Mapping, Clarifying, and Communicating Key Ideas about Collaborative Learning

本项目将综合研究计算机支持的协同学习（CSCL）。在幼儿园至12年级的STEM教学中，协作学习经常发生，但大多数教师都不知道有关如何组织学生之间的协作以提高学习的研究结果。这些研究结果可以支持关键的STEM教学实践，如论证、基于项目的学习、同伴指导、公平参与和基于探究的学习。在过去的十年里，CSCL的科学取得了进步，包括出版了一本研究手册——然而，从业者并不容易获得研究期刊，也没有时间筛选最新的发现来指导他们的实践。此外，传统形式的研究综合，例如研究手册或长篇综合论文，服务于狭窄的读者，从业人员很少阅读。Digital Promise是一个非营利性组织，它将研究人员、教育工作者和开发人员与外部研究人员、实践顾问和合作伙伴组织联系起来，将调查和开发一种新的综合方法，为教育工作者和研究人员提供一种新的综合形式，围绕主题和子主题的互动地图进行组织。通过与国家从业者组织合作，该项目将实现广泛而深入的传播。为了发展这种综合，一个由研究人员和教育工作者组成的多学科团队将使用一种可视化的、互动的文献计量学方法来理解研究文献景观。创新综合方法的关键创新要素是：(1)让从业者和研究人员参与到工作的每个阶段——规划、澄清和沟通；(2)使用视觉地图作为组织和导航相互关联的思想的工具；(3)采用专家评审和文献计量技术来确定地图的主题和联系；(4)采用德尔菲法启发的定性过程，迭代开发既尊重科学文献又满足从业者需求的共识图；(5)为地图中的每个主题写一个简短、简明的入门，以实现多个入口点、可访问性、更大的读者导航性和更容易的可读性；(6)在传播过程中，涉及多个从业者组织和学习途径，传播渠道和方法达到广泛和深入。该项目将建立一种新的综合模式，如果成功，可以应用于其他高兴趣的主题领域，产生额外的研究地图和概念引物，以满足STEM研究人员和从业者的需求。最后，这一过程还将通过提高对研究人员所建立的知识与从业者想要了解的知识之间差距的认识，加强研究CSCL的大研究领域。探索研究preK-12项目（DRK-12）旨在通过研究和开发创新资源、模型和工具，显著提高preK-12学生和教师对科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）的学习和教学。DRK-12计划中的项目建立在STEM教育的基础研究和先前的研究和开发工作的基础上，为拟议的项目提供了理论和实证依据。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 synthesize research on computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL). Collaborative learning occurs often in preK-12 STEM teaching--yet most teachers are unaware of research findings on how to organize collaboration among students to increase learning. These research findings can support key STEM teaching practices such as argumentation, project-based learning, peer instruction, equitable participation, and inquiry-based learning. The science of CSCL achieved advances in the past decade, including producing a research handbook--however, practitioners do not have easy access to research journals, nor time to sift through the latest findings to guide their practice. Further, conventional forms of research synthesis, such as research handbooks or long synthesis papers, serve narrow audiences and are rarely read by practitioners. Digital Promise, a nonprofit organization that connects researchers, educators, and developers—with a team of external researcher and practitioner advisors and partner organizations—will investigate and develop a novel synthesis approach to provide educators and researchers with a novel form of synthesis organized around an interactive map of topics and subtopics. By working with national practitioner organizations, the project will achieve broad and deep dissemination. To develop the synthesis, a multidisciplinary team of both researchers and educators will use a visual, interactive bibliometric approach to understand the research literature landscape. Key novel elements of the innovative synthesis approach are: (1) involving practitioners and researchers in each stage of the work—mapping, clarifying, and communicating; (2) using visual maps as a tool for organizing and navigating interconnected ideas; (3) involving both expert review and bibliometric techniques to identify topics and connections for the map; (4) using a qualitative process inspired by the Delphi method to iteratively develop a consensus map that both respects the scientific literature and addresses practitioners’ needs; (5) writing a short, concise primer for each topic within the map, to enable multiple entry points, accessibility, greater reader-navigability, and easier readability; and (6) during dissemination, involving multiple practitioner organizations and approaches for learning which dissemination channels and methods achieve broad and deep reach. The project will establish a new mode of synthesis that, if successful, could be applied to other high-interest topic areas, yielding additional research maps and concept primers to serve the needs of STEM researchers and practitioners. Finally, this process will also strengthen the large field of research that studies CSCL by increasing awareness of the gaps in knowledge between what researchers have established and what practitioners want to know. The Discovery Research preK-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.