Fostering Joint Parent/Child Engagement in Preschool Computational Thinking by Leveraging Digital Media, Mobile Technology, and Library Settings in Urban and Rural Communities

该项目将通过创建一系列移动应用程序来指导家庭完成连续的视频和动手活动，从而向学龄前儿童传授基本计算思维(CT)概念。为了支持家庭，它还将开发一种新的图书馆模式，建立图书馆员的计算思维、内容知识和自我效能感，以便他们能够支持父母与孩子的努力。计算思维是学习和在职场取得成功的一项日益重要的技能。它包括识别问题、集思广益、生成计算机或人类可以交流和遵循的解决方案和流程的能力。将计算思维引入幼儿的项目寥寥无几。关于父母如何促进孩子参与计算机断层扫描技能的研究很少。开发一种模式，培训和支持图书馆员成为父母在CT中与孩子接触时的虚拟教练，这将利用并建立图书馆员的专业知识。该项目的目标受众包括生活在农村地区的父母和儿童，那里获得CT学习的机会可能非常有限。项目合作伙伴包括EDC，一个主要的研究组织，美国图书馆协会，和Build，一个全国性的协会，促进图书馆、幼儿园准备和公共媒体节目的合作。形成性研究问：1)农村社区学龄前儿童的父母需要什么支持才能有效地在家里与他们的孩子进行CT？2)农村社区的图书馆如何支持家庭的联合CT探索？这项总结性研究提出的问题是：3)结合媒体资源、移动技术和图书馆支持的干预措施如何培养持续的亲子共同参与和对CT的积极态度？研究人员将开发一项家长调查，根据之前开发的工具改编几个量表，要求父母报告孩子使用与CT相关的词汇以及与CT相关的态度和性格的情况。调查量表将评估图书馆员对CT的态度，以及他们在虚拟环境中支持CT父母的自我效能。在形成性研究中，EDC将对MS和KY农村的30名家长和6名图书管理员进行问卷调查。分析将主要是定性的，旨在为开发团队产生快速反馈。将使用时间查询和后端数据对父母应用程序的使用情况进行量化分析，探索与使用应用程序的时间相关的因素。这项总结性研究将评估新媒体资源和移动技术与图书馆虚拟实施模式相结合，如何支持家庭对CT的共同参与，以及对CT的积极态度。研究人员将在密西西比州和肯塔基州的农村招募125个有4到5岁孩子的低收入家庭参与这项研究。他们将随机将每个图书馆内的家庭分配到“完全”干预条件，包括通过虚拟实施模式提供的媒体资源、移动技术和图书馆支持，或“仅媒体和移动技术”条件。这一设计将使研究人员能够更充分地了解图书馆支持农村家庭持续参与的额外好处，并反过来看到仅使用媒体和移动技术干预的相对影响，因为一些家庭可能无法获得虚拟或实体图书馆支持。作为其加强非正式环境中学习的总体战略的一部分，推进非正式STEM学习(AISL)计划寻求促进非正式环境中STEM学习的设计和开发的新方法和基于证据的理解。这包括为扩大获得和参与STEM学习经验提供多种途径，推进对非正式环境中STEM学习的创新研究和评估，以及加深参与者对更深层次学习的理解。该项目由学生和教师创新技术体验计划(ITEST)共同资助，该计划支持建立对实践、计划要素、背景和过程的理解的项目，这些项目有助于提高学生对科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)以及信息和通信技术(ICT)职业的知识和兴趣。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。

This project will teach foundational computational thinking (CT) concepts to preschoolers by creating a series of mobile apps to guide families through sequenced sets of videos and hands-on activities. To support families at home it would also develop a new library model to build librarians’ computational thinking content knowledge and self-efficacy so they can support parents’ efforts with their children. Computational thinking is a an increasingly critical skill for learning and success in the workforce. It includes the ability to identify problems, brainstorm and generate solutions and processes that can be communicated and followed by computers or humans. There are few projects that introduce computational thinking to young children. Very little research has been done on the ways that parents can facilitate children’s engagement in CT skills. And developing a model that trains and supports librarians to become virtual coaches of parents as they engage with their children in CT, will leverage and build the expertise of librarians. The project’s target audience includes parents and children living in rural areas where access to CT learning may be very limited. Project partners include the EDC, a major research organization, the American Library Association, and BUILD, a national association that promotes collaborations across library, kindergarten readiness, and public media programming.The formative research study asks: 1) What supports do parents of preschoolers in rural communities need in order to effectively engage in CT with their children at home? and 2) How can libraries in rural communities support joint CT exploration in family homes? The summative research study asks: 3) how can an intervention that combines media resources, mobile technology, and library supports foster sustained joint parent/child engagement and positive attitudes around CT? Researchers will develop a parent survey, adapting several scales from previously developed instruments that ask parents to report on children’s use of CT-related vocabulary and CT-related attitudes and dispositions. Survey scales will assess librarians’ attitudes towards CT, as well as their self-efficacy in supporting parents in CT in a virtual environment. During the formative study, EDC will pilot-test survey scales with 30 parents and 6 librarians in rural MS and KY. Analyses will be primarily qualitative and will be geared toward producing rapid feedback for the development team. Quantitative analyses will be used on parent app use, using both time query and back-end data, exploring factors associated with time spent using apps. The summative study will evaluate how the new media resources and mobile technology, in combination with the library virtual implementation model, support families’ joint engagement with CT, and positive attitudes around CT. The researchers will recruit 125 low-income families with 4- to 5-year-old children in rural MS and KY to participate in the study. They will randomly assign families within each library to the “full” intervention condition, including media resources, mobile technology, and library support delivered through the virtual implementation model, or the “media and mobile-technology-only” condition. This design will allow researchers to understand more fully the additional benefit of library support for rural families’ sustained engagement, and conversely, see the comparative impact of a media- and mobile-technology only intervention, given that some families might not be able to access virtual or physical library support.As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understandings of deeper learning by participants. This project is co-funded by the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program, which supports projects that build understandings of practices, program elements, contexts and processes contributing to increasing students' knowledge and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and information and communication technology (ICT) careers.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.