Accelerating Higher Order Thinking and STEM Content Learning Among Students with Learning Disabilities

加速有学习障碍的学生的高阶思维和 STEM 内容学习

• 批准号: 1813556
• 负责人: Jose Blackorby
• 金额: $ 156.73万
• 依托单位: CAST, Inc.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-09-01 至 2022-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1813556&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Accelerating; Higher; Order; Thinking; STEM

The need for reduction in achievement gaps and the growing adoption of rigorous curriculum standards has raised expectations for all students, but especially for students with learning disabilities. Students are expected to learn science concepts and use their understanding to investigate the natural world through scientific inquiry. They must also develop higher-order reasoning skills, integrate knowledge and ideas using primary sources, use causal reasoning to understand the chain of events, delineate and evaluate claims, and assess the reasoning used in arguments. Lower participation and achievement in science courses makes students with learning disabilities less likely to pursue STEM degrees, STEM careers, and succeed in the labor market where higher order thinking skills and scientific literacy are increasingly important. It is important to develop innovative tools that build on evidence based practices in combination with promising new technologies to improve the academic trajectory in STEM disciplines. The purpose of this project is to develop and refine an innovative Google-platform based application called CORGI for use with middle school students in physical, life, and earth science classrooms. The new version, CORGI_2, will include supports for content learning and higher order thinking and will pair with the cloud-based applications of the Google environment to offer multiple means of representation, response and engagement as well as videos, models, supports for decoding, and supports for background knowledge. The team will refine CORGI to offer enhanced functionality and supports for scientific argumentation, concept mastery, collaboration strategies and social skills for cooperative groups. Technology enhancements will include multimedia input and output, writing supports (e.g., sentence starters), discussion threads, and affective reactions to content/lessons. This project is funded by the Discovery Research PreK-12 Program, which funds research and development on STEM innovations and approaches. The research team will work with both teachers and students to develop integrated units, new higher order thinking routines, learning and collaboration strategies, and new technological functionality in CORGI_2. Researcher-practitioner-student design teams will use Design-Based Intervention Research (DBR) methods to iteratively: (a) identify the science content for inclusion, (b) develop integrated content units in life, physical, and earth science, (c) integrate additional higher order thinking and learning strategies to promote higher-order thinking and reasoning, and (c) design and implement additional UDL and mobile functionality for CORGI_2. Participants will include 30 middle school teachers and approximately 200 students with learning disabilities, including reading disabilities. Researchers will collect formative evaluation data from teachers and students to examine the usability, science content learning, higher order thinking skills, engagement, and motivation of general education and special education students in middle school classrooms. Professional development modules will be developed to support the DBR cycles as well as to support wider scale adoption and use by all students.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.

缩小成绩差距的需要和越来越多地采用严格的课程标准，提高了对所有学生的期望，尤其是对有学习障碍的学生。学生应该学习科学概念，并运用他们的理解通过科学探究来调查自然世界。他们还必须发展高阶推理技能，使用主要来源整合知识和想法，使用因果推理来理解事件链，描述和评估主张，并评估论证中使用的推理。科学课程的参与度和成绩较低，使得有学习障碍的学生不太可能攻读STEM学位、从事STEM职业，也不太可能在劳动力市场上取得成功，因为高阶思维技能和科学素养越来越重要。重要的是开发创新工具，以基于证据的实践为基础，结合有前途的新技术，以改善STEM学科的学术轨迹。该项目的目的是开发和完善一个创新的基于谷歌平台的应用程序，称为CORGI，供中学生在物理、生命和地球科学课堂上使用。新版本CORGI_2将包括对内容学习和高阶思维的支持，并将与谷歌环境的云应用相结合，提供多种表示、响应和参与方式，以及视频、模型、解码支持和背景知识支持。该团队将改进CORGI，为合作小组提供增强的功能和对科学论证、概念掌握、协作策略和社会技能的支持。技术增强将包括多媒体输入和输出、写作支持（例如，句子开头）、讨论线程和对内容/课程的情感反应。该项目由探索研究PreK-12计划资助，该计划为STEM创新和方法的研究和开发提供资金。研究团队将与教师和学生共同开发CORGI_2中的集成单元、新的高阶思维习惯、学习和协作策略以及新的技术功能。研究者-实践者-学生设计团队将使用基于设计的干预研究（DBR）方法迭代：(a)确定要纳入的科学内容，(b)开发生命科学、物理科学和地球科学的集成内容单元，(c)整合额外的高阶思维和学习策略，以促进高阶思维和推理，以及(c)为CORGI_2设计和实现额外的UDL和移动功能。参与者将包括30名中学教师和大约200名有学习障碍（包括阅读障碍）的学生。研究人员将收集教师和学生的形成性评价数据，以检验中学普通教育和特殊教育学生的可用性、科学内容学习、高阶思维技能、参与度和动机。将开发专业发展模块，以支持DBR周期，并支持所有学生更广泛地采用和使用。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。