Computational Thinking Funds of Knowledge: A Culturally-Relevant Assessment for Early Elementary Students

该奖项的全部或部分资金来自《2021年美国救援计划法案》(公法117-2)。它正在为历史上被边缘化的黑人和西班牙裔早期年级的学生开发公平计算思维(CT)评估。儿童和他们的家人在日常生活中从事CT，这种经历是潜在的强大的学习和评估机会。特别是黑人和西班牙裔家庭和社区的日常知识必须与教学和评估机会交织在一起，因为它们往往没有反映在标准的教学和评估中。鉴于计算机科学缺乏多样性，通过研究发现黑人和西班牙裔家庭丰富的CT资源将有助于开发CT的文化支持评估工具(CSAT)。这将帮助教育工作者利用学生所知的知识，找到支持这些代表性不足的学生的方法。这些知识随后将为开发更公平的CT评估材料奠定基础。这种方法具有变革性，因为它将家庭和社区知识置于评估发展的核心。它解决了与标准化绩效衡量中的文化偏见问题有关的关切。在关注马萨诸塞州斯普林菲尔德黑人和西班牙裔家庭的生活经历的同时，该团队预计，CT的CSAT将对类似斯普林菲尔德的中等城市的黑人和西班牙裔家庭有用，因此将产生广泛的全国影响。计算思维知识基金(CTFoK)是一个研究项目，专注于为从幼儿园到二年级的学生开发CT的CSAT。它寻求扩大对计算机科学(CS)的参与，明确侧重于黑人和西班牙裔家庭通过日常生活活动制定的CTFoK的丰富资源，并创建反映这种知识和文化背景的有效评估。通过课堂观察、家庭访谈和教师访谈，本项目的研究将集中在：确定儿童进入学校的家庭和社区CTFoK；CSAT在测量CT方面的有效性；年轻学生对CT(K-2年级)的概念性理解；教师在项目中的经验，特别是反映在对与黑人和西班牙裔家庭和学生合作的基于优势的方法的了解和重视上，以及将CS/CT概念融入这些教师的教学实践中。传统的评估被证明嵌入了文化偏见，从而使有色人种儿童长期处于不利地位。因此，CS教育研究界制定公平的评估方法至关重要。这项工作在两个层面上具有变革性：第一，它将家庭和社区知识作为儿童先前和未来知识的基础；第二，它利用这些信息来创建公平的评估材料。这项工作将在向整个CSED社区提供研究成果方面产生广泛的影响。这个项目通过CS for All：Research and RPPS计划得到支持。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。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). It is developing equitable computational thinking (CT) assessments for historically marginalized Black and Hispanic students in the early grades. Children and their families engage in CT in their everyday lives, with such experiences serving as potentially powerful learning and assessment opportunities. The everyday knowledge of Black and Hispanic families and communities, in particular, must be interwoven with instructional and assessment opportunities, as too often they are not reflected in standard instruction and assessment. Given the lack of diversity in computer science, uncovering the rich CT resources of Black and Hispanic families through research will aid in the development of culturally sustaining assessments tools (CSAT) for CT. This will help educators leverage what students know in order to find ways to support these underrepresented students. This knowledge will subsequently provide a foundation for development of more equitable CT assessment materials. This approach is transformative, in that it puts family and community knowledge at the heart of assessment development. It addresses concerns related to the problem of cultural bias in standardized measures of achievement. While focusing on the lived experiences of Black and Hispanic families in Springfield, Massachusetts, the team anticipates that the CSAT for CT will be useful for Black and Hispanic families in mid-sized cities similar to Springfield, and will, therefore, have a broad national impact.Computational Thinking Funds of Knowledge (CTFoK) is a research project focused on the development of CSAT for CT for students from kindergarten to second grade. It seeks to broaden participation in computer science (CS) by explicitly focusing on the rich resources of Black and Hispanic families as regards their CTFoK enacted through activities of daily living and by creating valid assessments that reflect that knowledge and cultural context. Through classroom observations, family interviews, and teacher interviews, research in this project will focus on: identifying family and community CTFoK with which children enter school; the effectiveness of the CSAT for measuring CT; young students’ conceptual understanding of CT (grades K-2); teachers’ experience on the project, especially as reflected in knowledge of and valuing of strengths-based approaches to working with Black and Hispanic families and students, and in integrating CS/CT concepts into these teachers’ instructional practices. Traditional assessments have been shown to embed cultural bias, thus perpetuating disadvantage for children of color. Therefore, it is vitally important that the CS educational research community develop assessment methods that are equitable. The work is transformative on two levels: first it centers family and community knowledge as foundational to children’s prior and future knowledge; and second, it uses this information to create equitable assessment materials. This work will have a broad impact in providing the results of research to the CSEd community at large. This project is supported through the CS for All: Research and RPPs 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.