BCSER: Breaking the Language Barrier in Chemistry Assessment

许多学生遇到了与语言有关的障碍，这些障碍可能会阻碍他们充分理解和参与复杂的科学内容。尽管密集且富含技术的科学语言对大多数学生来说是一种挑战，但当它干扰了英语学习者(ELL)学生展示他们的科学知识的能力时，它可能成为英语学习者(ELL)学生的系统性障碍。为了了解如何使科学课程考试更加公平，这个项目将研究如何修改普通化学考试项目，使其更容易为不同的学生群体所接受，同时又不降低化学内容的难度。这些评估项目将通过测量和比较英语学习者和以英语为母语的学生的表现来进行测试。该项目得到了NSF的EHR STEM教育研究核心研究能力建设(ECR BCSER)计划的支持，该计划旨在建设个人在STEM学习和学习环境、扩大对STEM领域的参与以及STEM劳动力发展等核心领域开展高质量基础STEM教育研究的能力。该项目将整合研究和专业发展目标，以支持首席研究员(PI)发展所需的教育评估测量技能，以补充她在定性研究方法方面的既定专业知识，并实现研究目标。该项目将使用课堂评估公平框架修改一般化学评估项目，以在不降低化学内容难度的情况下减轻语言复杂性。此外，还将进行深入的定性研究，以了解学生对评估项目特点的看法。研究结果将被用来优化评估项目，然后利用差异项目功能分析进行量化研究，以评估这些项目在缩小英语学习和非英语专业学生之间的成绩差距方面的有效性。项目团队将经常与他们的研究导师举行虚拟和面对面的会议，讨论有针对性的阅读材料，以及开发和测试评估项目的进展和计划。国际政治研究所还将完成两门关于高级定量方法、Rasch模型和IRT主题的在线课程系列；并参加大学间政治和社会研究联盟定量方法暑期项目。项目成果将包括开发和测试修改后的评估项目，作为STEM讲师可以在自己的课程中实施的方法的概念证明，以公平地造福于学习者。国际和平协会将通过地方和国家研讨会分享她从研究和专业发展经验中学到的东西。通过参与有针对性的职业发展经验，PI最终将建立她在未来就设计公平的STEM评估进行基础研究的能力。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。

Many students experience language-related barriers that may prevent them from fully understanding and engaging in complex science content. Although dense and technically-rich scientific language is challenging for most students to interpret, it can become a systematic barrier for English Language Learner (ELL) students when it interferes with their ability to demonstrate their science knowledge. To learn how to make science course examinations more equitable, this project will examine ways to modify general chemistry exam items to make them more accessible to diverse student populations without reducing the chemistry content difficulty. These assessment items will be tested by measuring and comparing ELL students’ and native English speaking (NES) students’ performance. The project is supported by NSF's EHR Core Research Building Capacity in STEM Education Research (ECR BCSER) program, which is designed to build individuals’ capacity to carry out high quality fundamental STEM education research in the core areas of STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM fields, and STEM workforce development.This project will integrate research and professional development objectives to support the principal investigator (PI) in developing the educational assessment measurement skills needed to complement her established expertise in qualitative research methodologies and achieve the research goals. The project will modify general chemistry assessment items using the Equitable Framework for Classroom Assessment to ease linguistic complexity without reducing the chemistry content difficulty. An in-depth, qualitative study will also be conducted to understand students’ perceptions of the features of the assessment items. The findings will be used to optimize the assessment items before conducting a quantitative study using differential item functioning analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of the items in reducing the performance gap between ELL and NES students. The project team will have frequent virtual and in-person meetings with their research mentors to discuss targeted readings, as well as progress and plans for developing and testing the assessment items. The PI will also complete two online course series on the topics of advanced quantitative methods, Rasch models and IRT; and attend the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research summer program in quantitative methods. Project outcomes will include the development and testing of modified assessment items as proof of concept of a method that can be implemented by STEM instructors in their own courses to equitably benefit learners. The PI will share what she has learned from her research and professional development experiences via local and national workshops. By participating in targeted professional development experiences, the PI will ultimately build her capacity to conduct fundamental research on designing equitable STEM assessments in the future.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.