MCA: Support Engaging and Inclusive STEM Education with Extended Reality (SEISE-XR)

该项目旨在通过创新的扩展现实 (XR) 技术改变西班牙裔服务机构 (HSI) 的 STEM 教育，从而服务于国家利益。 XR 可以增强主动学习、提高学生参与度并改善 STEM 科目的学习成果，特别是在本科生环境中，尤其是对于历史上被排斥的身份的学生。 然而，XR 在 STEM 教育中的广泛使用面临着诸多挑战。 一个关键缺陷是教师缺乏培训和支持，无法有效、自信地将 XR 融入到教学中。 该项目研究了弗雷斯诺州立大学的六名 STEM 教师，他们参与了围绕本科 STEM 课程中 XR 集成的教师学习社区。 该项目将研究他们对教师学习社区的参与如何影响他们对 XR 集成的看法和技能，并将他们在教师学习社区中的工作与在课堂上实施 XR 联系起来。 通过对其开发和实施的仔细分析，该项目将产生有关如何支持教师在课堂上使用新技术的新知识。 该 MCA 项目旨在研究教师如何整合 XR，以在 HSI 中设计引人入胜且具有包容性的 STEM 学习体验，并以技术、教学和内容知识 (TPACK) 框架为基础。 通过对六名 STEM 教师进行人种学研究，研究团队将调查 TPACK 框架如何为 STEM 教师在课堂上使用 XR 的方式提供信息和交叉。 本研究将记录、描述、分析和解释教师参与者在 STEM 教学中使用 XR 的共同行为模式、信念和文化的发展。 将收集课堂观察数据和教学材料，以形成他们的理解快照，并记录教师在使用 XR 时制定 TPACK 的证据。将使用反思性期刊、半结构化访谈和焦点小组来阐明教师 XR 集成知识发展的过程，并研究实践社区中的共享文化、课堂上与同伴和学生的互动以及信仰的变化如何推动教师成长的过程。 作为 MCA 项目，首席研究员将通过有针对性的培训和与导师的密切合作来培养人种学方法的研究技能。 该项目得到了 NSF 改善本科 STEM 教育：西班牙裔服务机构计划的支持，该计划的目标是提高本科 STEM 教育的质量，并提高攻读 STEM 副学士学位或学士学位的学生的招收率、保留率和毕业率。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project aims to serve the national interest by transforming STEM education at Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) with innovative extended reality (XR) technologies. XR can enhance active learning, increase student engagement, and improve learning outcomes in STEM subjects, especially in undergraduate settings, and particularly for students with historically excluded identities. However, the widespread use of XR in STEM education faces numerous challenges. One critical deficiency is the lack of training and support for faculty to effectively and confidently integrate XR into their teaching. This project studies six STEM faculty at Fresno State who are engaged in a faculty learning community around XR integration in undergraduate STEM classes. The project will examine how their participation in the faculty learning community affects their perceptions and skills around XR integration, and connect their work in the faculty learning community with their implementation of XR in their classrooms. Through close analysis of their development and implementation, this project will generate new knowledge about how support faculty in using new technologies in the classroom. This MCA project aims to study faculty’s integration of XR to design engaging and inclusive STEM learning experiences at HSIs, informed by the Technological, Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework. Through an ethnographic research study of six STEM faculty, the research team will investigate how the TPACK framework informs and intersects with the ways in which STEM faculty grow to use XR in their classes. This study will document, describe, analyze, and interpret the development of faculty participants’ shared behavior patterns, beliefs, and culture of using XR in STEM teaching. Classroom observation data and instructional materials will be gathered to develop a snapshot of their understanding and document evidence of the faculty’s enactment of TPACK when using XR. Reflective journals, semi-structured interviews, and focus groups will be used to illuminate the process of faculty’s XR integration knowledge development and investigate how the shared culture in the community of practice, interaction with peers and students in the classroom, and changes in beliefs drive this process of faculty growth. As an MCA project, the principal investigator will develop research skills in ethnographic methods through targeted training and close collaboration with a mentor. This project is supported by the NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions program, which has the goals of enhancing the quality of undergraduate STEM education, and increasing the recruitment, retention, and graduation rates of students pursuing associate’s or baccalaureate degrees in STEM.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.