Collaborative Research: Adapting and Implementing a Geospatial High School Course in Career and Technical Education Clusters in Urban Settings

这是一个提交给学生和教师创新技术体验（ITEST）计划（计划征集NSF 17-565）的成功项目扩展和传播（SPrEaD）链的合作项目，以推动更好地理解和促进提高学生动机和能力的实践，以追求科学，技术，工程或数学（STEM）领域的职业生涯。其目标是扩大和传播战略，以支持空间思维在高中一级通过调整和实施以前开发的地理空间学期（GSS）为期一年的双学分课程，重点是发展地理空间问题解决技能，并将这些技能应用到学生选择的问题。GSS包括介绍性练习，以培养学生使用地理信息系统（GIS）分析空间问题的基本技能，支持学生从空间角度构建有意义的问题，识别和组织相关的空间数据集，分析他们的空间数据作为提出问题解决方案的证据，并公开展示他们的结果。GSS目前与詹姆斯麦迪逊大学合作在弗吉尼亚州的高中授课。GSS的核心是空间思维能力的发展，即使在考虑了其他相关变量（如数学和语言能力）之后，空间思维能力也能强烈预测STEM领域的成就，持久性和成就。因此，本研究的中心目的是适应和实施GSS高中课程在六个职业和技术教育（CTE）集群在芝加哥公立学校（CPS）。该项目将从目前在STEM职业中代表性不足的群体中选择参与者。通过GSS课程，学生将参与跨多个学科的相关STEM，社会科学和CTE主题，并参与相关实践，包括科学数据收集，分析，建模和解释。该项目将采用和适应的GSS的核心要素的背景下，芝加哥CTE计划使用基于设计的实施研究（DBIR）的方法。这项研究将使用一个传播和规模的框架来调查扩大和传播课程的战略，以及环境因素影响成功可能性的方式。它将解决两个研究问题，关于是否，以及如何，GSS可以适应一个大的，城市地区的教学各种CTE相关的技能的需要：（1）如何可以大城市学区开发必要的基础设施，以实现GSS没有开发商的直接支持？以及（2）我们是否可以开发基于课堂的空间推理评估，与过去研究中使用的基于研究的测量方法具有收敛效度？为了解决前者，该项目将与芝加哥的城市学院合作，提供双招生学分，并与教师共同设计，开发一个实施模式，该模式是针对CPS的CTE课程，并通过持续的专业发展实践的支持。为了回答后者，该项目将与教师共同设计，以开发空间思维的课堂评估，并验证它们与基于研究的措施的相关程度。该项目将使用这些评估，以调查是否适应GSS在芝加哥提供的结果是在弗吉尼亚州的既定GSS的实施。数据来源将包括课堂观察，学生工作产品的评级，教师访谈，学生人口统计，以及学生在测试前和测试后评估的表现增长。例行汇报将被用来解释发生了什么，并计划下一个实施阶段的预期事件。一个混合的方法将采用纳入学生学习的定量分析。作为DBIR研究，该项目将（a）从多个利益相关者的角度建立研究人员和实践者之间的伙伴关系，重点关注实践中持续存在的问题;（B）通过GIS教育工作者、心理学家、实施研究人员、大型城市地区和社区学院的多个利益相关者伙伴关系，重点关注空间推理作为STEM实践基础的重要性;以及（c）通过地理信息系统教师领导和芝加哥城市学院地理信息系统新课程，发展维持系统变革的能力。该项目将通过（a）对教材进行试点测试，（1-2年）;（B）实地材料测试（3年），重点是专业发展和实施研究（检查该计划在各种学校环境中成功实施的程度），并分析实地测试结果;以及（c）测试专业发展和课程实施与CTE操作的整合，包括分析空间思维课堂评估的有效性和质量。这项工作的主要成果将是通过共同设计过程开发的以高中GIS为重点的CTE课程原型，以及专注于地理空间问题解决的DBIR。一个外部咨询委员会将对该计划的实施情况进行持续的、独立的和批判性的审查，以评估形成性和总结性的进展。

This is a collaborative project submitted to the Successful Project Expansion and Dissemination (SPrEaD) strand of the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program (Program Solicitation NSF 17-565) to advance efforts to better understand and promote practices that increase student motivations and capacities to pursue careers in fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM). The goal is to expand and disseminate strategies to support spatial thinking at the high school level by adapting and implementing the previously developed Geospatial Semester (GSS) one-year, dual-credit course focused on developing geospatial problem-solving skills and applying those skills to student-selected problems. GSS consists of introductory exercises to develop students' basic skills in using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for analyzing spatial problems, supporting students in framing a meaningful problem from a spatial perspective, identifying and organizing relevant spatial datasets, analyzing their spatial data as evidence for proposing solutions for their problem, and making a public presentation of their results. GSS is currently taught in high schools in Virginia in partnership with James Madison University. At the core of GSS is the development of spatial thinking skills, which are strongly predictive of achievement, persistence, and attainment in STEM fields, even after accounting for other relevant variables, such as mathematical and verbal aptitude. Thus, the central purpose of the study is to adapt and implement the GSS high school course in six Career and Technical Education (CTE) clusters in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS). The project will select participants from identified groups currently underrepresented in STEM occupations. Through the GSS course, students will engage with relevant STEM, social science, and CTE topics that