Pre-service Educators Reimagining Core Experiences in Physics Teaching

需要准备一支能够满足动态和复杂的全球经济需求的熟练和积极的STEM劳动力队伍，这是一个广泛认识到的国家挑战。 该项目是北卡罗来纳州州立大学、北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校和戴维森学院之间的跨机构合作，利用技术进步来应对这一挑战。 它的目的是提供经验证据的基础物理概念的职前小学教师候选人，在STEM专业劳动力的发展的关键球员，使用触觉使能的科学模拟（HESSs）的增强。 触觉是触觉（在这种情况下是虚拟触摸）的总称。 HESS是真实世界系统的虚拟表示，以视觉方式显示，并通过触觉力反馈进行增强。 用户可以与建模系统（在本例中）的多个（通常不可见）组件进行物理交互。 项目团队的基本前提是，如果即将成为教师的人更深入地学习核心物理概念，他们将有能力为学生提供更丰富的学习机会。 该项目将为职前小学教师提供思想（物理学）和工具（技术和教学），有可能影响他们如何在小学年级教授基本物理概念，因为他们的学生刚刚进入STEM管道。该项目针对EHR核心研究（ECR）计划的两个相互交织的重点领域：STEM劳动力发展和STEM学习和学习环境。 在先前的工作涉及HESS的基础上，本项目将与本科职前小学教师合作，研究在他们的准备过程中使用HESS的影响。该项目小组将调查职前小学教师对力作为相互作用（物理学中的一个基本概念）的理解以及触觉力反馈技术的影响。 该项目在设计、建造和测试其干预措施时采用了具身认知的观点。 它使用混合方法来检查教学和学习之间的接口，并通过基本的使用启发研究STEM学习的中介。 设计、开发和测试研究周期将包括焦点小组、可用性测试和小规模试点测试。 试点测试将使用前测-后测对照组设计，随机分配到两组，触觉与非触觉模拟。 本研究有可能提供基础知识的一种新的教学模式的核心物理概念的形式的HESS。 项目的目标是（1）增加基本的人机交互知识，以指导设计，开发和测试的HESS，（2）隔离和记录的触觉影响教师的专业内容知识的发展的力量，作为互动，和（3）研究的教学影响的HESS对职前小学教师。 除了对参与的职前小学教师的好处外，该项目还将培训研究生研究助理，并让本科生参与尖端的STEM研究，这也有可能有助于STEM劳动力的发展。 项目研究结果将用于开发一套设计指南，用于科学模拟的触觉增强，可供其他研究人员使用。 此外，跨机构和跨学科的伙伴关系，如本项目，可以加强STEM教育和研究的基础设施。 该项目由支持STEM教育基础研究的EHR核心研究（ECR）计划资助。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The need to prepare a skilled and motivated STEM workforce who can meet the demands of a dynamic and complex global economy is a widely recognized national challenge. This project, a cross-institutional collaboration among North Carolina State University, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and Davidson College, capitalizes on advances in technology to respond to that challenge. It aims to provide empirical evidence on the enhancement of foundational physics concepts of pre-service elementary school teacher candidates, key players in the development of the STEM professional workforce, using haptically-enabled science simulations (HESSs). Haptics is an umbrella term for the sense of touch (in this case virtual touch). The HESSs are virtual representations of real-world systems, displayed visually, and augmented with haptic force-feedback. Users can physically interact with multiple (often invisible) components of the modeled system (in this case) forces. The project team's underlying premise is that if soon-to-be teachers (re)learn core physics concepts more deeply, they will be empowered to provide richer learning opportunities for their students. This project will provide pre-service elementary school teachers access to ideas (in physics) and tools (technological and pedagogical) with the potential to influence how they approach the teaching of basic physics concepts in the elementary grades, as their students are just entering the STEM pipeline. This project targets two intertwined focal areas of the EHR Core Research (ECR) program: STEM workforce development and STEM learning and learning environments. Building upon prior work involving HESSs, this project will work with undergraduate pre-service elementary school teachers to examine implications for the use of HESSs during their preparation. The project team will investigate pre-service elementary school teachers' understandings of forces as interactions (a foundational concept in physics) and the influence of haptic force-feedback technology. The project adopts an embodied cognition perspective in the design, building, and testing of its intervention. It uses a mixed-methods approach to examine the interfaces between teaching and learning and the mediation of STEM learning through fundamental use-inspired research. The design, develop, and testing research cycle will include focus groups, usability testing, and small-scale pilot testing. The pilot testing will use a pretest-posttest control group design with random assignment into two groups, haptic vs. non-haptic simulations. This research has the potential to provide foundational knowledge for a new model of teaching about core physics concepts in the form of HESSs. Project goals are to (1) add foundational human-computer interaction knowledge to guide the design, development, and testing of HESSs, (2) isolate and document the haptic influences on the development of teachers' specialized content knowledge of forces as interactions, and (3) study the pedagogical impact of the HESSs on pre-service elementary school teachers. In addition to the benefits to the pre-service elementary teachers who participate, this project will train graduate research assistants and involve undergraduate students in cutting-edge STEM research, which also has the potential to contribute to STEM workforce development. Project findings will be used to develop a set of design guidelines for the haptic-augmentation of science simulations that can be used by other researchers. Moreover, cross-institutional and cross-disciplinary partnerships, such as this project, may enhance the infrastructure for STEM education and research. This project is funded by the EHR Core Research (ECR) program, which supports fundamental research in STEM education.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.