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）项目（项目征集NSF 17-565）成功项目扩展和传播（SPrEaD）链的合作项目，旨在更好地理解和促进提高学生在科学、技术、工程或数学领域追求职业的动机和能力的实践。目标是通过调整和实施先前开发的地理空间学期（GSS）一年制双学分课程，扩展和传播支持高中水平空间思维的策略，重点是培养地理空间问题解决技能，并将这些技能应用于学生选择的问题。GSS包括介绍性练习，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目前在弗吉尼亚州的高中与詹姆斯麦迪逊大学合作教授。GSS的核心是空间思维技能的发展，即使考虑到其他相关变量，如数学和语言能力，空间思维技能也能很强地预测STEM领域的成就、坚持和成就。因此，本研究的中心目的是在芝加哥公立学校（CPS）的六个职业和技术教育（CTE）集群中适应和实施GSS高中课程。该项目将从目前在STEM职业中代表性不足的确定群体中选择参与者。通过GSS课程，学生将参与相关的STEM，社会科学和CTE主题，跨越多个学科，并参与相关实践，包括科学数据收集，分析，建模和解释。该项目将采用基于设计的实施研究（DBIR）方法，在芝加哥CTE项目的背景下采用和调整GSS的核心要素。本研究将使用传播和规模的框架来调查扩大和传播课程的策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，即GSS是否以及如何适应大型城市地区教授各种cte相关技能的需要：(1)大型城市学区如何在没有开发商直接支持的情况下发展必要的基础设施来实施GSS ？(2)我们是否可以开发基于课堂的空间推理评估，使其与过去研究中使用的基于研究的方法具有收敛效度？为了解决前者，该项目将与芝加哥城市学院合作，提供双入学学分，并与教师共同设计，开发适合CPS CTE课程的实施模式，并通过持续的专业发展实践提供支持。为了回答后一个问题，该项目将与教师共同设计，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关联程度。该项目将利用这些评估来调查芝加哥对GSS的适应是否能提供与弗吉尼亚州已建立的GSS实施相媲美的结果。数据来源将包括课堂观察、学生作业产品评分、教师访谈、学生人口统计数据以及学生在测试前和测试后评估中的表现增长。例行汇报将用于解释已发生的情况，并为下一个实施阶段计划可能发生的事件。将采用混合方法纳入学生学习的定量分析。作为DBIR研究，该项目将(a)在研究人员和实践者之间建立伙伴关系，从多个利益相关者的角度关注实践中持续存在的问题；(b)通过GIS教育者、心理学家、实施研究人员、大型城区和社区学院的多方利益相关者伙伴关系，关注空间推理作为STEM实践基础的重要性；(c)通过芝加哥城市学院的GSS教师领导和GIS新课程，发展维持系统变革的能力。该项目将通过(a)材料的试点测试（第1-2年级）开发新的合作设计的课程材料；(b)实地材料测试（第三年），重点是专业发展、实施研究（检查该计划在各种学校环境下成功实施的程度）和实地测试结果分析；(c)测试专业发展和课程实施与专业教育运作的整合情况，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协同设计过程开发出以地理信息系统为重点的高中CTE课程原型，以及以地理空间问题解决为重点的DBIR。一个外部咨询委员会将对项目的实施进行持续、独立和批判性的审查，以评估项目的形成性和总结性进展。

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.