cut across multiple disciplines, and engage in relevant practices, including scientific data collection, analysis, modeling, and interpretation. The project will adopt and adapt the core elements of the GSS for the context of Chicago CTE programs using a design-based implementation research (DBIR) approach. The study will use a framework of spread and scale to investigate the strategies for expanding and disseminating the course and the ways in which contextual factors influence the likelihood of success. It will address two research questions regarding whether, and how, the GSS can be adapted to the needs of a large, urban district teaching a variety of CTE-related skills: (1) How can large urban school districts develop the necessary infrastructure to implement GSS without the direct support of the developers?; and (2) Can we develop classroom-based assessments of spatial reasoning that have convergent validity with the research-based measures used in past research? To address the former, the project will partner with the City Colleges of Chicago to provide the dual enrollment credit, and engage in co-design with teachers to develop an implementation model that is tailored to CPS's CTE curriculum and supported by continuing professional development practices. To answer the latter, the project will engage in co-design with teachers to develop classroom assessments of spatial thinking and validate the extent to which they correlate with research-based measures. The project will use these assessments to investigate whether the adaptation of GSS in Chicago provides outcomes that are comparable to those of the established GSS implementations in Virginia. Data sources will include classroom observations, ratings of student work products, teacher interviews, student demographics, and growth in student performance on pretest and posttest assessments. A debriefing routine will be used to interpret what has happened and plan prospective events for the next implementation phase. A mixed-method approach will be employed to incorporate quantitative analysis of student learning. As DBIR research, the project will (a) form partnerships between researchers and practitioners focused on persistent problems of practice from multiple stakeholders' perspectives; (b) focus on the importance of spatial reasoning as foundational for STEM practice through a multi-stakeholder partnership of GIS educators, psychologists, implementation researchers, a large urban district and community college; and (c) develop capacity for sustaining change in systems through GSS teacher leaders and new courses in GIS at City Colleges of Chicago. The project will develop new co-designed curriculum materials through (a) pilot testing of materials (years 1-2); (b) field testing of materials (year 3) with emphasis on professional development, implementation research (to examine the extent to which the program is successfully implemented across a variety of school contexts), and analysis of field-test results; and (c) testing the integration of the professional development and course implementation into the CTE operations, including analysis of the validity and quality of spatial-thinking classroom assessments. The main outcome of this effort will be a high school GIS-focused CTE curriculum prototype developed through co-design processes, as well as DBIR focused on geospatial problem-solving. An external advisory board will provide ongoing, independent, and critical reviews of the implementation of the program to evaluate progress, both formative and summative.