Collaborative Research: Supporting Rural Paraprofessional Educators and their Students with Computer Science Professional Learning and Expansively Framed Curriculum

随着向所有学生提供更多计算机科学教学的呼吁，学区越来越依赖课堂教师以外的一系列教育工作者来帮助教授计算机科学。在农村和小城镇以及预算有限的地区，这一责任往往被分配给兼职的准专业教育工作者，特别是在小学。这些人通常是从当地社区雇用的，没有接受过计算机科学或教育学方面的正式培训。由于计算机科学教学代表了他们的责任的实质性扩展和转变，地区正在寻求方法来帮助这些小学准专业教育工作者学习讲授入门计算概念，并为他们提供课程和教学资源。这种研究与实践的伙伴关系解决了农村服务区小学的培训和课程需求。该项目将开发一个支持辅助专业教育工作者学习的模式，以提高他们教授计算机科学的能力。该模型还将为建立在现有课堂数学教学基础上并与之相联系的教学材料的开发提供信息，以便在计算教学的背景下重新审视和加强数学概念。由于该模式建立在广泛使用的标准课程基础上，因此可以被许多其他学区使用。还将反复审查和完善伙伴关系本身不断演变的性质和动态，以便了解如何更好地构建研究-实践伙伴关系，促进公平参与和不断改进。第一章为农村地区服务不足和准备不足的准专业教育工作者设计和研究学习模式，这些教育工作者的任务是向学生介绍计算机科学; 2）设计和实施一个课程，将课堂数学教学与计算机实验室教学相结合，使用扩展框架模型; 3）研究和记录研究人员和实践者伙伴关系的动态和影响，这在教育研究中越来越普遍，并作为学校改进模型。将收集研究调查、教学视频记录、辅助专业人员协作和学习课程以及与利益攸关方和教育工作者的访谈。这些数据将用于研究，并用于反复改进准专业学习经验，课程和伙伴关系结构的设计。20多名准专业人员及其500名农村学生将在该项目期间获得与计算机科学有关的新技能。该项目由CS for All计划资助。该奖项反映了NSF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。

With the call to provide more computer science instruction to all students, school districts are increasingly relying on a range of educators beyond the classroom teacher to help teach computer science. In rural and small towns and in districts with limited budgets, this responsibility is often assigned to part-time paraprofessional educators, especially in elementary schools. These individuals typically are hired from the local community and do not have formal training in computer science or pedagogy. As teaching computer science represents a substantial expansion and shift in their responsibilities, districts are seeking ways to help these elementary school paraprofessional educators learn to teach introductory computing concepts as well as provide them with curriculum and teaching resources. This research-practice partnership addresses the training and curriculum needs for elementary schools in a rural serving district. This project will develop a model for supporting paraprofessional educators’ learning in order to enhance their ability to teach computer science. The model will also inform the development of instructional materials that build on and connect to existing classroom-based mathematics instruction such that mathematical concepts are revisited and strengthened in the context of computing instruction. As the model builds on a widely used and standards-based curriculum, it can be used by many other school districts. The evolving nature and dynamics of the partnership itself will also be iteratively examined and refined in order to generate knowledge of how research-practice partnerships can be better structured for equitable participation and continuous improvement.This project will advance theory and knowledge in three different areas: 1) the design and study of a learning model for underserved and underprepared paraprofessional educators in rural areas who are tasked with introducing students to computer science; 2) the design and implementation of a curriculum that integrates classroom mathematics instruction with computer lab instruction using a model of expansive framing; 3) the study and documentation of the dynamics and influence of researcher and practitioner partnerships, which are increasingly becoming prevalent in educational research and as a school improvement model. A combination of research surveys, video records of instruction, paraprofessional collaboration and learning sessions, and interviews with stakeholders and educators will be collected. These data will be used for research and for iteratively improving the design of paraprofessional learning experiences, curricula, and the partnership structure. Over 20 paraprofessionals and their 500 rural students will gain new skills related to computer science during the course of this project. This project is funded by the CS for All program.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.