Developmentally Appropriate Strategies for Targeting Early Adolescents' Motivation in STEM

该项目将推进学生和教师创新技术体验（ITEST）项目的努力，通过为教师、STEM职业专业人员和经济上处于不利地位的非裔美国中学青少年的照顾者制定具体策略，更好地理解和促进提高学生在科学、技术、工程或数学（STEM）领域追求职业的动机和能力的实践。该项目的目标是提供一个技术丰富的计算机和电气工程课外学习环境，帮助学生建立归属感或人际关系，同时支持他们发展掌握目标，自主意识和能力，并将STEM学习视为有意义和有价值的。教师将准备如何制定教学策略，以满足早期青少年的动机需求。教师培训将包括参加STEM预备学院和有针对性的专业发展研讨会，与训练有素的课后专家合作，参加每月的咨询会议和后续活动。这些步骤将帮助教师认识到激励学生的细微差别，同时使教师在识别和有效应对可能促进或阻碍学生动机的问题方面具有额外的优势。该项目还将包括特殊规定，以确保STEM职业专业人员和护理人员具备与学生沟通的必要信息，从而促进STEM领域的成功参与。该项目将采用定量和定性方法，特别强调书面反思、观察、调查、内隐联想测试、实地记录和活动日志。这些方法将用于检查教师和学生的动机，态度，信念和行为。教师教学与学生动机的稳定性与变化的数据分析将涉及到全极大似然估计的多层模型、普通最小二乘回归、生长曲线模型和常数比较法。该项目的成果和产品将包括：(1)指导教师使用动机数据来提高其教学效率的概念模型；(2)一系列理论驱动的教学技术，这些技术将有利于教师、STEM职业专业人员和寻求在计算机和电气工程活动中支持有色人种学生动机的护理人员。除了传播正式的研究报告、会议演讲和期刊文章外，项目团队还将在一次会议上介绍该项目的研究结果，旨在帮助社区利益相关者克服在STEM活动中实施动机支持实践的障碍。

This project will advance the efforts of the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program to better understand and promote practices that increase students' motivations and capacities to pursue careers in the fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) by developing specific strategies for teachers, STEM career professionals, and caregivers of economically disadvantaged African American middle school adolescents. The goal of this project is to provide a technology-rich computer and electrical engineering afterschool learning environment that helps students develop a sense of belonging or interpersonal connection while supporting their development of mastery goals, a sense of autonomy and competence, and a of view STEM learning as meaningful and worthwhile. Teachers will be prepared on how to enact instructional strategies to meet the motivational needs of early adolescents. Teacher training will include participating in STEM preparatory academies and targeted professional development workshops, working collaboratively with trained afterschool specialists, and participating in monthly consultation meetings and follow-up activities. These steps will help teachers recognize the nuances of motivating students while giving teachers an added advantage in identifying and effectively responding to issues that may facilitate or hinder student motivation. The project will also include special provisions for ensuring that STEM career professionals and caregivers are equipped with information that is essential for communicating with students in ways that promote successful participation in STEM fields. This project will employ both quantitative and qualitative approaches, with a special emphasis on written reflections, observations, surveys, implicit association tests, field notes and activity logs. These approaches will be used to examine teacher and student motivation, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Data analysis of stability and change in teacher instruction and student motivation will involve multilevel modeling with full maximum likelihood estimation, ordinary least squares regression, growth curve modeling, and the constant comparative method. Outcomes and products from this project will include (1) a conceptual model for guiding teachers in using motivation data to improve their instructional effectiveness and (2) an array of theoretically driven pedagogical techniques that will benefit teachers, STEM career professionals, and caregivers seeking to support the motivation of students of color during computer and electrical engineering activities. In addition to disseminating formal research reports, conference presentations, and journal articles, the project team will contextualize the findings of this project during a convening designed to help community stakeholders overcome barriers to implementing motivationally supportive practices during STEM activities.