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

因为孩子对科学的第一次体验通常发生在父母身边，优化亲子互动是建立早期科学基础的一种方法。CAREER项目的核心目标是通过亲子阅读互动，促进4- 6岁儿童的科学学习。该项目将特别侧重于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自然语言处理（NLP）分析目前向公众提供的科学书籍样本，以表征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，带有科学过程语言的儿童书籍是否通过搭建亲子科学对话来促进科学学习。这项工作将得出指导儿童科学书籍写作的原则，以及关于父母如何培养科学学习的见解。这些研究活动将在农村家庭中进行——这些家庭传统上在研究中代表性不足，而且往往获得科学资源的机会有限——并将得到一个综合教育计划的补充，该计划将与北卡罗来纳州农村地区的一个学区合作，在早期科学学习和家庭参与方面培训本科生研究实习生。该项目围绕三个研究目标构建，结合了自然语言处理（NLP）、亲子阅读互动的直接观察和社区参与方法。为了描述如何将科学语言整合到现有的教育材料中，目标1将使用NLP来量化大量儿童科学书籍中对科学过程（例如，因果关系，解释，预测）的引用。目标2涉及一系列对照实验，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的成果，根据农村照顾者的反馈编写一本科学图画书，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，亲子互动，书籍的特征，科学资本），研究人员将其作为旨在促进儿童科学学习和参与的未来干预措施的目标。这些发现将被传播给各个学科的研究人员，他们的工作重点是家庭过程、幼儿和科学教育。本CAREER项目由EDU核心研究（ECR）计划支持。ECR资助基础STEM教育研究，以推进STEM学习领域的基础知识，扩大STEM参与和STEM劳动力发展。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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，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.