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声，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职业教育工作者，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。由于教授计算机科学代表着他们职责的大幅扩展和转移，各学区正在寻找方法，帮助这些小学准专业教育工作者学习教授计算机入门概念，并为他们提供课程和教学资源。这一研究-实践伙伴关系解决了农村服务区小学的培训和课程需求。该项目将开发一种支持准专业教育人员学习的模式，以提高他们教授计算机科学的能力。该模式还将为教材的开发提供信息，这些教材建立在现有的以课堂为基础的数学教学的基础上，并与现有的基于课堂的数学教学相联系，以便在计算机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基于标准的课程之上，因此它可以被许多其他学区使用。这个项目将在三个不同的领域促进理论和知识的发展：1)为农村地区缺乏服务和准备不足的准专业教育工作者设计和研究一种学习模式，他们的任务是向学生介绍计算机科学；2)设计和实施一种课程，将课堂数学教学与计算机实验室教学相结合，使用扩展框架模式；3)研究和记录研究人员和实践者伙伴关系的动力和影响，这种伙伴关系在教育研究中日益普遍，并成为学校改进的模式。将收集研究调查、教学视频记录、准专业协作和学习会议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和反复改进副专业学习经验、课程和伙伴关系结构的设计。在这个项目的过程中，20多名准专业人员和他们的500名农村学生将获得与计算机科学相关的新技能。该项目由CS为所有项目提供资金。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。

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.