Designing and Researching a Program for Preparing Teachers as Facilitators of Computational Making Activities in Classroom and Informal Learning Environments

本项目将研究一种职前教师准备模式，旨在提高教师和学生的计算思维技能和信心，并将教师培养为促进计算思维的包容性学习环境的设计者。该项目将使教师认识到家庭学习和文化资源的多样性。该项目将聘请小学（K-5年级）职前教师（同时参与校本教师准备计划）作为现有家庭技术计划的促进者，称为家庭创造性学习（FCL）。 该计划嵌入在丹佛公共图书馆（DPL）的创客空间网络中。该项目将研究职前小学教师的计算思维和促进实践及其对儿童在非正式和课堂环境中学习的影响，职前教师同时进行实地工作。项目团队将开发基于研究的资源、工具和活动，以帮助培养这些关键的促进实践。这些实践将包括如何建立信任和关系，加深参与和兴趣，并提出鼓励调查的问题。这些资源将有助于教师准备和非正式学习组织的工作人员，这些组织具有促进STEM学习，特别是计算思维的制作和修补空间。该项目将通过目前与PBS Kids的关系以及MakerEd、Connected Learning Alliance和技术教育网络等教育者网络传播资源。该项目将研究：（1）职前教师在DPL准备和促进FCL课程的经验的哪些特征支持或限制了他们的促进实践和计算思维的发展;（2）研究教师和参与者如何通过制作学习和发展他们与计算思维的共同参与;（3）研究教师如何在课堂环境中进行实地考察并影响学生的学习。项目小组将使用人种学方法，对职前教师的发展以及正式和非正式学习环境对学生学习的影响进行比较个案研究。这些方法包括观察，访谈和工件收集，以密切记录是什么支持新的主持人从事促进计算思维活动的做法，其对学生和家庭学习的影响。一个具有相关专门知识的外部咨询委员会将提供反复反馈，并评估项目在实现目标方面的进展情况。该项目的结果对正式和非正式学习空间的教学实践产生了影响，这些学习空间旨在让不同的参与者参与兴趣驱动、同伴支持和基于项目的STEM学习体验。发现研究K-12项目（DRK-12）旨在显著提高K-12学生和教师对科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）的学习和教学，通过研究和开发创新资源、模式和工具。DRK-12项目中的项目建立在STEM教育的基础研究以及为拟议项目提供理论和经验依据的先前研究和开发工作的基础上。该奖项反映了NSF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。

This project will study a model of pre-service teacher preparation that is designed to to increase teachers' and students' skills and confidence with computational thinking and develop teachers as designers of inclusive learning environments to promote computational thinking. The project will build teachers' recognition of diverse family learning and cultural resources. The project will engage elementary (grades K-5) pre-service teachers (who are concurrently involved in school-based teacher preparation programs) as facilitators in an existing family technology program called Family Creative Learning (FCL). This program is embedded in the Denver Public Library (DPL) network of makerspaces. The project will study pre-service elementary teachers' computational thinking and facilitation practices and its impact on children's learning across informal and classroom settings where pre-service teachers concurrently conduct their field work. The project team will develop research-based resources, tools, and activities that help to cultivate these key facilitation practices. These practices will include how to develop trust and relationships, to deepen participation and interests, and to ask questions that encourage inquiry. These resources will be useful for teacher preparation and for staff at informal learning organizations with making and tinkering spaces promoting STEM learning, specifically computational thinking. The project will disseminate resources through current relationships with PBS Kids and through networks of educators such as MakerEd, Connected Learning Alliance, and technology education networks. The project will research: (1) what features of pre-service teachers' experiences preparing for and facilitating the FCL program at DPL supports or limits their development of facilitation practices and computational thinking; (2) study how teachers and participants learn and develop in their joint engagement with computational thinking through making; (3) examine how teachers carry over and influence student's learning in their fieldwork within classroom settings. The project team will use ethnographic methods to develop comparative case studies of pre-service teachers' development and the impact on student learning across formal and informal learning settings. These methods include observation, interviews, and artifact collection to closely document what supports new facilitators to engage in facilitation practices of computational thinking activities and its consequential impact on student and family learning. An external advisory board with relevant expertise will provide iterative feedback and assess the project's progress in meeting its goals. The project results have implications for teaching practices across formal and informal learning spaces that aim to engage diverse participants in interest-driven, peer-supported, and project-based STEM learning experiences.The Discovery Research K-12 program (DRK-12) seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of innovative resources, models and tools. Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects.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.