Collaborative Network of Grades 3-5 Educators for Computational Thinking for English Learners

尽管拉美裔和英语学习者是K-12学生群体中增长最快的两个群体，但人们对向这些群体的学生传授计算思维的有效方法知之甚少，特别是在小学层面。在这个项目的第一阶段，研究小组开发了一个创新的课程，其中包括标准匹配、语言支架和与文化相关的教学法，以满足拉美裔和英语学习者的需求，并试行了一系列措施，以评估对学习过程和结果的影响。在加州大学欧文分校和圣安娜联合学区之间这一成功的研究-实践伙伴关系的基础上，该项目将反复研究和开发一种向南加州大学大量拉美裔和英语学习者教授计算思维的方法。该项目将进一步开发课程，完善相关的专业发展，将该项目扩大到南加州大学10所学校的40名额外的四年级教师，并收集广泛的定性和定量数据，以反复改进该项目，并评估其对学习过程和结果的影响。该项目是第一批考察英语学习者成功掌握计算思维的语言和社会文化过程，以及计算思维在英语语言艺术课程中的作用的项目之一。开发的材料基于加州计算机科学和英语语言艺术标准，并将积极传播到该州的其他地区，使其可用于这个拥有全国最多拉美裔学生(54%)和英语学习者(20%)的州。参与该项目的研究生和本科生研究人员团队，他们都是西班牙裔和/或女性，将接受关于计算机科学教育的不同研究方法的培训。有关该项目的信息也将被整合到加州大学欧文分校教育科学专业、教学文学硕士、加州教师和教育博士项目的课程中，这些项目每年总共为1000多名学生提供服务，其中大多数是代表不足的少数族裔和第一代大学生，他们中的大多数继续成为K-12或大学教师。通过进一步开发课程和专业发展并在另外40个教室实施，该项目团队将仔细评估在帮助学生计算思维、培养对计算机科学领域的认同感以及培养学术语言能力方面最有效的教学实践。通过该项目开发和改进的课程和职业发展材料将通过明确教授CS语言功能、包括阅读和创作与文化相关的故事以及基于协作、对话和探究的教学来适应拉美裔和英语学习者的需求。RPP团队将解决以教学为重点的研究问题，如课程单元的挑战和使用及其对专业发展的影响；学习(包括对学生态度和知识发展的影响)；以及伙伴关系，包括描述如何加强RPP，以更好地满足共同的目标和需求。使用混合方法，该项目将记录扩大规模的努力和支持扩大规模的新工具的开发。定性数据将包括观察和访谈的成绩单以及设计组的笔记。该团队将使用扎根的理论方法分析这些数据。该团队将收集学生计算思维、读写能力发展以及对计算机科学的认同感和态度的岗位前量化数据。由于数据将是连续和有序的，该团队将使用一系列分析方法，包括配对t检验、Mann-Whitney U检验、协方差分析、回归和分层线性模型来解决研究问题。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Though Hispanics and English learners constitute two of the fastest growing segments of the K-12 student population, little is known about effective ways of teaching computational thinking to students in these groups, especially at the elementary school level. In the first stage of this project, the research team developed an innovative curriculum that included standards matching, language scaffolds, and culturally-relevant pedagogy to meet the needs of Hispanics and English learners and piloted a wide range of measures to assess the impact on learning processes and outcomes. Building on this successful Research-Practice Partnership between the University of California, Irvine, and Santa Ana Unified School District, the project will iteratively research and develop an approach for teaching computational thinking to SAUSD's large numbers of students who are Hispanic and English learners. The project will further develop the curriculum, refine the related professional development, scale up the project to 40 additional fourth grade teachers in 10 SAUSD schools, and collect a wide range of qualitative and quantitative data to iteratively improve the project and evaluate its impact on learning processes and outcomes. The project is among the first to examine the linguistic and sociocultural processes that underlie English learners' success in mastering computational thinking, as well as the role of computational thinking in an English language arts curriculum. Materials developed are based on California computer science and English language arts standards and will be actively disseminated to other districts in the state, making them available for use in a state that has the largest amount of Hispanic students (54%) and English learners (20%) in the nation. A team of graduate and undergraduate student researchers in the project, all of whom are Hispanic and/or female, will receive training in diverse research methods for CS education. Information about the project will also be integrated into courses in UC Irvine's Education Sciences Major, Master of Arts in Teaching, CalTeach, and PhD in Education programs, which together serve more than 1000 students per year, the majority of whom are underrepresented minorities and first-generation college students, and the majority of whom continue on to become K-12 or college faculty.By further developing the curriculum and professional development and implementing it in 40 additional classrooms, the project team will carefully assess the most effective instructional practices in aiding students' computational thinking, developing identity with the field of computer science, and developing academic language proficiency. The curriculum and professional development materials developed and refined through this project will be tailored to the needs of Hispanics and English learners through explicit teaching of CS language functions, inclusion of culturally relevant stories to read and create, and instruction based on collaboration, conversation and inquiry. The RPP team will address research questions focused on teaching such as the challenges and use of the curriculum units and the implications for the professional development; learning including the affects on students' attitudes and knowledge development; and the partnership including describing the ways to enhance the RPP to better address common goals and needs. Using mixed methods, the project will document the scale-up efforts and the development of new tools to support scaling up. Qualitative data will include transcripts from observations and interviews and notes from the design group. The team will analyze these data using grounded theory approaches. The team will collect pre-post quantitative data on students' computational thinking, literacy development, and identification and attitudes toward computer science. Because the data will be both continuous and ordinal, the team will use a range of analytic methods including paired t-tests, Mann-Whitney U tests, analyses of covariance, regressions, and hierarchical linear models to address the research questions.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.