Building Quantitative Capacity in Contextualized STEM Education Research

ECR: BCSER个人研究者发展（IID）在STEM教育研究中的主要目标是促进教育研究专业知识的获取，使研究者能够成功地构思和执行基础研究，并有可能在ECR的研究领域之一-学习和学习环境，扩大参与和劳动力发展中有意意义地推进当前知识。本项目名为“构建情境化STEM教育研究中的定量能力”，旨在通过系统分析，综合现有的STEM情境化知识体系及其对STEM学习的影响。该项目有两个不同的目标：1)进行多方面的文献综述，以确定影响情境化与STEM学习之间关系的因素；2)准备PI通过实现一个专注的专业发展计划来领导这项研究，该计划依赖于指导和参与研讨会和课程。研究结果可能对STEM教学、课程开发、教师准备、未来研究轨迹以及扩大STEM参与产生积极影响。该项目的研究方法包括对有关情境化STEM学习的现有文献进行回顾，包括文献计量学网络综述，以确定先行理论的家族，对该领域的定性和定量工作进行系统的景观分析，以及进行荟萃分析，以比较定量评估的情境化干预措施的效果大小。三位有成就的科学教育研究人员的持续指导，以及与教师研究团队的合作，为PI提供了实施研究的技能和知识。完成在线课程、参与研究静修、参与一系列与研究相关的研讨会（包括文献计量学、网络分析、元分析和R编程），也对PI的研究能力建设起着实质性的作用。该项目支持两名研究生，他们通过数据收集、管理和分析为研究和自己的成长做出贡献。项目的导师定期对项目的两个目标进行评估，为优化项目的活动和结果提供实际的反馈。随着PI的研究能力的发展，重要的智力价值在于项目有可能产生关于情境化研究集群的可操作信息，他们的先验理论观点，关于情境化如何运作的模式，以及关于情境化如何，在多大程度上以及为谁改善STEM学习的元分析模式。通过应用研究结果，预计将产生更广泛的影响，以增加代表性不足群体在STEM中的参与。这项研究的结果将通过同行评议期刊的出版物和专业会议上的报告进行传播。该项目得到了EHR核心研究：STEM教育研究能力建设（ECR: BCSER）竞赛的支持，该竞赛旨在培养个人在STEM学习和学习环境中开展高质量基础STEM教育研究的能力，扩大STEM领域的参与，以及STEM劳动力的发展。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。

The primary goal of the ECR: BCSER Individual Investigator Development (IID) in STEM education research is to facilitate the acquisition of education research expertise to enable an investigator to successfully conceive and execute fundamental research with the potential to meaningfully advance current knowledge in one of ECR's research domains - learning and learning environments, broadening participation, and workforce development. This project, titled "Building Quantitative Capacity in Contextualized STEM Education Research", focuses on synthesizing, through systematic analysis, the existing body of knowledge on STEM contextualization and its influence on STEM learning. The project has two distinct aims: 1) to conduct a multi-faceted literature review to identify factors that impact the relationship between contextualization and STEM learning, and 2) to prepare the PI to lead this study through the realization of a focused professional development plan that relies on mentorship and participation in workshops and coursework. Findings from the study could have positive impacts on STEM teaching and learning, curriculum development, teacher preparation, future research trajectories, and broadening participation in STEM.The project's research approach consists of a review of existing literature on contextualized STEM learning, including a bibliometric network review to identify families of antecedent theory, a systematic landscape analysis of qualitative and quantitative work in the field, and a meta-analysis to compare effect sizes of contextualization interventions that were quantitatively evaluated. Ongoing mentorship from three accomplished science education researchers as well as work with a faculty research cohort serve to prepare the PI with the skills and knowledge to implement the study. The completion of online courses, participation in research retreats, and engagement in a series of workshops on topics relevant to the study (including bibliometrics, network analysis, meta-analysis, and R programming), also play substantive roles in building the PI's research capacity. Two graduate students are supported by the project, contributing to the research and their own growth as researchers through data collection, management, and analysis. Evaluation of the project's progress on its two aims is conducted regularly by the project's mentors, providing practical feedback for optimizing the project's activities and outcomes. Along with developing the PI's research capacity, significant intellectual merit lies in the project's potential to generate actionable information on the cluster of contextualization research, their antecedent theoretical perspectives, patterns on how contextualization has been operationalized, and meta-analytic patterns in how, to what degree, and for whom contextualization can improve STEM learning. Broader impacts are anticipated through the application of findings to increase the participation of underrepresented groups in STEM. The study's findings will be disseminated through publications in peer-reviewed journals and presentations at professional meetings. The project is supported through the EHR Core Research: Building Capacity in STEM Education Research (ECR: BCSER) competition that is designed to build individuals' capacity to carry out high quality fundamental STEM education research in STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM fields, and STEM workforce development.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.