Enhancing Early Childhood Educators' Knowledge of Computer Science and Engineering Concepts to Spark Young Children's Early Interest in STEM Careers

在学前几年的科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)方面的高质量经验为在K-12课堂学习计算机科学和工程铺平了道路。早期、高质量的STEM学习经验也是吸引更多学生从事STEM课程工作和STEM职业生涯的重要途径。然而，目前可供学前教育工作者使用的高质量STEM教育资源和材料数量有限。这个为期3年的项目旨在解决教师在支持幼儿STEM内容知识方面的能力差距，方法是：(1)为学龄前儿童制定以游戏为基础的计算机科学和工程前教育计划，(2)基于网络的幼儿教师队伍发展计划，以及(3)伴随儿童和幼儿教育者评估。在设计这些要素时，该项目将遵循四个早期学习原则：(1)以技术为中介的学习和前期工程是儿童早期学习的自然和关键部分；(2)儿童对周围世界充满好奇心，他们对技术的参与是儿童游戏的强大催化剂；(3)在适当的指导和公平的获取途径下，儿童的自然好奇心成为开始使用技术中介的探究技能和早期解决问题来探索周围世界的基础；(4)早期探索可以是一个丰富的环境，孩子们可以在其中使用和发展重要的早期计算机科学和工程前期技能，包括编程、团队合作、使用“前期工程”词汇进行交流、应用数学和设计思维。项目合作伙伴包括南加州大学的STEM教员和四所洛杉矶社区学院，这些学院都是为拉美裔服务的机构。洛杉矶地区的一组学前班将作为研究地点，为语言和文化多样化的社区服务。该项目的研究问题包括：(1)该项目将在儿童发展项目中融入基于游戏的早期计算机科学和先修工程知识，对幼儿早期计算机科学和先修工程知识以及他们对STEM职业的知识和早期兴趣有何影响？(2)该项目的教师专业发展模式与参与教师对早期计算机科学和先修工程的内容知识和教学表现之间有什么关系？教师以网络安全为中心的专业发展对参与的幼儿教师及其青年学生的网络安全行为有何影响？该项目将使用模块化的、基于网络的教师专业发展计划，允许学前教育工作者和大学STEM教职员工共同创建材料，并共同参与教师专业发展。在第二年和第三年，该项目将使用随机对照试验(RCT)测试其方法的开发、可行性和保真度。RCT将每年扩大规模，从两个试点试验点开始，到项目的最后一年继续在六个大型试验点进行测试。收集的数据包括对课堂教学和儿童行为的观察、教师访谈、教师焦点小组以及家长和教师调查。在为期两年的随机对照研究中，将使用多变量分析来检验干预组的教师和儿童的测试后分数是否显著高于控制组的同龄人。该团队将回归一组控制变量(种族、性别、社会经济地位)、前/基线测试分数以及代表干预与控制的变量的测试后分数，以进一步检查干预组教师和儿童的测试后分数是否显著高于对照组教师和儿童。将进行跨组比较。在项目结束时，将采用多层次线性模型(HLM)对RCT第三年的教师和儿童进行比较。该项目旨在制作一套经过充分测试的双语、双文化产品，供全国传播。产品将包括一个完全可输出的、基于网络的、模块化的幼儿教育者STEM劳动力培训和专业发展模式，该模式通过Play专注于“初级计算机科学和预工程”。该项目由学生和教师创新技术体验计划(ITEST)资助，该计划支持建立对实践、计划要素、背景和过程的理解的项目，这些项目有助于提高学生对科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)以及信息和通信技术(ICT)职业的知识和兴趣。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。

High-quality experiences with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in the pre-kindergarten years pave the way for learning about computer science and engineering in K-12 classrooms. Early, high-quality STEM learning experiences are also an essential way to attract more students to STEM course work and STEM careers. Currently however, the number of high-quality STEM education resources and materials available to preschool educators is limited. This 3-year project addresses this gap in teachers’ capacity to support young children’s STEM content knowledge by developing (1) a play-based computer science and pre-engineering education program for pre-K children, (2) a web-based, early childhood teacher workforce development program, and (3) accompanying child and early childhood educator assessments. In designing these elements, the project will follow four principles of early learning: (1) technology-mediated learning and pre-engineering is a natural and critical part of children’s early learning; (2) children’s curiosity about the world around them abounds and their engagement with technology is a powerful catalyst for children’s play; (3) with appropriate guidance and equity in access, children’s natural curiosity becomes the foundation for beginning to use technology-mediated inquiry skills and early problem-solving to explore the surrounding world; and (4) early exploration can be a rich context in which children use and develop important early computer science and pre-engineering skills, including programming, working as a team, communication using “pre-engineering” vocabulary, applied mathematics, and design thinking. Project partners include the University of Southern California’s STEM faculty and four Los Angeles community colleges, all of which are Hispanic-Serving Institutions. A set of Los Angeles-area preschools that serve linguistically and culturally diverse communities will serve as research sites. A total of 30 early childhood education teachers with their 600+ children will participate in the implementation research; matched numbers of children will be recruited for the control condition (1200 children total).The project’s research questions include: (1) In what ways does the project’s infusing of play-based early computer science and pre-engineering into child development programs impact young children’s early computer science and pre-engineering knowledge, and their knowledge of and early interest in STEM careers? (2) What is the relationship between the project’s teacher professional development model and participating teachers’ content knowledge of early computer science and pre-engineering and instructional performance? and (3) What impact does the teachers’ cyber-safety focused professional development have on the cyber-safe practices of participating preschool teachers and their young students? The project will use a modular, web-based, teacher professional development program that allows preschool educators and university STEM faculty to co-create materials and engage in teacher professional development together. In years two and three, the project will test the development, feasibility, and fidelity of its approach using a randomized controlled trial (RCT). The RCT will be scaled annually, beginning with two pilot test sites, and continuing with testing across six large sites by the project's final year. Data to be collected include observation of classroom teaching and children’s behaviors, teacher interviews, teacher focus groups, and parent and teacher surveys. During the 2-year RCT, multivariate analyses will be used to examine whether teachers and children in the intervention group have significantly higher post-test scores than their peers in the control group. The team will regress the post-test scores on a set of control variables (race, gender, socioeconomic status), pre/baseline-test scores, and a variable representing intervention versus control to further examine whether teachers and children in the intervention group have significantly higher post-test scores than teachers and children in the control group. Cross group comparisons will be made. At the end of the project, multilevel hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) will be employed comparing teachers and children in Year 3 of the RCT. The project aims to produce a fully tested set of bilingual, bicultural products for national dissemination. Products would include a fully exportable, web-based, modular early childhood educator STEM workforce training and professional development model which focuses on “junior computer science and pre-engineering” through play. This project is funded by the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program, which supports projects that build understandings of practices, program elements, contexts and processes contributing to increasing students' knowledge and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and information and communication technology (ICT) careers.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.