Synthesis: Impact of integrating innovative technologies in STEM classrooms on K-12 students' STEM career outcomes

该项目将推进“面向学生和教师的创新技术体验”（ITEST）计划的工作，通过参与实地实践、实验室/项目创业任务和指导经验，更好地理解和促进提高学生在科学、技术、工程或数学（STEM）领域追求职业的动机和能力的实践。美国国家科学基金会ITEST项目支持创新策略的设计、开发、实施和选择性传播方面的研究，以吸引学生参与技术丰富的体验。迈阿密大学的这个项目将综合2000年至今关于创新技术教育干预对PreK-12学生STEM职业成果的影响的研究。这个混合方法的研究将包括两个并行的、相互关联的组成部分——定量荟萃分析和定性综合。该项目的目标是更全面地了解严格的干预研究对学生STEM职业成果的影响。研究小组将分析干预特征、学习环境、学生人口统计和研究设计之间效应大小的变化。这项研究将提供关于哪种类型的干预措施最适合哪些学生群体，在什么样的教育环境中，在什么样的社区环境中。本项目的定量元分析部分将提供使用创新技术和基于技术的学习经验的干预措施直接或间接影响PreK-12学生STEM职业发展的方式的全面情况，以确定干预特征，这些特征为影响STEM职业发展的有效性提供了最有力的证据，具体来说，为那些传统上在STEM教育中得不到充分服务、在STEM职业中代表性不足的学生提供帮助。定性综合将通过以下发现补充关于影响的大小和变化的发现：1)有助于解释干预特征如何以及为什么影响不同类型学生的职业结果；2)进一步发展理论结构，以文化上适当的方式反映代表性不足群体的STEM职业发展轨迹。本研究的方法学特征将包括：(a)对2000年至今的定量和定性、同行评议和灰色文献进行全面回顾；(b)使用“职业相关结果”的广义定义，从理论上将效应、变量和调节因子与更接近的、可测量的职业结果联系起来；(c)研究广泛的创新技术干预措施；(d)按照严格的、系统的审查指南搜索、筛选、编码、分析和综合过程；(e)考虑相关调节变量和变量之间的相互作用，以确定与积极结果相关的关键干预特征和设置；(f)研究严谨性和发表偏倚的控制。通过综合元水平的定量和定性成分，本研究将提供一个可跨领域复制的学术评论模型，用于其他项目水平影响的研究。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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 advance efforts of the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program to better understand and promote practices that increase students' motivations and capacities to pursue careers in fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) by engaging in hands-on field experience, laboratory/project-based entrepreneurship tasks and mentorship experiences. The NSF ITEST program supports research on the design, development, implementation, and selective spread of innovative strategies for engaging students in technology-rich experiencesThis Miami University project will synthesize research conducted from 2000 to the present regarding the effects of innovative technology-based educational interventions on PreK-12 students' STEM career outcomes. This mixed-method study will include two concurrent, interrelated components—a quantitative meta-analysis and a qualitative synthesis. The goal of the project is to provide a more complete understanding of rigorous intervention research regarding the effects on students' STEM career outcomes. The research team will analyze variations in effect sizes among intervention characteristics, learning contexts, student demographics, and study designs. This study will provide insights regarding what types of interventions work best for which student populations, in what educational settings, and within what community contexts.The quantitative meta-analysis component of this project will provide a comprehensive picture of the ways interventions using innovative technologies and technology-based learning experiences influence PreK-12 students' STEM career outcomes, directly or indirectly, to identify intervention characteristics that offer the most evidence of effectiveness for impacting STEM career development overall, and specifically, for students traditionally underserved in STEM education and underrepresented in STEM careers. Qualitative synthesis will supplement findings about magnitudes and variations of effects with findings that 1) help explain how and why intervention characteristics influence career outcomes for different types of students and 2) further develop theoretical constructs that reflect underrepresented groups' STEM career development trajectories in culturally appropriate ways. Methodologic features of this proposed study will include: (a) comprehensive review of quantitative and qualitative, peer-reviewed and gray literature, 2000 to present; (b) use of a broad definition of "career-related outcomes" to theoretically link effects, variables, and moderators to more proximal, measurable career outcomes; (c) study of a broad range of innovative technology interventions; (d) searching, screening, coding, analyzing, and synthesizing processes following rigorous, systematic review guidelines; (e) consideration of relevant moderator variables and interactions among variables to identify critical intervention features and settings associated with positive outcomes; and (f) control of study rigor and publication biases. By synthesizing quantitative and qualitative components at a meta-level, this study will provide a model of scholarly review that is replicable across fields for other studies of program-level impacts.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.