CAREER: Crosscutting Concepts and Scientific Thinking Tools for an Equitable Science Curriculum

该奖项全部或部分由2021年美国救援计划法案（公法117-2）和EHR核心研究计划资助。该项目将研究如何利用科学课程的特点来培养文化多样性的五年级学生使用科学思维工具的能力。思维工具将包括系统和系统模型，模式和因果关系等横向概念，以及互惠，人与自然关系和责任等文化概念。该项目将调查的教学设计要素包括学生使用思维工具，模型支架，课堂讨论和文化知识的使用。五年级的科学教学增加了所有学生获得科学思维工具的机会，这符合对所有学生，包括夏威夷土著人和太平洋岛民进行公平科学教学的要求。本项目中创建的课程材料将由教师和研究人员共同设计，以培养学生指导自己科学思维的能力。该项目的目标是（1）开发和完善设计指南和（2）开发教学方法，工具和策略，以提高学生使用科学思维工具的能力。本项目旨在通过创建更有效和更公平的小学科学课程来扩大STEM的参与，这可以增加STEM职业的参与，同时也可以培养参与的小学科学教师的能力。本研究将集中在三个研究问题上：（1）五年级学生有哪些知识基金用于认识性思维？(2)什么样的教学方法、工具和策略可以促进富有成效的元认知体验，从而支持学生正在形成的认识性思维？（3）教师需要什么样的支持来促进五年级课堂上的生产性元认知体验？该研究将使用共同设计作为基于设计的研究框架内的专业发展。该项目将在两个学年期间与（a）3所城市和农村小学、（B）7名五年级科学教师和（c）340名学生接触，并将包括来自不同文化背景的教师和学生。数据收集策略将包括课堂互动的视频和项目共同设计团队对这些事件的讨论。数据分析策略将包括交互分析，以确定三个设计要素（即，建模支架、元认知话语和知识基金）支持富有成效的元认知体验和学生认知思维的发展。案例研究将被用来创建逻辑模型，解释如何设计元素促进元认知经验和发展认知思维。通过共同设计，该项目将调整现有的课程，从以前的国家科学基金会资助的工作，创造公平为重点，以地方为基础的科学教材，夏威夷的五年级学生和发展集体教学设计能力。这项工作的成果将建立一个理论框架和模型，说明如何在科学教与学的公平认识框架内使用跨领域概念，并将填补与以下三个方面使用跨领域概念有关的知识空白：多维科学教学和方法，更公平的科学教学，包括认识的异质性。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是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，

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2), and by the EHR Core Research program. The project will investigate the use of science curriculum features to develop culturally diverse fifth-grade students’ abilities to use scientific thinking tools. Thinking tools will include crosscutting concepts such as systems and system models, patterns, and cause and effect, as well as cultural concepts, such as reciprocity, human-nature relations, and responsibility. Instructional design elements that the project will investigate include students’ use of thinking tools, model scaffolds, classroom discussions, and the use of cultural knowledge. Fifth-grade science instruction that increases all students' access to science thinking tools is responsive to the mandate for equitable science instruction for all students, including Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders. The curriculum materials created in this project will be co-designed by teachers and researchers to develop students’ abilities to direct their own scientific thinking. The goals of the project are (1) to develop and refine design guidelines and (2) to develop instructional methods, tools, and strategies for increasing students' abilities to use scientific thinking tools. The project aims to broaden participation in STEM by creating elementary science curriculum that is more effective and equitable, which can increase participation in STEM careers, while also building capacity of participating elementary science teachers.The study will focus on three research questions: (1) What funds of knowledge do fifth-grade students have for epistemic thinking?; (2) What instructional methods, tools, and strategies can facilitate productive metacognitive experiences that support students' emerging epistemic thinking?; and (3) What supports do teachers need to facilitate productive metacognitive experiences in fifth-grade classrooms? The study will use co-design as professional development within a design-based research framework. The project will engage with (a) 3 urban and rural elementary schools, (b) 7 fifth-grade science teachers, and (c) 340 students over the course of 2 school years and will include teachers and students from culturally diverse backgrounds. Data gathering strategies will include video of classroom interactions and discussions of these events by the project co-design team. Data analysis strategies will include interaction analysis to identify the extent to which three design elements (i.e., modeling scaffolds, meta-epistemic discourse, and funds of knowledge) support productive metacognitive experiences and the development of students' epistemic thinking. Case studies will be used to create logic models that explain how the design elements facilitate metacognitive experiences and develop epistemic thinking. Through co-design the project will adapt existing curriculum from prior NSF-funded work to create equity-focused, place-based science teaching materials for Hawai‘i's fifth-grade students and develop collective pedagogical design capacity. The outcomes of this work will establish a theoretical framework and models for how to use the crosscutting concepts within an equitable epistemic framework in science teaching and learning and will fill knowledge gaps related to the use of the crosscutting concepts in three-dimensional science teaching learning and approaches for more equitable science instruction that include epistemic heterogeneity.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.