Growing into Teacher-Researchers: Using Mindsets to Frame Research for Noyce Scholars and PIs as a Component of Teacher Preparation

作为STEM专业人士，STEM教师需要不断提高他们的内容知识和研究技能。本科生和教师的研究经历已经被证明可以促进对STEM学科性质的理解，科学研究的过程，并有助于在STEM学科和STEM教学领域内保留。此外，参与研究经验的STEM教师可以更好地将科学家、工程师和数学家的专业实践融入他们的课堂，从而对数千名大学预科学生产生积极影响。该项目由罗伯特·诺伊斯教师奖学金计划支持，将利用由加州理工州立大学领导的STEM教师和研究员计划（STAR），分别于2018年和2019年夏季在国家实验室、大学和研究开发中心安排32名（共64名）诺伊斯学者进行沉浸式、有指导的夏季研究体验。诺伊斯学者将加入其他STAR研究员的行列，与研究人员一起进行原创研究，同时也参加同时举行的研讨会。一种类型的研讨会旨在帮助Noyce STAR研究员将工作中的科学家、工程师和数学家的实践融入他们的课堂教学。第二个特定项目的讲习班将为诺伊斯之星研究员提供机会，使他们熟悉有关智力和归属感心态的教育研究成果。研究员们将研究智力是天生的还是可塑的观点如何影响个人应对个人和学术挑战的方式，以及这些观点如何帮助或阻碍他们是否觉得自己属于STEM学科。该项目还将测试策略和工具的有效性，以帮助教师研究人员以健康的智力心态解释他们自己在研究中的挣扎，并加深他们对STEM的归属感。这项调查的结果将有助于改善教师研究计划及其在教师准备工作中的作用。除了为诺伊斯学者提供研究实验室和专业发展研讨会的研究经验外，该项目还将开展一项教育研究，重点研究三个研究问题。第一：STAR研究员对智力的先验内隐信念是什么，包括他们自己和他们学生的？第二：在多大程度上，把归属于研究界主要取决于努力而非成就这一观点作为暑期STAR研讨会的框架，能改善研究员在暑期研究经历中毫无成果的挣扎感？第三：以智力是可塑的观点来组织暑期STAR研讨会，在多大程度上改变了研究员为困难学生提供的反馈类型？研究人员已经证明，有问题的教师信念会对他们的教学选择产生负面影响。本项目提出的关于STEM中教师专业连续体中学生群体的智力和归属感的信念的研究将有助于为教师提供研究经验的知识库。此外，它还将为教师和学生设计、实施和评估更有效的浸入式研究项目提供信息。对概念理解的关注本身不足以阻止stem中代表性不足的趋势。STEM学习和归属中的非认知问题，特别是在研究经验的背景下，尚未得到教育研究应有的深度解决。本项目将有助于填补研究文献中的这一空白。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。

As STEM professionals, STEM teachers need to continue to grow their content knowledge and research skill set. Research experiences for undergraduates and for teachers have been shown to advance understanding of the nature of STEM disciplines, the processes of scientific research, and to assist in retention within the STEM disciplines and within the STEM teaching field. Moreover, STEM teachers who participate in research experiences are better prepared to incorporate the professional practices of scientists, engineers, and mathematicians in their classrooms, impacting positively several thousands of precollege students. This project, supported by the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship program, will leverage the STEM Teacher and Researcher Program (STAR), led by California Polytechnic State University, to place a cohort of thirty-two (total of 64) Noyce Scholars in immersive, mentored summer research experiences at national laboratories, universities, and research & development centers, in the Summer 2018 and 2019, respectively. The Noyce Scholars will join other STAR Fellows as they work with researchers in conducting original research while also participating in concurrent workshops. One type of workshop is designed to assist the Noyce STAR Fellows in incorporating the practices of working scientists, engineers, and mathematicians into their classroom teaching. A second project-specific workshop will provide Noyce STAR Fellows with opportunities to become familiar with educational research results on mindsets about intelligence and belonging. The Fellows will examine research on how perspectives of whether intelligence is innate or malleable can impact the ways in which individuals deal with personal and academic challenges, as well as how such views may help or obstruct whether or not they feel they belong in STEM disciplines. The project will also test the effectiveness of strategies and tools in helping teacher-researchers interpret their own struggles in research in terms of healthy mindsets for intelligence and deepen their sense of belonging in STEM. Results from this investigation will help to inform improvements in teacher-researcher programs and their role in teacher preparation efforts. In addition to providing Noyce Scholars with research experiences in research laboratories and professional development workshops, this project will conduct an educational research study focused on three research questions. First: What are STAR Fellows' prior implicit beliefs about intelligence, including their own and that of their students? Second: To what extent does framing summer STAR workshops with the view that belonging in the research community is largely determined by effort, as opposed to achievement, ameliorate Fellows' sense of unproductive struggle during the summer research experience? Third: To what extent does framing summer STAR workshops with the view that intelligence is malleable change the types of feedback that Fellows would provide struggling students? Researchers have documented that problematic teacher beliefs have a negative impact on their pedagogical choices. This project's proposed research on beliefs about intelligence and belonging in STEM for this population of students in the teacher professional continuum will contribute to the knowledge base on research experiences for teachers. In addition, it will inform the design, implementation, and evaluation of more effective research immersion programs for teachers and students. Attention to conceptual understanding is inadequate by itself to stem the tide of underrepresentation in STEM. Non-cognitive issues in STEM learning and belonging, especially in the context of research experiences, have not been addressed by educational research to the depth they deserve. This project will contribute to filling this gap in the research literature.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.