Collaborative Research: Using a School-Based Sensing Platform and Targeted Teacher Professional Development to Support Computational Thinking Integration and Student Learning

由于计算已经成为科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）实践中不可或缺的一部分，STEM +计算伙伴关系计划旨在通过将计算思维（CT）和计算活动应用于STEM教学和高中早期儿童教育中的学习，来解决计算STEM领域的新挑战。该项目是科罗拉多大学博尔德分校和犹他州立大学的设计与开发合作项目，旨在研究SparkFun智能学校平台的影响，这是一个基于学校的传感平台，结合有针对性的教师专业发展，以提高教师支持CT集成的能力，促进学生的兴趣和学习。该项目将研究这种传感平台的功能，这是作为物联网一部分出现的新型强大的消费级传感技术的一个例子。原始数据将通过一系列无线传感器节点收集，测量声音、光线、运动、温度、压力和湿度；支持网络的集线器；基于web的数据记录资源，用于实时数据收集；以及可编程电机和效应器，用于通过使用产生光、声和运动的材料来创建感兴趣的现象的交互式显示。这种扩展的科学环境使STEM学科的教师能够创造性地将计算思维活动融入他们的学科教学中。通过选择个人或当地相关的科学现象，部署传感器收集数据流并进行数据分析，学生将学习有形的计算过程，协作构建交互式显示，并加深他们的STEM知识。教师将形成一个专业的学习共同体，获得基本内容和教学内容知识，计划和实施整合科学和计算机科学实践的课程，并反思他们的教学和学生的学习。该项目将开发和研究一个专业发展过程，即基于问题解决周期的CT整合周期，这是一种基于研究的方法，旨在支持教师调整其课程和课堂教学，以加强以学生为中心的策略。这种专业发展模式是一个持续的、高度协作的过程，教师通过课堂实施的视频记录来计划、制定和分析他们的教学。这项合作将遵循三个高层次的理论原则猜想，这些猜想将指导研究和开发过程：(1)利用传感平台调查与学生生活相关的现象的学习经验将吸引不同的学习者参与CT；(2)深度整合CT实践与科学和工程实践的学习经验将支持学生发展强大的CT技能，能力和性格，并加深他们对STEM学科的理解；(3)问题解决周期的改编版本可以支持教师有效地将CT整合到他们的STEM教学计划和课堂实施中。该项目的四组研究问题是：(1)学校实验室的学习经历以何种方式，以及针对哪些学生群体，加深了对CT的兴趣和参与？(2)哪些学习经历对加深学生的学科科学知识最有效？(3)随着时间的推移，教师计划和实施的基于传感器的课程在多大程度上以及以何种方式发生了变化？教师和科学内容领域之间是否存在差异？(4)哪些专业学习过程和工具支持教师使用传感平台将CT有效地整合到他们的学科STEM教学中？后续的研究与开发活动将研究教师从课程规划到课程制定的CT整合过程的完整轨迹。与基于设计的实施研究的原则一致，该项目旨在了解STEM跨学科的实施变化，旨在了解如何在一系列精心采样的环境中最好地使创新发挥作用。丹佛公立学校将招募12名中学科学和综合STEM教师（生命、地球和物理科学），组织成3-4个以学校为基础的团队，在项目执行期间为2400名不同的、主要是低社会经济地位的中学学习者提供服务。从学生那里收集数据（调查、访谈、点击流、评估和项目工件）；课堂教学（书面计划和录像观察）；教师(面试);以及专业发展研讨会。为了分析学生的学习情况以及教师随时间的变化，该项目将采用适当的多层模型，包括由于数据嵌套性质而采用的两级分层线性建模。功率分析（使用功率水平）。80， α水平为。05)，以确定需要多少学生才能检测到该计划的教育意义效应（最小可检测效应大小约为0.20）。功效分析的结果表明，该研究有足够的功效来检测这种对学生水平结果的最小影响。犹他州立大学将领导这项工作的评估部分，包括形成性、迭代性和总结性的观点。它将以过程和产品为中心。评估问题是：(1)研究与实践伙伴关系（RPP）在多大程度上产生了促进教育改进的研究成果？在解决具体的教育需要方面，实施策略的效果如何？(2)基于设计的实施研究过程在多大程度上涉及关键参与者？设计过程对参与者的信念和实践有什么影响？RPP的所有参与者是否都有效地承担了他们所定义的角色？(3)合伙关系的动态会导致什么后果（有意或无意）？(4)是否通过考虑所有参与者的反馈来迭代改进产品？(5)项目产品在多大程度上以帮助从业者的方式传播？该项目将生成两个工具包，作为支持教师专业发展和课堂教学的产品。该研究将通过研究STEM教师需要的支持类型来推进生产性整合过程的理论和知识，以有效地将CT整合到学习活动中：(a)支持不同学生的公平参与；(b)利用CT作为加深学生科学知识的工具。此外，它将建立并扩展最近出版的科学教育框架（NRC, 2012）中描述的基于研究的三维科学学习原则，作为一种生产整合策略，并为教学设计能力、课程适应和教师专业学习的理论文献做出贡献。

As computing has become integral to the practice of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), the STEM + Computing Partnerships program seeks to address emerging challenges in computational STEM areas through the applied integration of computational thinking (CT) and computing activities within STEM teaching and learning in early childhood education through high school. This project is a Design and Development collaborative effort between the University of Colorado at Boulder and Utah State University aimed at investigating the impact of the SparkFun Smart School platform, a school-based sensing platform, combined with a targeted teacher professional development on teachers' ability to support CT integration and promote student interest and learning. The project will examine the affordances of this sensing platform--an example of a new genre of robust, consumer-grade sensing technologies emerging as part of the Internet of Things. Raw data will be collected through a series of wireless sensor nodes measuring sound, light, motion, temperature, pressure, and humidity; a network-enabled hub; a web-based data logging resource for real-time data collection; and programmable motors and effectors for creating interactive displays of phenomena of interest by using materials that produce light, sound, and movement. This expanded environment for doing science enables teachers across STEM disciplines to creatively integrate computational thinking activities into their disciplinary instruction. By selecting personally or locally relevant scientific phenomenon, deploying sensors to collect data streams, and conducting data analyses, students will learn tangible computing processes, collaboratively build interactive displays, and deepen their STEM knowledge. Teachers will form a professional learning community, gain essential content and pedagogical content knowledge, plan and implement lessons that integrate science and computer science practices, and reflect on their instruction and students' learning. The project will develop and study a professional development process, the CT Integration Cycle, based on the Problem-Solving Cycle, a research-based approach developed and studied to support teachers in adapting their lessons and classroom instruction to strengthen student-centered strategies. This professional development model is an ongoing, highly collaborative process, whereby teachers plan, enact, and analyze their instruction using video records of classroom