Component-Based Research (CBR) in STEM Education: Exploring a Potentially Transformative Research Paradigm and Infrastructure

本次中等规模研究基础设施会议将探讨基于组件的研究(CBR)作为STEM教育研究的一种可能的新范式。此外，与会者还将探讨可能包括哪些相应的基础设施来支持CBR的广泛使用。在使用CBR时，研究人员不仅要把教育创新作为一个整体来看，还要看它的各个部分。此外，它们还系统地描述了创新发生的背景。通过这样做，研究人员可以确定的不仅仅是一个程序是否“工作”。随着时间的推移，CBR可能使研究人员能够确定在特定环境下为特定学生群体工作的创新部分，从而产生可定制和更具影响力的创新。CBR范式还可能有助于解决STEM教育研究中的一些长期挑战。例如，虽然许多研究已经为许多教育改进的例子提供了信息，但随着时间的推移，该领域在积累知识方面一直不太成功。CBR以其对创新和间接因素的具体描述可能有助于解决这一问题。此外，在一种情况下运作良好的STEM教育项目不一定在另一种情况下运作良好，这给当地教育工作者带来了在没有指导的情况下适应创新的挑战。CBR方法与支持研究基础设施一起，可以支持数据知情的适应，使从业者能够根据他们的具体情况定制教育创新。CBR方法还有可能使从业者、教学材料开发人员和其他可以使用数据来为他们的工作提供信息的人更容易地获得数据。这次为期两天的会议将聚集30个人，研究并阐明将CBR范式引入STEM教育研究的广泛领域的可能步骤。与会者将包括在STEM教育和STEM教育研究领域从事各种工作的个人，以及一直在公共卫生等其他学科使用类似CBR方法的学者。此外，与会者将包括来自历史上被排除在STEM领域之外的群体的强大代表。会议的两个主要成果是1)社区建设和知识产生，2)总结会议工作和下一步行动的专著。本次会议将重点讨论该领域如何在STEM教育研究中运用CBR范式。它将按需要发展的五个方面进行组织，以便为进一步开展基于案例的研究工作奠定基础，并特别注意这类工作所需的研究基础设施。具体地说，将有五个工作组审查：1)开发协作语言的方法，包括分类法、本体论和标准；2)可解决CBR分析复杂性的创新分析方法；3)CBR如何利用数据挖掘、人工智能和其他可支持CBR的数据科学元素；4)数据库、设计和其他基础设施，以确保可访问基于CBR的数据并支持其在现场的应用；5)与实地接触、发展合作和共识、创建培训和继续教育的挑战。与小组工作交替进行的是“咨询研讨会”，要求工作组向其他工作组介绍他们的工作，这些工作组将对工作进行审问，以提出挑战，获得新的见解，并确定要发展的想法和要放弃的想法。会议结束后，与会者将被邀请通过撰写稿件或通过审查为创建一本专著做出贡献。该项目通过与比尔和梅琳达·盖茨基金会、施密特期货公司和沃尔顿家庭基金会的合作伙伴关系得到支持。资金也由NSF的EDU核心研究计划提供。这一奖项反映了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。

This Mid-scale Research Infrastructure Conference will explore component-based research (CBR) as a possible new paradigm for research in STEM education. In addition, participants will explore what might comprise a corresponding infrastructure to support the widespread use of CBR. When using CBR, researchers look not only at an educational innovation as a whole, but also at its individual parts. Additionally, they systematically describe the contexts within which the innovation is happening. By doing so, researchers can determine more than whether a program “works.” Over time, CBR may enable researchers to identify the parts of an innovation that work for particular groups of students in particular settings, resulting in customizable and more impactful innovations. A CBR paradigm may also help address some long-standing challenges in STEM education research. For example, while much research has informed many instances of educational improvement, the field has been less successful at accumulating knowledge over time. CBR, with its specific descriptions of innovation and circumstantial components may assist with this problem. Also, STEM education programs that work well in one situation don’t necessarily work well in a different one, leaving local educators the challenge of adapting the innovation without guidance. CBR approaches, along with supporting research infrastructure, can support data-informed adaptations that enable practitioners to customize education innovations for their specific circumstances. CBR approaches also have potential to make data more readily available to practitioners, instructional materials developers, and others who can use it to inform their work. This two-day conference will bring together 30 individuals to examine and articulate possible steps for bringing the CBR paradigm to the broad field of STEM education research. Attendees will include individuals who work in a range of capacities in STEM education and STEM education research, as well as scholars who have been using CBR-like approaches in other disciplines such as public health. Additionally, attendees will include a strong representation of people from groups who have historically been excluded from STEM fields. The two primary outcomes of the meeting are 1) community building and knowledge generation, and 2) a monograph summarizing the work of the conference and next steps. This conference will focus on how the field might operationalize the CBR paradigm in STEM education research. It will be organized by five dimensions that need to be developed in order to have a foundation for further CBR work, with additional attention on the research infrastructure needed for such work. Specifically, there will be five working groups that examine: 1) approaches to developing collaborative language, including taxonomies, ontologies, and standards; 2) innovative analytic approaches that can address the complexity of CBR analyses; 3) ways CBR can leverage data mining, AI, and other elements of data science that can support CBR; 4) databases, design, and other infrastructure to ensure accessibility to CBR-based data and support its application in the field; and 5) the challenge of engaging the field, developing collaborations and consensus, and creating training and further education. Alternating with group work will be “consultation seminars” that entail having working groups present their work to other working groups who will interrogate the work to raise challenges, gain new insights, and identify ideas to develop as well as those to jettison. After the conference, participants, will be invited to contribute to the creation of a monograph either through writing contributions or through review. This project is supported through a partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Schmidt Futures, and the Walton Family Foundation. Funding is also provided by NSF’s EDU Core Research Program.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.