Engaging Teachers and Neurodiverse Middle School Students in Tangible and Creative Computational Thinking Activities

残疾学生，特别是自闭症学生，在STEM教育和就业方面的结果不平等。尽管经常报道自闭症患者在STEM学科方面的优势和兴趣，但他们往往得不到成功所需的支持——那些与沟通、过渡和灵活性相关的支持。通过与教师、家长和雇主的合作，该项目将为患有自闭症谱系障碍的学生在学校和更大的社区中取得成功创造途径。来自亚利桑那州立大学和神经多样性教育研究中心（NERC）的研究人员以及科学预科学院（SPA）和坦普尔格兰丁学校的从业人员将合作开展学习活动和研讨会，让中学年龄的儿童、社区成员和雇主参与整合音乐、技术和计算思维的活动。对于雇主和社区成员来说，参与可以增加对神经多样性儿童和求职者的尊重，并改变STEM领域的招聘实践和工作场所住宿。参与共同设计学习体验过程的教师和参与讲习班的其他教师将能够学习支持学习的新方法。最后，本项目旨在为神经多样性个体建立支持和便利的途径，以增加自闭症学生在更具包容性的经济中的就业潜力，在这种经济中，神经多样性是一个基线，而不是例外。该项目以具身学习和合作学习方法为基础，为团队开发远程信息具身学习（TEL）活动提供了信息：参与者使用运动和身体来理解概念的活动，可以在学生和教师处于不同位置的混合或远程教学情况下进行。该项目的迭代协同设计过程和实践者模型旨在提供有关教师需要的支持和培训类型的数据，以使神经多样性的学生具备计算机科学概念。该项目的研究人员将采用融合混合方法设计，通过调查、观察、访谈和焦点小组相结合的方式，调查大约25名中学生、24名教师、15名家长和10名未来雇主的经历。本研究旨在探讨利用计算媒介丰富的远程信息处理具身学习方法如何培养计算思维；参加教育教学工作坊的教师如何改变和多样化他们的教学实践；如何在其他学校采用教学教学方法；以及TEL方法如何通过发展社会情感技能来增强计算机科学中CT的学习，从而影响神经多样性自闭症儿童的未来就业。该项目由CS for All: Research and RPPs项目资助。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。

Students with disabilities, particularly those with autism, experience unequal outcomes in STEM education and employment. Despite frequently reported strengths and interests in STEM disciplines, individuals with autism often do not receive the support—those related to communication, transitions, and flexibility—needed to succeed. In working with teachers, parents, and employers, this project will create pathways to position students with autism spectrum disorder for success in school and also the larger community. Researchers from Arizona State University and the Neurodiversity Educational Research Center (NERC) and practitioners at Science Prep Academy (SPA) and Temple Grandin School will collaborate on the development of learning activities and workshops that engage middle-school aged children, community members, and employers in activities that integrate music, technology, and computational thinking. For the employers and community members, participation can lead to increased respect for neurodiverse children and job applicants and changes in STEM field’s hiring practices and workplace accommodations. Teachers engaged in the process of co-designing the learning experience and additional teachers engaged in workshops will be able to learn new approaches for supporting learning. Finally, this project aims to build pathways of support and facilitation for neurodiverse individuals that increase employment potential of students with autism in a more inclusive economy, where neurodiversity is a baseline rather than an exception. The project is based on embodied learning and cooperative learning approaches that inform the team’s development of Telematic Embodied Learning (TEL) activities: activities that engage participants in using movement and their bodies to understand concepts, and can be conducted in hybrid or remote teaching situations when students and teachers are in different locations. The project’s iterative co-design process and practitioner model are designed to provide data on the kinds of support and training teachers would need to equip neurodiverse students with computer science concepts. The project’s researchers will use a convergent mixed methods design to investigate the experiences of approximately 25 middle-school-aged children, 24 teachers, 15 parents, and 10 future employers through a combination of surveys, observations, interviews, and focus groups. The research aims to investigate how Telematic Embodied Learning approaches enriched with computational media foster computational thinking; how teachers who participate in the TEL workshops modify and diversify their teaching practices; how TEL approaches can be adapted in other schools; and how TEL approaches augment the learning of CT in computer science with developing socio-emotional skills impact future employment for neurodiverse children with autism. This project is funded through the CS for All: Research and RPPs program.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.