Collaborative Research: Head Start on Engineering: Developing a Learning Community to Study and Support Family-level Interest in Engineering

合作研究：在工程方面领先：发展学习社区来学习和支持家庭对工程的兴趣

• 批准号: 1906433
• 负责人: Annie Douglass
• 金额: $ 37.03万
• 依托单位: Oregon Museum of Science and Industry
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-09-01 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1906433&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Head; Start; Engineering

There are several critical reasons to understand and support interest development in early childhood: (a) as a primary motivator of engagement and learning; (b) interest development in preschool predicts important learning outcomes and behaviors in early elementary school; and (c) early childhood interests motivate ongoing interest development. Thus, there is growing recognition that interest is not just important but fundamental to education and learning. Head Start on Engineering (HSE) is a multi-component, bilingual (Spanish/English), family-focused program designed to (1) foster long-term interest in the engineering design process for families with preschool children from low-income backgrounds and (2) support family development and kindergarten readiness goals. The HSE program, co-developed with the Head Start community, provides families with developmentally appropriate, story-based engineering design challenges for the home and then connects these to a system of strategically aligned Informal STEM Education (ISE) experiences and resources. This current project, HSE Systems, builds on a previous HSE Pathways project which (a) established that participating families develop persistent engineering-related interests; (b) highlighted the value that the Head Start community has for the program and partnership; and (c) generated a novel, systems perspective on early childhood interest development. The aim of HSE Systems is to develop and test a model of early childhood STEM engagement and advance knowledge of how the family as a system develops interest in STEM from preschool into kindergarten.Through the Design Based Implementation Research (DBIR) process, the team will iteratively refine and improve the HSE program and theory of change using ongoing feedback and data from staff, families, and partners. It is also designed to explore program impacts on family interest development over a longer period, as children enter kindergarten. The DBIR work will focus primarily on the program model questions, while the case study research will focus on the family interest questions, with both strands informing each other. The initial work is organized around a series of feedback and design-testing cycles to gather input from families and other stakeholders, update the program components and activities in collaboration with families and staff, and prepare for full implementation. During the next phase, the team will implement the full program model with six Head Start classrooms and track family experiences and interest development into kindergarten. During final implementation phase, the team will finish data collection, conduct retrospective analysis with all the data, and update the program model and theory of change.This project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. It will directly address the AISL program goals by broadening access to early childhood informal STEM education for low-income communities, with a focus on Spanish-speaking families, and building long-term skills and learning dispositions to support STEM learning inside and outside of school. Beyond the topic of engineering, HSE supports Head Start school readiness and child and family development goals, which are the foundation of lifelong success.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.

理解和支持幼儿兴趣发展有几个关键原因：(a)作为参与和学习的主要动力；(b)学前兴趣发展对小学早期重要的学习成果和行为具有预测作用；(c)儿童早期的兴趣可以促进持续的兴趣发展。因此，越来越多的人认识到兴趣不仅重要，而且是教育和学习的基础。启智工程（HSE）是一个多组件、双语（西班牙语/英语）、以家庭为中心的项目，旨在(1)培养低收入家庭学龄前儿童对工程设计过程的长期兴趣；(2)支持家庭发展和幼儿园准备目标。HSE项目与Head Start社区共同开发，为家庭提供适合发展的、基于故事的家庭工程设计挑战，然后将这些挑战与非正式STEM教育（ISE）经验和资源的战略协调系统联系起来。当前的HSE系统项目建立在之前的HSE路径项目的基础上，该项目(a)确立了参与家庭发展持久的工程相关兴趣；(b)强调启智项目社区对项目和伙伴关系的价值；(c)对儿童早期兴趣发展产生了一种新颖的系统视角。HSE系统的目标是开发和测试早期儿童STEM参与模型，并提高家庭作为一个系统如何从学前班发展到幼儿园对STEM的兴趣的知识。通过基于设计的实施研究（DBIR）流程，团队将使用来自员工、家属和合作伙伴的持续反馈和数据，迭代地完善和改进HSE计划和变革理论。它还旨在探索项目对长期家庭兴趣发展的影响，随着孩子进入幼儿园。DBIR的工作将主要集中在项目模型问题上，而案例研究将集中在家庭兴趣问题上，两者相互通知。最初的工作围绕一系列反馈和设计测试周期来组织，以收集家庭和其他利益相关者的意见，与家庭和工作人员合作更新计划的组成部分和活动，并为全面实施做好准备。在下一阶段，该团队将在六个启智教室中实施完整的项目模式，并将家庭经验和兴趣发展跟踪到幼儿园。在最终实施阶段，团队将完成数据收集，对所有数据进行回顾性分析，并更新项目模型和变更理论。该项目由推进非正式STEM学习（AISL）计划资助，该计划旨在推进非正式环境中STEM学习的设计和开发的新方法和基于证据的理解。它将通过扩大低收入社区儿童早期非正式STEM教育的机会，重点关注讲西班牙语的家庭，并建立长期技能和学习倾向，以支持学校内外的STEM学习，直接实现AISL计划的目标。除了工程主题之外，HSE还支持学前教育准备以及儿童和家庭发展目标，这是终身成功的基础。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。