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

作为STEM专业人员，STEM教师需要继续增长他们的教学知识和研究技能。本科生和教师的研究经验已被证明有助于加深对STEM学科的性质、科学研究过程的理解，并有助于在STEM学科和STEM教学领域内留住人才。此外，参与研究经验的STEM教师更好地准备将科学家、工程师和数学家的专业实践融入他们的课堂，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牵头的STEM教师和研究人员计划(STAR)，在2018年夏季和2019年夏季分别在国家实验室、大学和研发中心安排32名(总计为)诺伊斯学者在身临其境的指导下进行夏季研究体验。诺伊斯学者将加入其他明星研究员的行列，与研究人员合作进行原创研究，同时参加同步举行的研讨会。一种类型的研讨会旨在帮助诺伊斯之星研究员将在职科学家、工程师和数学家的实践纳入他们的课堂教学。第二个专门针对项目的研讨会将为诺伊斯明星研究员提供机会，让他们熟悉关于智力和归属感的心态的教育研究成果。研究员们将审查关于智力是与生俱来的还是可塑性的观点如何影响个人处理个人和学术挑战的方式的研究，以及这些观点可能如何帮助或阻碍他们是否认为自己属于STEM学科。该项目还将测试策略和工具的有效性，以帮助教师和研究人员从健康的智力心态角度解释他们在研究中的挣扎，并加深他们在STEM中的归属感。这项调查的结果将有助于为改进教师-研究人员计划及其在教师准备工作中的作用提供信息。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，该项目还将围绕三个研究问题进行教育研究研究。首先：明星研究员之前对智力的隐含信念是什么，包括他们自己和他们的学生的？第二：建立夏季明星研讨会，认为归属感在很大程度上取决于努力，而不是成就，这在多大程度上改善了研究员在夏季研究经历中的徒劳挣扎感觉？第三：认为智力是可塑性的框架夏日之星研讨会在多大程度上改变了研究员向有困难的学生提供的反馈类型？研究人员已经证明，有问题的教师信念对他们的教学选择有负面影响。本项目所提出的关于STEM学生在STEM中关于智力和归属感的信念的研究，将有助于为教师提供基于研究经验的知识库。此外，它还将为教师和学生提供设计、实施和评估更有效的研究沉浸计划的信息。对概念理解的重视本身不足以遏制科学、技术和经济研究中代表性不足的趋势。STEM学习和归属感中的非认知问题，特别是在研究经验的背景下，教育研究没有解决到应有的深度。该项目将有助于填补研究文献中的这一空白。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.