Interactive STEM Education Competence in Teaching

在小学获得的数学和科学概念和技能构成了未来在STEM领域取得成功的基础，但北卡罗来纳州东部和全国各地的学生都在努力证明自己在州和国家考试中的熟练程度。 这个项目旨在解决一个影响学生成绩的领域，学科特定的话语和论证的性质和作用。 本研究的目的是通过沉浸式课堂模拟活动（ICSAs）对职前数学和科学教师的语篇运用能力和自信心进行实证研究。 学生对学生和学生对教师的话语是基于标准的实践的关键组成部分，可以提高学习成果，也是标准文件中数学和科学教学实践的基本原则。 教师通过提问促进解释和理由，这对于学生发展理解至关重要。 话语是使内容对学习者有意义和相关性的关键因素，是参与，短期和长期学习成果和持久性的重要结构。 传统的教学模拟活动，如对等角色扮演是有限的，简短的，具有挑战性的复制，以提供足够的实践话语技能的发展。虚拟模拟提供沉浸式，互动式学习，并为候选人提供实践复杂技能的机会，这些技能无法通过典型的实地考察复制，因此，可以实现基于实践的教师发展。这种纵向的，混合方法的研究将衡量方法课程，实习和实习安置的使用ICSA设施与话语技能的影响，以促进学习和所有学生在数学和科学的参与。当群体平均差异为8.1，标准差为15.8，显著性水平（α）为0.050时，使用双侧双样本t检验（假设方差不相等），120的样本量达到80%的把握度来拒绝平均值相等的零假设。分析教师动作（ATM）工具将用于检查话语实践言语行为使用（Correnti，et al.，2015年）。ATM结局将根据加权讨论评分（WDS）指南（Scherrer，2013）和Lee（2016）改编的加权阳性评分（WPS）确定。沿着的机会，发展教师的做法，而不把“真实的学生”在学习过程中的风险，另一个好处是ICSA是更好地获得教师的学习行动分析的目的。该项目增加了越来越多的研究池，利用数字媒体来改善学习设计，并开发了一个框架，以更好地准备职前研究人员在大学课堂上开发和使用话语。 该项目响应了美国国家科学基金会的改善本科STEM教育（IUSE）的建议，解决“本科STEM教育面临的直接挑战和机遇”，因为它涉及到STEM学科内容和实践的教师的准备。 如果ICSA被证明是有效的，该项目将为全国的教师准备计划提供ICSA方案，指导方针和方法。 这项重要的工作得到了IUSE计划和Robert Noyce教师奖学金计划的资助。

Mathematics and science concepts and skills acquired in elementary school form the foundation for future success in STEM fields and yet students in eastern North Carolina and across the nation struggle to demonstrate proficiency on state and national tests. This project seeks to address one area affecting student outcomes, the nature and role of discipline-specific discourse and argumentation. The goal of the project is an empirical exploration of immersive classroom simulation activities (ICSAs) on pre-service mathematics and science teachers' competence and confidence in discourse use. Student-to-student and student-to-teacher discourse are critical components of standards-based practices shown to improve learning outcomes and are also foundational tenets of mathematical and scientific pedagogical practices in standards documents. Teachers promote explanation and justification, critical for students to develop understanding, through questioning. Discourse is a key factor in making content meaningful and relevant for learners, an important construct for engagement, short- and long-term learning outcomes, and persistence. Traditional teaching simulation activities such as peer-to-peer role-play are limited, brief, and challenging to replicate to provide sufficient practice for discourse skill development. Virtual simulation provides immersive, interactive learning and gives candidates an opportunity to practice complex skills, which cannot be replicated with typical fieldwork, and thus, enables practice-based teacher development. This longitudinal, mixed methods study will measure the impact in methods courses, practica, and internship placements of the use of ICSAs on facility with discourse skills to promote learning and engagement of all students in mathematics and science. The sample sizes of 120 achieve 80% power to reject the null hypothesis of equal means when the population mean difference is 8.1 with standard deviations of 15.8, and with a significance level (alpha) of 0.050 using a two-sided two-sample t-test where the variances are not assumed equal. The Analyzing Teacher Moves (ATM) instrument will be used to examine discourse practices speech acts using (Correnti, et al., 2015). ATM outcomes will be determined with the Weighted-Discussion-Scoring (WDS) guide (Scherrer, 2013) and the Weighted-Positive-Scoring (WPS) adapted by Lee (2016). Along with the opportunity to develop teacher practice without placing "real students" at risk during the learning process, another benefit of ICSAs is improved access to teacher learning-in-action for analytical purposes. The project adds to a growing pool of research leveraging digital media to improve design for learning and develops a framework to better prepare pre-service researchers to develop and use discourse in their college classrooms. This project responds to the National Science Foundation's Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) request for proposals addressing "immediate challenges and opportunities facing undergraduate STEM education," as it relates to the preparation of teachers of STEM disciplinary content and practices. Should ICSAs prove effective, this project will provide ICSA scenarios, guidelines, and approaches to teacher preparation programs across the country. This important work is supported with funding from the IUSE program and the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship program.