Collaborative Research: The Development of Culturally Responsive Digital Media to Support STEM Knowledge Acquisition for English Learners

合作研究：开发文化响应式数字媒体以支持英语学习者获取 STEM 知识

• 批准号: 2005584
• 负责人: Kelsey Savage
• 金额: $ 24.79万
• 依托单位: COMPLEXLY LLC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-07-01 至 2023-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2005584&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Development; Culturally; Responsive

As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understandings of deeper learning by participants. This project would expand the informal STEM learning field’s understanding of how to use digital science media to increase STEM educational experiences and opportunities for English language learners. Across the U.S. there are significant STEM opportunity and achievement gaps for English learners with varying levels of English proficiency. This is at a time when the U.S. is facing a shortage of STEM professionals in the workforce including the life and physical science fields. This project aims to close these gaps and improve English learners' STEM learning outcomes using digital media. Within community colleges, there are multiple site-based programs to provide content to help English learners to learn English and to improve their math and literacy skills. Involving the state community college networks is a critical strategy for gathering important feedback for the pedagogical approach as well as for recruiting English learner research participants. The team will initially study an existing YouTube chemistry series produced by Complexly then produce and test new videos in Spanish using culturally relevant instructional strategies. The target audience is 18-34-year-old English learners. Project partners are Complexly, a producer of digital STEM media and EDC, a research organization with experience in studying informal STEM learning. The project has the potential to advance knowledge about the use of culturally relevant media to improve STEM opportunities and success for English language learners. Using a Design-Based Implementation Research framework the research questions include: 1) what are the effective production and instructional strategies for creating digital media to teach science to English learners whose native language is Spanish? 2) what science content knowledge do English learners gain when the project’s approach is applied to a widely available set of YouTube videos? and 3) how might the findings from the research be applied to future efforts targeting English learners? The project has the potential to significantly broaden participation in science and engineering. Phase 1 of the research will be an exploration of how to apply strategic pedagogical approaches to digital media content development. Interviews will be conducted with educators in 3 focal states with high numbers of English language learners (NY, CA, TX) to reflect on pedagogical foundations for teaching science to English learners. A survey of 30 English learners will provide feedback on the perceived strengths and weaknesses of a selection of existing YouTube chemistry videos. Phase 2 will create/test prototypes of 6 adapted chemistry videos. Forty students (ages 18-34) will be recruited and participate in cognitive interviews with researchers after viewing these videos. Based on this input additional videos will be produced with revised instructional strategies for further testing. Additional rounds of production and testing will be conducted to develop an English learners mini chemistry series. Phase 3 will be a pilot study to gauge the science learning of 75 English learners who will view an 11-episode chemistry miniseries. It will also identify gaps in expected learning to determine whether any further adjustments are necessary to the instructional approach.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.

作为加强非正式环境中学习的总体战略的一部分，推进非正式STEM学习（AISL）计划旨在推进非正式环境中STEM学习的设计和开发的新方法和基于证据的理解。这包括提供多种途径，扩大STEM学习经验的获取和参与，推进非正式环境中STEM学习的创新研究和评估，以及发展参与者对深度学习的理解。该项目将扩大非正式STEM学习领域对如何使用数字科学媒体来增加英语学习者的STEM教育体验和机会的理解。在美国各地，不同英语水平的英语学习者在STEM方面的机会和成绩差距都很大。这是在美国面临包括生命和物理科学领域在内的劳动力中STEM专业人员短缺的时候。该项目旨在缩小这些差距，并利用数字媒体提高英语学习者的STEM学习成果。在社区大学里，有多个基于网站的项目提供内容，帮助英语学习者学习英语，提高他们的数学和读写能力。参与州立社区大学网络是为教学方法收集重要反馈以及招募英语学习者研究参与者的关键策略。该团队将首先研究Complexly制作的现有YouTube化学系列，然后使用与文化相关的教学策略制作和测试西班牙语新视频。目标受众是18-34岁的英语学习者。项目合作伙伴是数字STEM媒体生产商Complexly和研究STEM非正式学习经验的研究机构EDC。该项目有可能促进有关使用文化相关媒体的知识，以增加英语学习者在STEM方面的机会和成功。使用基于设计的实施研究框架，研究问题包括：1)创建数字媒体以向母语为西班牙语的英语学习者教授科学的有效生产和教学策略是什么？2)当这个项目的方法应用于一组广泛可用的YouTube视频时，英语学习者获得了哪些科学内容知识？3)研究结果如何应用于未来针对英语学习者的努力？该项目有可能大大扩大科学和工程领域的参与。研究的第一阶段将是探索如何将战略教学方法应用于数字媒体内容开发。访谈将在三个英语学习者数量较多的重点州（纽约州、加利福尼亚州和得克萨斯州）对教育工作者进行，以反思向英语学习者教授科学的教学基础。一项针对30名英语学习者的调查将对YouTube上现有的一些化学视频的优缺点提供反馈。第二阶段将创建/测试6个改编化学视频的原型。我们将招募40名年龄在18-34岁之间的学生，在观看完这些视频后与研究人员进行认知访谈。根据这一输入，将制作带有修订教学策略的额外视频，以供进一步测试。将进行额外的生产和测试，以开发英语学习者迷你化学系列。第三阶段将是一项试点研究，评估75名英语学习者的科学学习能力，他们将观看11集的化学迷你剧。它还将确定预期学习的差距，以确定是否有必要对教学方法进行进一步调整。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。