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

发现研究 K-12 计划 (DRK-12) 旨在通过创新资源、模型和工具 (RMT) 的研究和开发，显着增强 PreK-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 教育基础研究以及先前的研究和开发工作的基础上，为拟议项目提供理论和实证依据。该项目评估了扩大 11 年级和 12 年级女学生物理和工程学教学的影响，特别是在保留方面。 数十年来，女性在物理和工程学领域的参与度较低的问题一直是人们关注的话题。物理学和工程学领域女性代表性持续不足不仅是一个公平问题，还反映出人才库尚未实现，而人才库可以帮助应对社会当前和未来面临的挑战。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）和工程职业。该项目寻求的基本问题是通过基于研究的、经过现场测试的课堂实践来提高女学生的物理认同，从而影响物理和工程职业中女性人数的增加。该项目将通过与更大的教师群体测试基于研究的方法/干预措施，并以教师可广泛部署和实用的方式将研究与实践联系起来，来推进科学（物理）身份研究。该项目还将影响女性对工程学的参与，因为发展物理学身份与选择工程学密切相关。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问题。在该项目中，两所研究型大学（佛罗里达国际大学、德克萨斯农工大学商业学院）和两个最大的全国性物理学组织（美国物理学会和美国物理教师协会）将使用先前研究结果中得出的方法/干预措施进行合作，这些方法/干预措施将在三个州的教师（24 名教师，每个州 8 名）中进行测试，使用对照组和治疗组的实验设计。该项目建议三个阶段： 1. 完善已经制定的改善女性物理学身份的干预措施，以便在全国范围内使用，并将通过先前经过验证的可靠调查和健全的研究设计进行评估； 2. 发起一场大规模的全国运动，涉及讲习班、培训模块和大众传播方法，以达到并尝试动员全国 27,000 名物理教师中的 16,000 名，利用第一阶段细化的干预方法和其他旨在提高女性物理身份的课堂方法，吸引和招收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该运动的成功程度，以监测运动后几年内宣布物理专业的新生中女学生的增长情况（客观数据）。干预措施将侧重于培养女学生的物理身份，这种身份已被发现与职业选择和对物理的坚持密切相关。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也可能会增加工程专业中女性的比例。因此，这项工作将为采用类似的方法来解决其他学科中女性代表性不足的问题奠定基础。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，以确保向全国物理教师成功传播信息，并确保其他学科（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.