Designing and Researching a Program for Preparing Teachers as Facilitators of Computational Making Activities in Classroom and Informal Learning Environments

本项目将研究一种职前教师培养模式，旨在提高教师和学生的计算思维技能和信心，并将教师培养为促进计算思维的包容性学习环境的设计者。该项目将建立教师对多元化家庭学习和文化资源的认识。该项目将聘请小学（K-5年级）职前教师（同时参与校本教师培训计划）在现有的家庭技术计划“家庭创造性学习”（FCL）中担任辅导员。该项目嵌入丹佛公共图书馆（DPL）的创客空间网络中。该项目将研究职前小学教师的计算思维和促进实践及其对儿童在非正式和课堂环境下学习的影响，职前教师同时进行实地工作。项目团队将开发基于研究的资源、工具和活动，以帮助培养这些关键的促进实践。这些实践将包括如何发展信任和关系，如何加深参与和兴趣，以及如何提出鼓励探究的问题。这些资源将对教师的准备工作和非正式学习组织的工作人员有用，这些组织的制作和修补空间促进STEM学习，特别是计算思维。该项目将通过目前与PBS Kids的关系以及MakerEd、Connected Learning Alliance和技术教育网络等教育者网络传播资源。该项目将研究：(1)DPL职前教师准备和促进FCL项目的经验特征支持或限制了他们促进实践和计算思维的发展；(2)研究教师和参与者如何通过制作来共同参与计算思维的学习和发展；(3)考察教师如何在课堂环境中继承和影响学生的实地学习。项目团队将使用民族志方法对职前教师的发展及其在正式和非正式学习环境中对学生学习的影响进行比较案例研究。这些方法包括观察、访谈和人工制品收集，以密切记录支持新的促进者参与计算思维活动的促进实践及其对学生和家庭学习的后续影响。具有相关专业知识的外部咨询委员会将提供迭代反馈，并评估项目在实现其目标方面的进展。项目结果对正式和非正式学习空间的教学实践具有启示意义，旨在让不同的参与者参与兴趣驱动、同伴支持和基于项目的STEM学习体验。探索研究K-12项目（DRK-12）旨在通过研究和开发创新资源、模型和工具，显著提高pre -12学生和教师对科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）的学习和教学。DRK-12计划中的项目建立在STEM教育的基础研究和先前的研究和开发工作的基础上，为拟议的项目提供了理论和实证依据。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。

This project will study a model of pre-service teacher preparation that is designed to to increase teachers' and students' skills and confidence with computational thinking and develop teachers as designers of inclusive learning environments to promote computational thinking. The project will build teachers' recognition of diverse family learning and cultural resources. The project will engage elementary (grades K-5) pre-service teachers (who are concurrently involved in school-based teacher preparation programs) as facilitators in an existing family technology program called Family Creative Learning (FCL). This program is embedded in the Denver Public Library (DPL) network of makerspaces. The project will study pre-service elementary teachers' computational thinking and facilitation practices and its impact on children's learning across informal and classroom settings where pre-service teachers concurrently conduct their field work. The project team will develop research-based resources, tools, and activities that help to cultivate these key facilitation practices. These practices will include how to develop trust and relationships, to deepen participation and interests, and to ask questions that encourage inquiry. These resources will be useful for teacher preparation and for staff at informal learning organizations with making and tinkering spaces promoting STEM learning, specifically computational thinking. The project will disseminate resources through current relationships with PBS Kids and through networks of educators such as MakerEd, Connected Learning Alliance, and technology education networks. The project will research: (1) what features of pre-service teachers' experiences preparing for and facilitating the FCL program at DPL supports or limits their development of facilitation practices and computational thinking; (2) study how teachers and participants learn and develop in their joint engagement with computational thinking through making; (3) examine how teachers carry over and influence student's learning in their fieldwork within classroom settings. The project team will use ethnographic methods to develop comparative case studies of pre-service teachers' development and the impact on student learning across formal and informal learning settings. These methods include observation, interviews, and artifact collection to closely document what supports new facilitators to engage in facilitation practices of computational thinking activities and its consequential impact on student and family learning. An external advisory board with relevant expertise will provide iterative feedback and assess the project's progress in meeting its goals. The project results have implications for teaching practices across formal and informal learning spaces that aim to engage diverse participants in interest-driven, peer-supported, and project-based STEM learning experiences.The Discovery Research K-12 program (DRK-12) seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of innovative resources, models and tools. Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects.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.