RAPID: Assessing the Reactionary Response of High School Engineering Teachers to COVID-19

COVID-19疫情在毫无预警的情况下扰乱了各方面的教育。各大学对上网的反应相对一致，但K-12教育的过渡并不那么简单。现有的公平、入学和包容性问题要求学区、学校和教师采取各种解决方案，包括不授课、在线授课和将材料/用品运送到学生家中。现有的工程为我们所有（E4 USA）教师试点队列提供了一个独特的机会，了解教师是如何过渡，特别是在实施新的和创新的工程课程。该项目允许多机构E4 USA团队（弗吉尼亚理工大学，亚利桑那州立大学，马里兰州大学，芝加哥洛约拉大学，摩根州立大学，摄政大学，陶森大学和范德比尔特大学）收集关于在不可预见和独特的过渡期间发生的事情的数据，以确保更好地捕捉和理解高中决策和变化背后的驱动因素。 E4 USA团队将探讨以下研究问题：（1）在COVID-19中断期间，E4 USA试点年的教师如何调整和提供课程？(2)COVID-19对教师的动机、自我效能、期望/价值感和冒名顶替综合征的初始队列有什么影响？(3)中断后E4 USA学生对该计划的看法是否发生了变化？(4)COVID-19对即将到来的2020年夏季PD的潜在有效性有什么影响？ 将采用多方面的方法来收集和分析这些数据。我们将沿着重新检视先前从试点教师群体收集的焦点小组记录和讨论帖子，以及COVID-19后的焦点小组和讨论帖子，以探讨疫情中断带来的变化。 焦点小组将与试点教师，新教师和E4 USA班的学生进行，以探讨COVID-19中断如何影响他们对课程和工程的看法。现有的教师调查工具旨在衡量动机，教学和参与自我效能。这些将被修改，要求教师在常规课堂教学和COVID-19相关适应的背景下对这些项目进行并排评级。作为初始调查一部分设计的现有反馈和反思问题也将进行修改，以包括与COVID-19相关的调整。最后，我们将检查COVID中断前后的课程工件。这项研究将使E4 USA团队能够制定一个框架，为E4 USA内部利益相关者和外部教育社区提供建议和信息。这些发现的传播有可能告知所有正在开发教师PD的人，那些在K-12环境中资助和研究工程的人，当地学校管理部门以及其他有兴趣与K-12学校合作的大学。这个独特的机会是紧迫的，可能是唯一的机制，真正了解如何规划，而不是反应，未来的灾难性中断。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得支持的评估使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted education on all fronts with no warning. The response from universities to go online was relatively consistent among universities, but K-12 education’s transition has not been as straightforward. Existing issues of equity, access, and inclusion have required school districts, schools, and teachers to adopt a variety of solutions, including no instruction, online instruction, and shipping materials/supplies to students at home. The existing pilot cohort of Engineering for Us All (E4USA) teachers provides a unique opportunity to understand how teachers are transitioning, especially when implementing a new and innovative engineering curriculum. This project allows the multi-institution E4USA team (Virginia Tech, Arizona State University, University of Maryland, Loyola University Chicago, Morgan State University, Regent University, Towson University and Vanderbilt University) to collect data on what has happened during the unforeseen and unique transition to ensure better capture and understanding of the drivers behind decisions and changes within high schools. The E4USA Team will explore the following research questions: (1) How did the pilot year E4USA teachers adapt and deliver the curriculum during the COVID-19 disruption?; (2) What effect has COVID-19 had on the initial cohort of teachers’ motivation, self-efficacy, sense of expectancy/value, and imposter syndrome?; (3) Did E4USA student perceptions of the program change after the disruption?; (4) What effect has COVID-19 had on the potential effectiveness of the upcoming 2020 summer PD? A multifaceted approach will be used to collect and analyze this data. Previously collected focus group transcripts and discussion posts from the pilot teacher cohort will be revisited along with post-COVID-19 focus groups and discussion posts to explore changes due to the pandemic disruption. Focus groups will be conducted with pilot teachers, incoming teachers, and students in the E4USA class to explore how the COVID-19 disruption affected their perception of the class and of engineering. Existing survey instruments for teachers are designed to measure motivational, instructional and engagement self-efficacy. These will be modified to ask teachers to rate these items side-by-side in the context of regular classroom teaching and COVID-19 related adaptations. Existing feedback and reflection questions designed as part of the initial survey will also be modified to include adaptations related to COVID-19. Finally, we will examine course artifacts before and after the COVID disruption. This study will allow the E4USA team to develop a framework to advise and inform both internal E4USA stakeholders and external education communities. Dissemination of these findings has the potential to inform all who are developing teacher PD, those funding and researching engineering in K-12 settings, local school administrations, and other universities interested in working with K-12 schools. This unique opportunity is urgent and may be the only mechanism to truly understand how to plan for, rather than react to, future catastrophic interruptions.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.