Let's do science! Promoting the development of beneficial beliefs about science in early childhood

我们来做科学吧！

• 批准号: 2000617
• 负责人: Marjorie Rhodes
• 金额: $ 148.98万
• 依托单位: New York University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-05-01 至 2024-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2000617&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Let; do; science; Promoting; development

The roots of gender, racial, and ethnic disparities in science achievement take hold in early childhood, with lifelong implications for educational outcomes. Often, these early roots are in the form of problematic beliefs, including beliefs that science is something in which only a select group of people can succeed. These beliefs are particularly discouraging for children from social groups that are underrepresented in science, including girls and children from certain racial and ethnic minority groups. This project will reveal how these problematic beliefs develop and how to promote more beneficial ones—in particular, how to promote beliefs that science is something that people learn to do rather than an identity that one needs to have. Further, this project will test whether targeting these beliefs in early childhood creates positive trajectories of science engagement over children’s transition from prekindergarten into formal schooling. In doing so, this project will develop a new approach to spreading beneficial beliefs about science and promoting science engagement among young children from social groups that are underrepresented in science, while addressing fundamental questions about how beliefs develop and spread across communities. By partnering with teachers to implement this project and using an innovative, webcam-based lab for remote developmental research, this project will maximize the opportunities for this research to lead to rapid changes in educational practices that will broaden participation in science in early childhood. This project is funded by the EHR Core Research program, which emphasizes STEM education research that will generate foundational knowledge in the field.Phase 1 will reveal the mechanisms by which problematic or beneficial beliefs about science arise in early childhood via an experimental field study with 2,000 children and 200 teachers in a large, public prekindergarten program. This field experiment will test a model of conceptual development and belief transmission wherein children’s beliefs are shaped by subtle features of the language they hear about science; in particular, teachers’ use of linguistic cues implying that scientists are a special kind of person, including category labels (e.g., “Let’s be scientists!”) and generic descriptions of what scientists do or are like (e.g., “Scientists discover things about the world”). The field experiment will test the influence of reducing these identity-focused linguistic cues, and instead encourage more action-oriented language (e.g., “Let’s do science! Doing science leads to discovering things about the world”) on the development of children’s science beliefs and behavior. Phase 2 will examine the extent to which children’s developing beliefs about whether success in science requires a special identity have consequences for the development of social stereotypes about science and for children’s science engagement and efficacy over the transition to kindergarten (as social disparities in science interest and social stereotypes about scientists begin to emerge). This phase will entail a two-year longitudinal follow-up study of a subset of 500 children from the field experiment, which will be conducted via an innovative webcam-based lab for remote developmental research, which will allow for longitudinal tracking after children transition schools. Thus, this project will advance research by addressing fundamental questions about the nature of early conceptual and social development, including how language shapes the development of children’s science beliefs and behavior, how children’s beliefs change over time, and how researchers and educators can harness developmental mechanisms to promote positive developmental trajectories of science engagement across diverse populations of children. Creation of a public website to share project materials and findings will enable rapid dissemination to researchers across disciplines, curriculum developers, prekindergarten teachers, and families of young children.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.

科学成就中的性别、种族和民族差异的根源在于幼儿期，对教育成果具有终身影响。通常，这些早期的根源是以有问题的信念的形式出现的，包括认为科学是只有一群经过挑选的人才能成功的东西的信念。这些信念尤其令来自科学代表性不足的社会群体的儿童，包括女孩和某些种族和少数民族群体的儿童感到沮丧。这个项目将揭示这些有问题的信念是如何发展的，以及如何促进更有益的信念特别是，如何促进科学是人们学习做的事情，而不是一个人需要拥有的身份的信念。此外，这个项目将测试是否针对这些信念在幼儿期创造积极的轨迹，科学参与儿童的过渡，从学前班到正规学校教育。在这样做的过程中，该项目将开发一种新的方法来传播关于科学的有益信念，并促进科学参与来自科学代表性不足的社会群体的幼儿，同时解决有关信仰如何在社区中发展和传播的基本问题。通过与教师合作实施这一项目，并使用一个创新的、基于网络摄像头的实验室进行远程发展研究，该项目将最大限度地利用这一研究的机会，导致教育实践的快速变化，从而扩大幼儿科学的参与。该项目由EHR核心研究计划资助，该计划强调STEM教育研究，将产生该领域的基础知识。第一阶段将通过一项大型公立幼儿园学前项目的实验性实地研究，对2,000名儿童和200名教师进行研究，揭示儿童早期对科学产生有问题或有益的信念的机制。这个实地实验将测试概念发展和信念传递的模型，其中儿童的信念是由他们听到的关于科学的语言的微妙特征塑造的;特别是，教师使用语言线索暗示科学家是一种特殊的人，包括类别标签（例如，“让我们成为科学家吧！”）以及科学家做什么或像什么的一般描述（例如，“科学家发现世界上的事情”）。现场实验将测试减少这些以身份为中心的语言线索的影响，而是鼓励更多的行动导向的语言（例如，“让我们做科学！做科学导致发现关于世界的事情”）对儿童科学信念和行为的发展。第二阶段将研究儿童对科学成功是否需要特殊身份的发展信念在多大程度上对科学的社会定型观念的发展以及儿童在过渡到幼儿园时的科学参与和功效产生影响（因为科学兴趣的社会差异和科学家的社会定型观念开始出现）。这一阶段将对来自实地实验的500名儿童进行为期两年的纵向跟踪研究，该研究将通过一个基于网络摄像头的远程发展研究创新实验室进行，这将允许在儿童过渡学校后进行纵向跟踪。因此，该项目将通过解决有关早期概念和社会发展的性质的基本问题来推进研究，包括语言如何塑造儿童科学信念和行为的发展，儿童的信念如何随时间变化，以及研究人员和教育工作者如何利用发展机制来促进不同儿童群体科学参与的积极发展轨迹。通过建立一个公共网站来分享项目材料和研究成果，可以快速传播给各个学科的研究人员、课程开发人员、幼儿园教师和幼儿家庭。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。