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。这些机构被认为是值得信赖和受欢迎的教育和休闲体验场所，具有独特的能力，能够让不同信仰、经历和身份的人参与到与科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)相关的主题中，并解决与科学、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它们工作的专业人员的技能、知识和能力。随着新冠肺炎疫情的爆发和转变工作性质的需要，非正式的STEM学习劳动力受到了极大的影响。最近的颠覆期是创新的时期。该领域处于有利地位，可以促进以非正式学习的价值观和做法为基础的专业学习和发展的新模式。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共参与(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、关切和兴趣，从而使美国各地的地方社区和整个社会受益。由科学和技术中心协会与科学和工业中心的研究与评估中心和俄勒冈州立大学的STEM研究中心合作领导的这项工作将建立在之前由国家科学基金会资助开发和验证的非正式STEM学习(ISL)专业能力框架的基础上。许多部门越来越多地使用能力框架来确定在特定工作领域取得成功所必需的技能、知识和能力。鉴于ISL工作场所在过去两年中发生了戏剧性的变化，该框架的潜力更大，特别是如果新开发的支持能够将该框架与劳动力当前、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流程的指导下，该项目将首先捕捉不同的非正式STEM学习专业人员描述、追求和实现能力的变化，以产生修订的框架。下一步，该项目将通过一系列参与性设计研讨会，采用顺序和迭代的方法，与不同的专业人员合作开发伙伴资源。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(由个人和机构开展)和专业发展能力(由机构、协会和其他组织提供)。下一步，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，其中托管更新的框架和新开发的工具套件--他们可以直接向正在开发和实践这些能力的机构和专业人员传播。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学习专业人员如何认为该框架可用、有用并开始“使用”，来记录该框架对实地的潜在影响。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预期和更明确的增长路径，为向身份目前不足的专业人员开放这一领域做出贡献。该项目由推进非正式STEM学习计划(AISL)资助，该计划旨在促进对非正式环境中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。

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.