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

探索研究K-12项目（DRK-12）旨在通过研究和开发创新资源、模型和工具（rmt），显著提高pre -12学生和教师对科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）的学习和教学。DRK-12计划中的项目建立在STEM教育的基础研究和先前的研究和开发工作的基础上，为拟议的项目提供了理论和实证依据。本项目评估扩大对11年级和12年级女学生的物理和工程教学的影响，特别是在保留方面的影响。几十年来，女性在物理和工程领域的参与度低一直是人们关注的话题。女性在物理和工程领域的持续代表性不足不仅是一个公平问题，而且反映了一个尚未实现的人才库，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”女学生进入科学（物理）和工程领域。该项目寻求的基本问题是通过研究和实地测试的课堂实践来提高女学生的物理认同感，从而影响物理和工程职业中女性人数的增加。该项目将通过在更大的教师群体中测试基于研究的方法/干预措施，并以教师可广泛部署和实践的方式将研究与实践联系起来，从而推进科学（物理）身份研究。该项目还将影响女性对工程的参与，因为发展物理身份与选择工程密切相关。核心领域的教师将接受培训，以解决学生作为物理学家或工程师的身份。在这个项目中，两所研究型大学（佛罗里达国际大学，德克萨斯a&m - commerce）和两家最大的全国性物理组织（美国物理学会和美国物理教师协会）将共同合作，使用从先前研究结果中提取的方法/干预措施，这些研究结果将在三个州（24名教师，每个州8名）的教师中进行测试，使用对照组和实验组的实验设计。本项目拟分三个阶段进行：1、项目规模；完善已经建立的干预措施，以提高女性物理身份，以便在全国范围内大规模使用，这些干预措施将通过先前经过验证和可靠的调查和健全的研究设计进行评估；2. 发起一项大规模的全国性运动，包括研讨会、培训模块和大众传播方式，以接触并试图动员全国27,000名物理教师中的16,000名，吸引和招募至少一名女学生学习物理，使用第一阶段改进的干预方法和其他课堂方法，以提高女性物理身份；和3。通过对高中物理教师的问卷调查（主观数据）和高等教育研究院在运动之后的几年里，为监测报考物理专业的女新生的增加情况而提供的数据（客观数据），对运动的成功与否进行评价。干预措施将侧重于发展女学生的物理认同，这一建构已被发现与物理学的职业选择和坚持密切相关。该项目有可能减少或消除物理学领域的性别差距。此外，女性物理学身份的增加可能也会增加工科专业的女性比例。因此，这项工作将为采用类似的方法来增加其他学科中女性代表性不足的情况奠定基础。所涉及的协会（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，以确保在全国范围内成功地向物理教师传播信息，并确保在其他学科（特别是工程学科）中女性代表性不足。

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.