EAGER: Collaborative Research: Building Capacity for K-12 Artificial Intelligence Education Research

人工智能(AI)将深刻影响美国和全球的社会。它正开始渗透到我们日常生活的方方面面，并正在从根本上重塑我们的劳动力。由于人工智能将极大地影响经济和国家安全，我们必须制定一项深思熟虑的国家回应，以应对这项具有惊人颠覆性的技术。这种回应必须包括一种向K-12学生介绍人工智能的有意义的方法。然而，尽管美国和海外的人工智能技术发展步伐都在加快，人们对K-12人工智能教育战略的兴趣也在迅速增长，但这样的战略并没有现成的研究基础。因此，必须为K-12人工智能教育制定一种基于证据的方法，这要求教育研究界协调一致的能力建设努力，以满足这一重大需求。该项目的目标是开始建立一个跨学科研究社区，通过举办两个跨学科研讨会来应对创建国家K-12人工智能教育战略的关键挑战。该项目由STEM计算(STEM C)计划资助，该计划支持研究和开发，以了解计算和计算思维在STEM学习中的整合。该项目将汇集教育研究、人工智能、行业和K-12教育从业人员的专家，以发展共同的理解，并创建研究议程，将循证人工智能教育带到K-12课堂。教育研究人员将包括来自人工智能教育、学习科学、STEM教育(包括科学教育、数学教育、计算机科学教育和计算思维)、教师教育和发展心理学的领导者。这些讲习班将在建立对国家K-12人工智能教育计划的成功至关重要的联系方面发挥核心作用。这些领域的领导者将共同制定研究议程，为K-12学生群体开发人工智能教育的最佳实践。该项目团队还将对K-12人工智能教育研究应如何应对人工智能的深远社会影响进行广泛分析。这些分析既将由讲习班提供信息，也将指导讲习班。调查结果将在项目组编写的出版物中的报告中提出。总之，研讨会系列和分析具有重大的变革潜力，以满足催化研究社区的迫切需要，该社区将指导K-12人工智能教育的课程设计和实施。作为一个长期目标，该项目将最有效地为K-12人工智能教育提供信息、形成和定义国家战略。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。

Artificial intelligence (AI) will profoundly impact society in the US and around the globe. It is beginning to permeate every aspect of our daily lives and is fundamentally reshaping our workforce. Because AI will dramatically impact both the economy and national security, it is imperative that we develop a thoughtful national response to this phenomenally disruptive technology. This response must include a meaningful approach to introducing K-12 students to AI. However, despite the accelerating pace of AI technology development both in the US and abroad and the rapidly growing interest in a strategy for K-12 AI education, there is no research foundation on which such a strategy can be readily based. It is therefore essential to develop an evidence-based approach for K-12 AI education, which calls for a concerted capacity building effort within the education research community to address this significant need. The objective of the project is to begin building an interdisciplinary research community to address the critical challenge of creating a national K-12 AI education strategy by convening two interdisciplinary workshops. This project is funded by the STEM + Computing (STEM+C) program, which supports research and development to understand the integration of computing and computational thinking in STEM learning.The project will bring together experts in education research, AI, industry, and K-12 educational practitioners to develop a shared understanding and create a research agenda to bring evidence-based AI education to K-12 classrooms. Education researchers will include leaders from AI in education, the learning sciences, STEM education (including science education, mathematics education, computer science education, and computational thinking), teacher education, and developmental psychology. The workshops will play a central role in establishing the connections that are essential to the success of a national K-12 AI education initiative. Collectively, leaders in these fields will create a research agenda for developing best practices for AI education for K-12 student populations. The project team will also conduct broad analyses of how K-12 AI education research should respond to AI's far-reaching societal impact. These analyses will both be informed by and will guide the workshops. The findings will be presented in reports in publications prepared by the project team. Together, the workshop series and analyses hold significant transformative potential to address the urgent need to catalyze a research community that will guide curricular design and implementation for K-12 AI education. As a long-term objective, the project will be conducted to most effectively inform, shape, and define a national strategy for K-12 AI education.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.