Collaborative Research: Social Influences of Math Learning

该提案是根据EHR核心研究（ECR）项目公告NSF 19-508提交的。STEM教育基础研究ECR项目为重要、广泛和持久的关键研究领域提供资金。EHR寻求有助于在以下重点领域综合、建立和/或扩大研究基础的提案：STEM学习、STEM学习环境、STEM劳动力发展和扩大STEM参与。ECR项目的特点是强调积累有力的证据，为以下方面的努力提供信息：(a)理解，(b)建立理论来解释，(c)提出干预（和创新）措施，以解决STEM兴趣、教育、学习和参与方面的持续挑战。数学概念的学习，如比例和负数，经常充满困难，因为这些概念在结构上往往与学龄前时期获得的整数概念不一致。这项建议的工作研究了如何通过利用最近的发现来促进对这些概念的推理，这些发现证明了幼儿在招募类似数学知识的社会领域中的相对能力。本建议旨在确定如何容易地将困难的数学概念的习得从可能第一次遇到的非正式社会环境（例如，分享）转移到通常要求儿童应用它们的更正式的环境（例如，正式算术）。通过对1000多名4-9岁儿童的行为实验，本研究将探讨社会环境如何促进数学学习。在系列1中，研究调查了社会框架如何影响儿童对两个传统上违反直觉的概念的学习：负数和比例。系列2将研究促进知识在情境化、非正式情景(如日常生活中遇到的情景（如分享）到更正式、基于符号的情景（如除法）之间转移的因素。最后，系列3将调查社会背景影响如何反过来促进或阻碍儿童。年代学习。这些研究调查了竞争与合作的偏好，以及对学术领域的性别刻板印象如何影响儿童选择学习机会的决定，从而影响他们的数学学习。这项工作的高潮应该描绘出对数学学习的社会影响的更广泛的理解，为数学教育实践指出新的方向。这个项目将为社会环境如何促进或阻碍反直觉数学概念的学习提供更深入的见解。该项目由EHR核心研究（ECR）计划支持，该计划强调STEM的基础研究。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 proposal was submitted in response to EHR Core Research (ECR) program announcement NSF 19-508. The ECR program of fundamental research in STEM education provides funding in critical research areas that are essential, broad and enduring. EHR seeks proposals that will help synthesize, build and/or expand research foundations in the following focal areas: STEM learning, STEM learning environments, STEM workforce development, and broadening participation in STEM. The ECR program is distinguished by its emphasis on the accumulation of robust evidence to inform efforts to (a) understand, (b) build theory to explain, and (c) suggest interventions (and innovations) to address persistent challenges in STEM interest, education, learning, and participation.The learning of mathematical concepts, such as proportions and negative numbers, is frequently fraught with difficulty because often these concepts do not structurally align with whole number concepts acquired during the preschool years. This proposed work investigates how to promote reasoning about such concepts by capitalizing on recent findings demonstrating young children's relative competence in social domains that recruit similar mathematical knowledge. This proposal aims to identify how the acquisition of difficult mathematical concepts may be readily transferred from informal social contexts in which they may be first encountered (e.g., sharing) to more formal contexts in which children are typically asked to apply them (e.g., formal arithmetic). Through behavioral experiments with over 1000 4-9-year-old children, this work will explore how social contexts may promote math learning. In Series 1, studies investigate how social framing impacts children's learning of two traditionally counter-intuitive concepts: negative numbers and proportions. Series 2 will investigates factors that facilitate transfer of knowledge between math concepts learned in contextualized, informal scenarios such as those encountered in one's daily life (e.g., sharing) to more formal, symbolic-based contexts (e.g., division). Finally, Series 3 will investigate how socio-contextual influences may, in turn, serve to promote or hinder children?s learning. These studies investigate how preferences for competition versus collaboration, and gender stereotypes about academic domains impact children's decisions to opt in and out of learning opportunities affect their math learning. The culmination of this work should paint a broader understanding of social influences on math learning, pointing to new directions for math education practices. This project will provide deeper insight into how social contexts may promote or hinder the learning of counter-intuitive math concepts. The project is supported by the EHR Core Research (ECR) program that emphasizes fundamental research in STEM.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.