously validated and reliable surveys and sound research design; 2. Launch a massive national campaign involving workshops, training modules, and mass communication approaches to reach and attempt to mobilize 16,000 of the 27,000 physics teachers nationwide to attract and recruit at least one female student to physics using the intervention approaches refines in phase 1 and other classroom approaches shown to improve female physics identity; and 3. Evaluate of the success of the campaign through surveys of high school physics teachers (subjective data) and data from the Higher Education Research Institute to monitor female student increases in freshmen declaring a physics major during the years following the campaign (objective data). The interventions will focus on developing female students' physics identity, a construct which has been found to be strongly related to career choice and persistence in physics. The project has the potential to reduce or eliminate the gender gap in the field of physics. In addition, the increase in female physics identity is likely to also increase female representation in engineering majors. Therefore, the work will lay the groundwork for adapting similar methods for increasing under-representation of females in other disciplines. The societies involved (American Physical Society and American Association of Physics Teachers) are uniquely positioned within the discipline to ensure a successful campaign of information dissemination to physics teachers nationally and under-representation of females in other disciplines as well, engineering specifically.