Science Education Instruction for Elementary Students with Learning Disabilities

学习障碍小学生的科学教育指导

• 批准号: 2201464
• 负责人: William Therrien
• 金额: $ 250万
• 依托单位: University of Virginia Main Campus
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-07-01 至 2026-06-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2201464&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Science; Education; Instruction; Elementary; Students

Scientific literacy is essential for everyone. Unfortunately, many students with learning disabilities (LD) do not do well in science and, in turn, have limited career opportunities in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). For students’ with LD, difficulties in science start early, with a large achievement gap between students with LD and typically achieving peers evident by early elementary school. More concerning is that this science achievement discrepancy widens over time. While lower science achievement for students with LD is well documented, little is known about why this disparity exists. We know little about the quality of science instruction students with LD receive during the upper elementary school years when foundational scientific content and practices should be taught. Therefore, this project aims to conduct a large-scale survey and observational study using a nationally representative of U.S. elementary schools to investigate the science education of 4th and 5th graders with LD. The project will provide foundational knowledge on the quality and type of science instruction students with LD receive and how this instruction aligns with effective practices. Using a crowdsourcing approach, researchers will work with ten different universities to collect and analyze data from 20 schools located across all nine U.S. census districts. This nationwide crowdsourced collaboration will allow for a generalizable sample of U.S. elementary schools and the students with LD educated in these schools. Through teacher surveys, interviews, and direct observations of science instruction, researchers will ascertain a myriad of critical information currently unknown to the field. The will investigate the time allotted to science instruction in 4th and 5th-grade elementary classrooms across the country and the amount of the allotted time enacted by teachers. Data collection will consider how often students with LD are present for science instruction, and the science content delivered and curricula used. Further, the team will quantify meaningful engagement (i.e., instructional interactions occurring between teachers and students) of students with LD during science instruction. They will ascertain if meaningful engagement levels vary by (a) type of science instruction (e.g., didactic, practice-based), (b) quality of science instruction (e.g., alignment with emerging effective practices), and (c) instructional supports (e.g., scaffolded material) provided to students with LD. Further, the team will investigate whether science instructional features are associated with higher achievement for students with LD.This project is supported by NSF's EHR Core Research (ECR) program. The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that generates foundational knowledge in the field. Investments are made in critical areas that are essential, broad and enduring: STEM learning and STEM learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development. The program supports the accumulation of robust evidence to inform efforts to understand, build theory to explain, and suggest intervention and innovations to address persistent challenges in STEM interest, education, learning and participation.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.

科学素养对每个人来说都至关重要。不幸的是，许多有学习障碍（LD）的学生在科学方面做得不好，反过来，在STEM领域（科学，技术，工程和数学）的职业机会有限。对于学习困难的学生来说，在科学方面的困难很早就开始了，在小学早期，学习困难的学生和典型的同龄人之间的成绩差距很大。更令人担忧的是，这种科学成就的差异随着时间的推移而扩大。虽然较低的科学成就与LD的学生是有据可查的，很少有人知道为什么存在这种差异。我们对学习困难学生在小学高年级期间接受的科学教学质量知之甚少，而此时应该教授基础科学内容和实践。因此，本研究以美国全国具有代表性的小学为研究对象，进行大规模的调查和观察性研究，对4、5年级学习困难学生的科学教育进行调查。该项目将提供关于LD学生接受的科学教学质量和类型的基础知识，以及这种教学如何与有效的实践相结合。使用众包方法，研究人员将与10所不同的大学合作，收集和分析来自美国所有9个人口普查区的20所学校的数据。这种全国性的众包合作将允许美国的一个普遍样本.小学和学生LD在这些学校接受教育.通过教师调查、访谈和对科学教学的直接观察，研究人员将确定该领域目前未知的无数关键信息。 该研究将调查全国四年级和五年级小学教室分配给科学教学的时间以及教师分配的时间。 数据收集将考虑LD学生参加科学教学的频率，以及提供的科学内容和使用的课程。此外，团队将量化有意义的参与（即，教学互动发生在教师和学生之间）的LD学生在科学教学。 他们将确定是否有意义的参与水平因（a）科学教学类型而异（例如，教学的，基于实践的），（B）科学教学的质量（例如，与新兴的有效做法保持一致），以及（c）指导支持（例如，为有学习困难的学生提供的资料。此外，该团队将调查科学教学功能是否与LD学生的更高成就相关。该项目由NSF的EHR核心研究（ECR）计划支持。ECR计划强调基础STEM教育研究，产生该领域的基础知识。投资是在关键领域是必不可少的，广泛的和持久的：干学习和干学习环境，扩大参与干，干劳动力发展。该计划支持积累强有力的证据，为理解、建立理论解释、提出干预和创新建议，以解决STEM兴趣、教育、学习和参与方面的持续挑战提供信息。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并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，被认为值得支持。