implementation.The collaborative effort will follow three high-level theoretically principled conjectures that will guide the research and development process: (1) Learning experiences that utilize the sensing platform to investigate phenomena relevant to students' lives will engage diverse learners in CT; (2) Learning experiences that deeply integrate CT practices and science and engineering practices will support students to develop robust CT skills, competencies, and dispositions as well as deepen their understanding of STEM subjects; and (3) An adapted version of the Problem-Solving Cycle can support teachers to productively integrate CT into their STEM instructional planning and classroom implementation. The four sets of research questions of the project are: (1) In what ways, and for which student populations, do the SchoolWide Labs learning experiences deepen interest and engagement in CT?; (2) Which learning experiences are most effective at deepening students' disciplinary science knowledge?; (3) To what degree and in what ways do teachers' planned and enacted sensor-based lessons change over time? Are there differences across teachers and science content areas?; and (4) What professional learning processes and tools support teachers to productively integrate CT using a sensing platform into their disciplinary STEM instruction? The pursued research and development activity will study the full trajectory of teachers' CT integration processes, from lesson planning to lesson enactment. Consistent with the principles of Design-Based Implementation Research, the project will aim to understand implementation variation across disciplines of STEM, with the intention of developing understanding of how best to make the innovation work across a range of carefully sampled contexts. Denver Public Schools will recruit 12 middle school science and integrated STEM teachers (life, Earth, and physical science), organized into 3-4 school-based teams, reaching 2,400 diverse and predominantly low-socioeconomic status middle school learners over the project performance period. Data will be collected from students (surveys, interviews, clickstreams, assessments, and project artifacts); classroom lessons (written plans and videotaped observations); teachers (interviews); and professional development workshops. For analysis of student learning and also for teacher change over time, the project will employ appropriate multilevel models, including two-level hierarchical linear modeling due to the nested nature of the data. A power analysis (using a power level of .80 and an alpha-level of .05) was conducted to determine how many students are needed to detect an educationally meaningful effect of the program (minimum detectable effect size of approximately 0.20). The results of the power analyses showed the study is adequately powered to detect this minimum effect on student-level outcomes. Utah State University will lead the evaluation component of this effort, including formative, iterative, and summative perspectives. It will center on both processes and products. The evaluation questions are: (1) To what extent is the Research-Practice Partnership (RPP) producing research results to foster educational improvement?; How effective are the implementation strategies in terms of addressing a concrete educational need?; (2) To what extent are Design-Based Implementation Research processes involving key participants?; What are impacts of the design processes on beliefs and practices of participants?; Are all participants in the RPP assuming their defined roles effectively?; (3) What are the consequences, intended or not, resulting from the dynamics of the partnership?; (4) Are products being iteratively refined by taking into account feedback from all participants?; and (5) To what extent are the project's products disseminated in ways that help practitioners? The project will generate two toolkits as products to support teacher professional development and classroom instruction. The research will advance theory and knowledge on productive integration processes by studying the types of support STEM teachers need to effectively integrate CT into learning activities that: (a) support equitable engagement of diverse students; and (b) use CT as a vehicle to deepen their students' science knowledge. Further, it will build on and extend research-based principles of three dimensional science learning described in the recently published science education framework (NRC, 2012) as a strategy for productive integration, and contribute to theoretical literature on pedagogical design capacity, curriculum adaptation, and teacher professional learning.