Building Supports Towards a Useful, Usable, and In-Use Framework of Professional Competencies in the Informal STEM Learning Field

每年，数以百万计的美国人参观科学中心和博物馆、儿童博物馆、动物园、水族馆、自然中心、天文馆和类似的机构。这些机构被公认为值得信赖和受欢迎的教育和休闲体验场所，它们具有独特的能力，可以吸引不同信仰、经历和身份的人们参与与科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）相关的主题，以及解决与科学、技术和创新相关的紧迫社会问题。然而，这些机构的潜在影响在很大程度上取决于在这些机构工作的专业人员的技能、知识和能力。随着COVID-19大流行的爆发和工作性质转变的需要，非正式的STEM学习劳动力受到了巨大影响。最近的混乱时期是创新的时期。该领域在促进以非正式学习的价值观和实践为基础的专业学习和发展的新模式方面处于有利地位。该项目将通过提高科学参与专业人员的能力，通过其机构的展览、教育和学习计划以及各种形式的公众参与（例如，社区外展活动、对教师/教育工作者和学校的支持），更有效地响应社会需求、关注和兴趣，从而使美国各地的当地社区和整个社会受益。由科学技术中心协会牵头，科学与工业中心的研究与评估中心和俄勒冈州立大学的STEM研究中心合作，这项工作将建立在非正式STEM学习（ISL）专业能力框架的基础上，该框架是由先前的国家科学基金会资助开发和验证的。能力框架越来越多地用于许多部门，以确定在特定工作领域取得成功所需的技能、知识和能力套件。鉴于过去两年ISL工作场所发生的巨大变化，该框架的潜力甚至更大，特别是如果新开发的支持能够将框架与劳动力当前、新兴和持续的需求联系起来。在设计培训和教学材料的系统过程的指导下，该项目将首先捕捉各种非正式STEM学习专业人员描述、追求和实现能力的方式的变化，以产生修订后的框架。接下来，该项目将通过一系列参与式设计研讨会，采用顺序和迭代的方法，与不同的专业人士合作开发伙伴资源。预计这些资源将包括专业能力指标、自我评估、培训工具和其他类型的资源，这些资源有可能显著促进非正式STEM学习领域的专业学习（由个人和机构承担）和专业发展能力（由机构、协会和其他组织提供）。接下来，该项目将与专业协会和网络合作伙伴分享最终产品，包括一个更新的网站，其中包含更新后的框架和新开发的工具套件，这些合作伙伴可以直接向正在开发和实践这些能力的机构和专业人士传播。该项目将从少数早期采用者那里收集证据，提供特定用例场景的数据。最后，该项目将通过衡量非正式STEM学习专业人员对框架的可用性、有用性和开始“使用”的看法，记录该框架对该领域的潜在影响。随着时间的推移，随着使用的增加，该框架及其配套资源有望通过更透明的期望和更清晰的增长途径，促进该领域向目前身份未被充分代表的专业人士开放。该项目由推进非正式STEM学习（AISL）计划资助，该计划旨在推进非正式环境中STEM学习的设计和开发的新方法和基于证据的理解。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

Each year, millions of Americans visit science centers and museums, children’s museums, zoos, aquariums, nature centers, planetariums, and similar institutions. Recognized as trusted and popular places for educational and leisure experiences, these institutions are uniquely capable of engaging people across a spectrum of beliefs, experiences, and identities on topics related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), as well as addressing pressing societal problems related to science, technology, and innovation. However, the potential impacts of these institutions are largely dependent on the skills, knowledge, and abilities of the professionals working at them. Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the need to shift the nature of work, the informal STEM learning workforce was dramatically impacted. The recent period of disruption is a time for innovation. The field is well-positioned to promote new models of professional learning and development that are grounded in the values and practices of informal learning. This project will benefit local communities across the United States and society at large by advancing the capacity of science-engagement professionals to respond to societal needs, concerns, and interests more effectively through their institutions’ exhibitions, education and learning programs, and various forms of public engagement (e.g., community outreach events, supports for teachers/educators and schools). Led by the Association of Science and Technology Centers in collaboration with the Center of Science and Industry’s Center for Research and Evaluation and Oregon State University’s STEM Research Center, this work will build on the Informal STEM Learning (ISL) Professional Competency Framework developed and validated with prior National Science Foundation funding. Competency frameworks are increasingly used across many sectors to identify the suite of skills, knowledge, and capabilities necessary to be successful in a particular area of work. Given dramatic changes to the ISL workplace in the last two years, there is an even stronger potential for the Framework, particularly if newly developed supports can link the Framework to the current, emerging, and continuing needs of the workforce.Guided by a systematic process for designing training and instructional materials, this project will first capture changes in the ways diverse informal STEM learning professionals describe, pursue, and achieve competencies to produce a revised Framework. Next, the project will collaboratively develop companion resources with diverse professionals through a series of participatory design workshops, using a sequential and iterative approach. The resources are expected to include indicators of professional competencies, self-assessments, training tools, and other types of resources that have the potential to significantly advance the professional learning (as undertaken by individuals and institutions) and the professional development capacity (as provided by institutions, associations, and other organizations) of the informal STEM learning field. Next, the project will share final products–including a refreshed website that hosts the updated Framework and newly-developed suite of tools–with professional association and network partners who can disseminate directly to the institutions and professionals who are developing and practicing these competencies. The project will gather evidence from a small number of early adopters, providing data on specific use-case scenarios. Finally, the project will document the potential impact of the Framework on the field by measuring how the Framework is perceived by informal STEM learning professionals as usable, useful, and beginning to be “in-use." Over time—and with increased use—the Framework and its companion resources hold the promise of contributing to the opening of the field to professionals with identities currently underrepresented through more transparent expectation and clearer growth pathways. This project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments.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.