Collaborative Research: Promoting Engagement in Informal STEM Learning as a Path to Employment for Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder

许多自闭症患者失业和孤立，因为他们无法获得教育机会，无法找到与自己潜力相匹配的工作。这项研究旨在帮助患有自闭症的青少年寻找与他们的优势和兴趣相匹配的职业。许多自闭症患者对计算机感兴趣，这是一项有市场的技能。这个项目建立在这种兴趣的基础上，通过制定策略来有效地吸引自闭症青少年。虽然自闭症患者有共同的诊断，但每个人都是独一无二的，都有能力以自己的方式成为一个有远见的人，改变社会。患有自闭症的青少年将被邀请参加一个由屡获殊荣的非营利组织Tech Kids Unlimited主办的游戏设计研讨会。青少年通常喜欢学习如何设计游戏，并可以通过设计学习许多有用的技能。在每次研讨会中，青少年将使用与自闭症患者合作开发的基于图片的调查来评估不同的教学策略。有集中注意力困难的自闭症青少年被包含多种类型信息的策略（例如，图片、文本和演讲）所吸引。该团队还预计，那些更专注的人更容易被信息来源更少的策略所吸引。通过制定明确的指导方针，帮助教育工作者将其教学风格与不同学生的学习方式相匹配，该项目将帮助他们更有效地吸引青少年。通过迭代过程，团队将修改游戏设计研讨会，使其更适合不同类型的自闭症患者。新的自闭症青少年群体将参加改进游戏设计研讨会，其中包括在一家科技公司实习的机会。一个重要的结果是了解哪些策略对患有自闭症的年轻人有吸引力，这些策略可以帮助他们培养对自己的技能的信念，从而找到令人满意的职业。该奖项由高级非正式STEM学习计划资助，该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。“服务于实践的研究”项目有以下目的：1)确定以证据为基础的策略，让自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）青年参与与其注意力特征相匹配的非正式STEM学习机会；2)确定让自闭症谱系障碍青年参与非正式STEM学习机会是否能提高他们的STEM自我效能感；3)确定参与STEM实习活动是否与提高对STEM职业的兴趣和职业决策自我效能感有关。通用设计原则（UD）和Mayer的有效多媒体教学原则是用来确定具有不同注意力特征的青少年情感参与的教学策略的框架。注意差异对非正式STEM学习中不同的情感投入模式的影响程度将被调查。在对青年参与不同学习机会的评估的指导下，将制定“多样性蓝图”或具体的教学策略，帮助具有不同注意力特征的青年参与。在确定了让神经分化（神经多样性）青年参与非正式STEM学习机会的策略后，将探讨这些策略在多大程度上推广到STEM实习地点。该团队将研究促进不同类型自我效能感的情境类型的潜在特异性，参与课外STEM学习机会有望优先针对STEM自我效能感，而参与实习则针对职业决策自我效能感。虽然UD经常被认可促进残疾学生的STEM学习，但拟议的研究将是教学策略的第一次迭代适应，旨在通过系统分析他们如何参与和感受教学策略，引导神经发散青少年参与非正式的STEM学习。项目可交付成果包括为当地课后项目提供者举办的讲习班、出版物、项目网站，以及制定“多样性蓝图”过程的多模式指南，以及如何将其应用于非正式STEM教育工作者和研究人员。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。

Many people with autism are unemployed and isolated because they do not have access to educational opportunities that support them in finding jobs that match their potential. This research seeks to empower adolescents with autism to seek out careers that are well-matched with their strengths and interests. Many people with autism are interested in computing, a marketable skill. This project builds from this interest by developing strategies to effectively engage teenagers with autism. Although people with autism share a diagnosis, each person is unique and has the capacity to become a visionary and transformer in society in their own way. Teenagers with autism will be invited to participate in a game design workshop hosted by an award-winning, not-for-profit Tech Kids Unlimited. Teenagers often enjoy learning how to design games and can learn many useful skills through design. During each workshop, teenagers will rate different teaching strategies using a picture-based survey developed in collaboration with people with autism. It is expected that teenagers with autism who have difficulty focusing to be most engaged by strategies that include multiple types of information (for example, pictures, text, and speech). The team also expects those who are more focused to be most engaged by strategies with fewer sources of information. By developing clear guidelines to help educators match their teaching styles to how different students learn, the project will help them engage youth more effectively. Through an iterative process, the team will revise the game design workshop to make it more engaging for people with different types of autism. New groups of teenagers with autism will participate in improved game design workshops that include an internship in a technology company. An important outcome is to understand which strategies are engaging for young people with autism that help them develop the belief in their skills needed to seek out fulfilling careers. This award is funded by the Advanced Informal STEM Learning program which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. This Research in Service to Practice project has the following aims: 1) Identify evidence-based strategies to engage youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in informal STEM learning opportunities that are well matched to their attentional profiles, 2) Determine if engaging youth with ASD in informal STEM learning opportunities increases their STEM self-efficacy, and 3) Determine if engagement with STEM internship activities is associated with increased interest in STEM careers and career decision-making self-efficacy. Principles of Universal Design (UD) and Mayer’s principles of effective multimedia instruction are frameworks employed to identify instructional strategies that are emotionally engaging for youth with diverse attentional profiles. The degree to which attentional differences contribute to different patterns of emotional engagement with informal STEM learning will be investigated. Guided by assessments of youth’s engagement with different learning opportunities, “diversity blueprints” or specific instructional strategies that help youth with diverse attentional profiles engage will be developed. After identifying strategies to engage neurodivergent (neurologically diverse) youth in informal STEM learning opportunities, the extent to which these strategies generalize to STEM internship sites will be explored. The team will study potential specificity of the types of contexts that promote different types of self-efficacy, with engagement with extracurricular STEM learning opportunities expected to preferentially target STEM self-efficacy while engagement with internships targets career decision-making self-efficacy. Although UD is often endorsed to promote STEM learning among students with disabilities, the proposed research would be the first iterative adaptation of instructional strategies designed to engage neurodivergent teens in informal STEM learning guided by a systematic analysis of how they engage with and feel about instructional strategies. Project deliverables include workshops for local after-school program providers, publications, a project website, and a multimodal guide of the process of developing “diversity blueprints” and how to apply them for informal STEM educators and researchers.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.