NRT-IGE: Mixed Reality Integrated Teaching Training for STEM Graduate Teaching Assistants

对当前和未来的大学教师的培训对于任何教学或课程改革的采用都是至关重要的。然而，既接受了学术工作的培训，又被推上学术岗位的研究生，仍然没有为这些工作的一项关键职责做好准备：教学。在佛罗里达州立大学的研究生教育创新(IGE)轨道上，国家科学基金会研究培训(NRT)奖将研究混合现实综合培训计划的设计模式和效果，为STEM研究生助教(GTA)提供教学实践。这项针对STEM GTA的培训项目融合了3D虚拟现实和体感技术，将通过让STEM GTA在各种教学环境中练习、观察和反思教学，扩展当前STEM GTA培训的研究和开发，并通过积极的实验和解决问题让他们对教学策略有深刻的理解。由此产生的STEM GTA教学培训模式预计将改善STEM入门课程的教学，通过扩大STEM入门课程中使用的教学实践，改善STEM学科中代表性不足群体的持久性，并解决与各种STEM研究生相关的具体挑战和需求。该项目将在颁奖过程中采用迭代评估过程来改进模型，结果将使学生教师了解技术综合专业发展的有效性。项目团队将为STEM GTA设计和开发一个由三个组件组成的混合现实综合教学培训计划：(1)环境，一个名为MILE(混合现实集成学习环境)的3D混合现实平台，可以在各种情景下模拟和沉浸式练习教学；(2)Activity，一个半结构化的、基于MILE的培训计划，它将正式的小组培训课程和非正式的自我调节教学排练结合在一起；以及(3)技能发展的模拟场景，这是一组基于问题的教学场景，供STEM GTA在MILL中体验，它将目标STEM教学技能结合到情景中。采用基于设计的研究方法，本项目将包括迭代设计过程，以完善混合现实综合教学培训计划，并审查其对STEM GTA跨学科小组教学自我效能和能力发展的影响。将通过定性和定量的方法收集数据，以建立关于STEM GTA混合现实综合教学培训计划的设计、概括和有效性的证据。该项目团队包括来自不同学科的教师，包括教育心理学和学习系统、计算机科学、化学和物理。NSF研究培训计划(NRT)旨在鼓励为STEM研究生教育培训开发和实施大胆、新的、潜在的变革性模式。研究生教育创新跟踪专门致力于对研究生教育的新的、创新的和潜在的变革性方法进行试验、测试和评估。这项工作得到了本科教育部门的部分支持。

The training of current and future college and university instructors is critical to any adoption of teaching or curriculum reforms. Yet graduate students who are both trained for and pushed toward academic jobs remain unprepared for a key responsibility of these jobs: teaching. This National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) award in the Innovations in Graduate Education (IGE) Track to Florida State University will study the design model and effects of a mixed reality integrated training program to provide teaching practice to STEM graduate teaching assistants (GTAs). Integrating 3D virtual reality and body sensory technology, this training program for STEM GTAs will extend the research and development of current STEM GTA training by enabling STEM GTAs to practice, observe, and reflect on teaching in a variety of instructional settings, and it will provide them with a deep understanding of teaching strategies through active experimentation and problem solving. The resulting STEM GTA teaching training model is anticipated to improve teaching in introductory STEM courses, to improve the persistence of underrepresented groups in STEM disciplines by broadening the teaching practices used in introductory STEM courses, and to address specific challenges and needs associated with the variety of STEM graduate students. The project will employ an iterative evaluation process to improve the model over the course of the award, and the results will inform understanding of the effectiveness of technology-integrated professional development for student instructors. The project team will design and develop a mixed-reality integrated teaching training program for STEM GTAs comprised of three components: (1) Environment, a 3D mixed-reality platform, called MILE (Mixed reality Integrated Learning Environment), that enables the simulation and immersive practice of teaching in a variety of contexts; (2) Activity, a semi-structured, MILE-based training program that integrates formal group training sessions with informal self-regulated teaching rehearsal; and (3) Simulated scenarios for skills development, a collection of problem-based teaching scenarios for STEM GTAs to experience in MILE, which will contextualize targeted STEM teaching skills. Adopting a design-based research approach, this project will encompass iterative design processes to refine the mixed-reality integrated teaching training program, and examine its impact on the development of teaching self-efficacy and competence in an interdisciplinary group of STEM GTAs. Data will be collected via both qualitative and quantitative methods to build up a body of evidence on the design generalizations and effectiveness of the mixed-reality integrated teaching training program for STEM GTAs. The project team includes faculty from diverse disciplines including educational psychology and learning systems, computer science, chemistry, and physics.The NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) Program is designed to encourage the development and implementation of bold, new, potentially transformative models for STEM graduate education training. The Innovations in Graduate Education Track is dedicated solely to piloting, testing, and evaluating novel, innovative, and potentially transformative approaches to graduate education.This work is supported, in part, by the Division of Undergraduate Education.