Research Initiation: Studying the Implementation and Efficacy of an African-Centered Pedagogy and Curriculum for the STEM Education of African American Learners

研究启动：研究以非洲为中心的非裔美国学习者 STEM 教育学和课程的实施和效果

• 批准号: 2306259
• 负责人: DeAnna Bailey
• 金额: $ 20万
• 依托单位: Morgan State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-07-01 至 2025-06-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2306259&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Research; Initiation; Studying; Implementation; Efficacy

This project will explore the impact on African American youth when the African American experience is the basis of the teaching methods and curriculum. Conscious Ingenuity (CI) is one of few programs that utilizes an African-centered approach to teach science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) concepts to African American students in kindergarten to eighth grade to encourage and support their interest, pursuit of, access to, and involvement in STEM fields. Currently, many STEM programs exist throughout the United States to increase interest and participation in STEM through exposure to the field. However, these programs utilize a traditional approach to teaching STEM concepts which fails to create an inclusive learning environment. While conventional STEM teaching aims to develop and strengthen interdisciplinary skill sets such as critical thinking, problem-solving and exploratory learning, European history and culture are at its core. African American culture and contributions are completely ignored, these exclusions weaken the African American STEM educational experience. This research study will help the research team identify specific instructional strategies and materials from an African-centered perspective that supports and encourages the interest, engagement and comprehension of African American STEM learners. We anticipate the results will demonstrate that when African American STEM learners are instructed with a pedagogy and curriculum that centers their experience, provided adequate resources and nurtured in a communal environment, they are capable learners.Little work to date has investigated the efficacy of using an African-centered pedagogy and curriculum to encourage and support the interest, engagement and comprehension of African American STEM learners. To address this gap, the objective of our research is to examine the implementation and efficacy of an African-centered pedagogy and curriculum on the STEM education of African American youth by analyzing the instructional strategies and materials of the Conscious Ingenuity program, and evaluating student learning of STEM concepts and formation of engineering identity. We are guided by the following research questions: “In what ways does an African-centered pedagogy and curriculum influence the construction of engineering knowledge?” and “How does an African-centered pedagogy impact student learning of engineering concepts and engineering identity formation for urban African American youth?”. To address these questions, we will conduct a two-phase mixed-methods case study. The first phase of the research study will begin by studying the instructors of the CI by examining their instructional strategies and materials. The second phase of the research study shifts the focus of the investigation to measuring the effectiveness of the teaching strategies and materials instructors use by assessing the participants' understanding of particular topics and engineering identity formation. The findings of the proposed research will contribute to efforts to redress racial inequities in STEM education. These racial inequities include but are not limited to culturally unresponsive traditional STEM teaching methods, limited access to technology, inadequate technological literacy, eurocentric intellectual perspectives, unhealthy student-teacher relationships, and the absence of teacher-family-community relationships. The adoption of the proposed pedagogical approach will cultivate an inclusive environment for all students to learn effectively, where such inclusion diminishes the conventional one size fits all approach to teaching STEM. This inclusive learning environment will increase social consciousness, a phenomenon necessary for cultivating harmonious diverse communities.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.

该项目将探讨当非裔美国人的经验是教学方法和课程的基础时，对非裔美国人青年的影响。有意识的不平等（CI）是少数几个利用以非洲为中心的方法向幼儿园到八年级的非洲裔美国学生教授科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）概念的项目之一，以鼓励和支持他们的兴趣，追求，获得和参与STEM领域。目前，许多STEM项目在美国各地存在，通过接触该领域来增加对STEM的兴趣和参与。然而，这些计划利用传统的方法来教授STEM概念，无法创造一个包容性的学习环境。虽然传统的STEM教学旨在发展和加强跨学科技能，如批判性思维，解决问题和探索性学习，但欧洲历史和文化是其核心。非裔美国人的文化和贡献被完全忽视，这些排斥削弱了非裔美国人的STEM教育经验。这项研究将帮助研究团队从以非洲为中心的角度确定具体的教学策略和材料，以支持和鼓励非洲裔美国人STEM学习者的兴趣，参与和理解。我们预期的结果将表明，当非裔美国人的STEM学习者指示与教学法和课程，他们的经验为中心，提供足够的资源，并在社区环境中培育，他们是有能力的learners.Little工作迄今已调查使用非洲为中心的教学法和课程的有效性，以鼓励和支持的兴趣，参与和理解的非裔美国人的STEM学习者。为了解决这一差距，我们的研究的目标是通过分析有意识的不妥协计划的教学策略和材料，并评估学生学习STEM概念和工程身份的形成，以非洲为中心的教学法和课程对非裔美国青年的STEM教育的实施和有效性。我们是由以下研究问题的指导：“以非洲为中心的教学法和课程以何种方式影响工程知识的建设？”以及“以非洲为中心的教学法如何影响城市非洲裔美国青年的工程概念和工程身份形成的学生学习？"。为了解决这些问题，我们将进行一个两阶段的混合方法案例研究。研究性学习的第一阶段将开始，通过检查他们的教学策略和材料来研究CI的教师。研究的第二阶段将调查的重点转移到通过评估参与者对特定主题和工程身份形成的理解来衡量教师使用的教学策略和材料的有效性。拟议研究的结果将有助于纠正STEM教育中的种族不平等现象。这些种族不平等包括但不限于文化上反应迟钝的传统STEM教学方法，获得技术的机会有限，技术素养不足，以欧洲为中心的知识观点，不健康的师生关系，以及缺乏教师-家庭-社区关系。采用拟议的教学方法将培养一个包容性的环境，让所有学生有效地学习，这种包容性减少了传统的一刀切的STEM教学方法。这种包容性的学习环境将提高社会意识，这是培养和谐多样社区所必需的现象。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而被认为值得支持。