Collaborative Research: Integrating computing in STEM: Designing, developing, and investigating a team-based professional development model for middle- and high-school teachers

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+计算计划旨在通过将计算思维和计算活动应用于高中（preK-12）早期儿童教育的STEM教学和学习，来解决计算STEM领域的新挑战。这个STEM+计算合作项目的目标是设计、开发和调查专业发展（PD）的成果，旨在支持在职教师在初中和高中课堂上整合计算和STEM课程。北卡罗莱纳州和南卡罗来纳州的大约360名教师将被招募参加暑期PD讲习班。在每个州，一个研讨会将实施一种新的PD模式，为STEM+C教师的跨学科团队提供与研究人员合作的机会，并在研讨会和整个学年中共同建立课程，活动和资源，将计算整合到课堂活动中。这些资源将免费与其他教师和公众共享。在每个州的第二次研讨会将采用更传统的，以单一教师为重点的PD方法。在研讨会之后，该项目将通过每月在线会议，以及参加在线论坛和亲自参加会议的机会，全年为教师提供支持。来自南卡罗来纳州城堡军事学院和北卡罗来纳州立大学的研究人员将合作：设计和开发基于团队的PD；考察其对教育实践的影响；根据需要创建计算工具以支持基于课堂的活动；并努力推进有关如何在不同的教室、环境和文化中有效采用新资源的知识。该项目将探讨PD环境（例如，个人或团队）和文化（学科，州）如何影响与计算相结合的STEM课程的质量和实施。PD将分三个阶段实施和研究，特别关注教师的成果，利用通过管理现有仪器、访谈、焦点小组、课堂互动的视频和音频记录以及人工制品分析获得的数据。项目组成员将设计新的STEM+C综合课程；制定标准人行横道；使课程符合标准；开发、测试和改进工具（包括Snap!）帮助学生将复杂的计算和STEM内容整合到创意项目中的编程模块)；建立和支持教师社区，将计算融入STEM；并在两个州（北卡罗来纳州和南卡罗来纳州）和PD类型（个人和团队）之间进行严格的比较研究。标准人行道和项目研究将在州和国家STEM标准、计算标准、学校课程和课堂环境之间建立明确的联系。独立评估人员将评估：执行情况；教师对专业学习的反应；专业学习对教师内容知识的影响及其对课堂教学的影响；教师的态度和行为，以及教师采用新的计算机教学方法和活动的程度。

As computing has become integral to the practice of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), the STEM+Computing program seeks to address emerging challenges in computational STEM areas through the applied integration of computational thinking and computing activities within STEM teaching and learning in early childhood education through high school (preK-12). The goal of this collaborative STEM+Computing project is to design, develop, and investigate outcomes of professional development (PD) designed to support in-service teachers in integrating computing and STEM curricula across middle- and high-school classrooms. Approximately 360 teachers in North Carolina and South Carolina will be recruited to participate in summer PD workshops. In each state, one workshop will implement a new PD model that provides interdisciplinary teams of STEM+C teachers with an opportunity to work with the investigators and together -- in the workshop and throughout the academic year -- to build lessons, activities, and resources that integrate computing into classroom-based activities. These resources will be freely shared with other teachers and the public. A second workshop in each state will employ a more traditional, single-teacher focused approach to PD. Following the workshops, the project will support the teachers year-round through monthly online meetings, and opportunities to participate in an online forum and attend in-person sessions. Investigators from Citadel Military College of South Carolina and North Carolina State University will collaborate to: design and develop the team-based PD; investigate its effects on educational practice; create computational tools as needed to support classroom-based activities; and work to advance knowledge on how the new resources can be effectively adopted across diverse classrooms, contexts, and cultures.This project will explore how PD contexts (e.g., individual or team) and cultures (discipline, state) impact the quality and implementation of STEM curricula integrated with computing. The PD will be implemented and studied in three phases, with a particular focus on teacher outcomes, utilizing data obtained through administration of extant instrumentation, interviews, focus groups, video and audio recordings of classroom interactions, and analyses of artifacts. Members of the project team will design new integrated STEM+C curricula; develop standards crosswalks; map the curricula to standards; develop, test, and refine tools (including Snap! programming modules that will help students integrate complex computing and STEM content into creative projects); build and support a community of teachers integrating computing in STEM; and conduct a rigorous comparison study across two states (North Carolina and South Carolina), and PD types (individual and team). Standards crosswalks and project research will make explicit connections across state and national STEM standards, computing standards school curricula, and classroom contexts. An independent evaluator will assess: implementation; teachers' reactions to professional learning; changes in teacher content knowledge as a result of professional learning, and implications for classroom instruction; and teachers' attitudes and behaviors, and the extent to which teachers are adopting new computing pedagogies and activities.