CAREER: The role of picture books in promoting parent-child scientific conversation and learning

因为孩子们第一次接触科学往往是和父母在一起，所以优化亲子互动是建立科学早期基础的一种方法。这个CAREER项目的中心目标是通过阅读互动中的亲子对话，促进4至6岁儿童的科学学习。该项目将特别关注科学书籍中科学过程语言的使用，以及围绕这些书籍的对话，以支持儿童的科学推理。首先，研究人员将使用自动化自然语言处理（NLP）分析目前向公众提供的科学书籍样本，以描述其中科学过程语言的一般使用。然后，研究人员将通过一系列的实验操作来确定，具有科学过程语言的儿童书籍是否通过构建亲子科学对话来增加科学学习。这一系列的工作将得出指导儿童科学书籍写作的原则，以及关于父母如何促进科学学习的见解。 研究活动将在农村家庭中进行-他们在研究中的代表性历来不足，而且往往获得科学资源的机会有限-并将与北卡罗来纳州农村的一个学区合作，通过一个综合教育计划来补充，以培训本科生研究实习生的早期科学学习和家庭参与。该项目围绕三个研究目标展开，联合收割机结合自然语言处理（NLP），亲子阅读互动的直接观察，以及社区参与方法。为了描述科学语言如何融入现有教育材料，目标1将使用NLP来量化对科学过程的引用（例如，因果关系，解释，预测）在一个大型语料库的儿童科学书籍。目标2包括一系列的对照实验，以检验科学过程语言书籍的变化如何影响科学对话和儿童的学习。目标3是一项试点研究，将利用目标1和目标2的结果，根据农村照顾者的反馈，开发一本科学图画书，并测试其在加强亲子科学对话方面的有效性。预期的发现包括发展影响早期科学参与的因素的多层次理论（例如，研究人员将这些指标作为未来干预措施的目标，旨在促进儿童的科学学习和参与。研究结果将分发给跨学科的研究人员，他们的工作重点是家庭过程，幼儿和科学教育。这个职业项目是由EDU核心研究（ECR）计划的支持。ECR资助基础STEM教育研究，促进STEM学习领域的基础知识，扩大STEM参与，以及STEM劳动力发展。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。

Because children’s first experiences with science often occur with parents, optimizing parent-child interactions is one approach to building an early foundation in science. The central goal of this CAREER project is to promote 4- to 6-year-old children’s scientific learning through parent-child conversations during book reading interactions. The project will focus specifically on the use of scientific process language in science books and on conversation surrounding those books in supporting children’s scientific reasoning. First, the investigators will analyze a sample of science books currently available to the public using automated Natural Language Processing (NLP) to characterize the general use of scientific process language in them. The investigators will then determine, in a series of experimental manipulations, whether children’s books that have science process language increase science learning by scaffolding parent-child conversation about science. This line of work will derive principles to guide the writing of science books for children as well as insights about how parents can foster science learning. The research activities will be conducted with rural families – who are traditionally underrepresented in research and often have limited access to scientific resources – and will be complemented with an integrative education plan to train undergraduate research interns in early science learning and family engagement in partnership with a school district in rural North Carolina.This project is structured around three research objectives that combine natural language processing (NLP), direct observations of parent-child reading interactions, and community engagement methodologies. To characterize how scientific language is integrated into existing educational materials, Objective 1 will use NLP to quantify references to scientific processes (e.g., causal relationships, explanations, predictions) within a large corpus of children's science books. Objective 2 involves a series of controlled experiments to examine how variations in science process language books affect scientific conversations and children’s learning. Objective 3 is a pilot study that will leverage findings from Objectives 1 and 2 to develop a science picture book based on rural caregiver’s feedback and test its effectiveness in enhancing parent-child scientific conversation. Expected findings include the development of a multi-level theory of factors that influence early science engagement (e.g., parent-child interactions, features of books, science capital) to be used by researchers as targets for future interventions aimed at fostering children’s scientific learning and engagement. The findings will be disseminated to researchers across disciplines whose work focuses on family processes, early childhood, and science education. This CAREER project is supported by the EDU Core Research (ECR) program. ECR funds fundamental STEM education research that advances fundamental knowledge in the field on STEM learning, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development.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.