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

合作研究：促进非正式 STEM 学习的参与，作为自闭症谱系障碍青少年的就业途径

• 批准号: 2005772
• 负责人: Kristen Gillespie
• 金额: $ 94.55万
• 依托单位: CUNY College of Staten Island
• 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: 2020-09-01 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2005772&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Promoting; Engagement; Informal

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.

许多自闭症患者失业和与世隔绝，因为他们没有机会获得教育机会，以帮助他们找到与其潜力相匹配的工作。这项研究旨在使患有自闭症的青少年能够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感兴趣，这是一种有市场的技能。这个项目从这种兴趣出发，通过制定有效地让患有自闭症的青少年参与进来的策略来建立。尽管自闭症患者都有相同的诊断，但每个人都是独一无二的，都有能力以自己的方式成为社会中的梦想家和变形者。患有自闭症的青少年将被邀请参加由屡获殊荣的非营利性组织Tech Kids UnLimited主办的游戏设计研讨会。青少年经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。在每个研讨会期间，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对不同的教学策略进行评级。自闭症青少年在集中注意力方面有困难，预计他们会更多地使用包括多种信息(例如图片、文本和语音)的策略。该团队还预计，那些更专注于信息来源较少的战略的人会最投入。通过制定明确的指导方针，帮助教育工作者将他们的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年轻人。通过迭代过程，该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后的游戏设计研讨会，其中包括在一家科技公司实习。一个重要的结果是了解哪些策略适用于患有自闭症的年轻人，帮助他们培养对自己技能的信念，这些技能是寻找成就感职业所必需的。该奖项由高级非正式STEM学习计划资助，该计划旨在促进在非正式环境中设计和开发STEM学习的新方法和基于证据的理解。这项服务于实践的研究项目有以下目标：1)确定循证策略，让自闭症谱系障碍(ASD)青少年参与与他们的注意状况相匹配的非正式STEM学习机会；2)确定让ASD青少年参与非正式STEM学习机会是否提高了他们的STEM自我效能；以及3)确定参与STEM实习活动是否与增加对STEM职业和职业决策自我效能的兴趣有关。通用设计原则(UD)和迈耶的有效多媒体教学原则是用来确定对具有不同注意特征的青少年进行情感吸引的教学策略的框架。注意力差异对非正式STEM学习的不同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”或具体的教学战略，以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(神经学上不同的)青年参与STEM非正式学习机会的战略之后，将探讨这些战略在STEM实习地点的推广程度。该团队将研究促进不同类型自我效能的环境类型的潜在特殊性，参与课外STEM学习机会预计优先针对STEM自我效能，而参与实习以职业决策自我效能为目标。虽然UD经常被支持在残疾学生中促进STEM学习，但拟议的研究将是第一次反复调整教学策略，旨在通过对他们如何参与和感受教学策略的系统分析，引导神经分歧的青少年参与非正式STEM学习。项目成果包括为当地课后项目提供者举办的研讨会、出版物、项目网站，以及有关制定“多样性蓝图”的过程以及如何将其应用于非正式STEM教育工作者和研究人员的多模式指南。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。