CAREER: Crosscutting Concepts and Scientific Thinking Tools for an Equitable Science Curriculum

该奖项全部或部分由《2021年美国救援计划法案》（公法117-2）和EHR核心研究项目资助。该项目将研究如何利用科学课程的特点来培养文化多样化的五年级学生使用科学思维工具的能力。思考工具将包括横切概念，例如系统和系统模型、模式、因果关系，以及文化概念，例如互惠、人与自然的关系和责任。该项目将调查的教学设计元素包括学生对思维工具、模型支架、课堂讨论和文化知识的使用。五年级的科学教学增加了所有学生获得科学思维工具的机会，这是对包括夏威夷原住民和太平洋岛民在内的所有学生公平接受科学教学的要求的回应。本项目的课程材料将由教师和研究人员共同设计，以培养学生指导自己科学思维的能力。该项目的目标是：(1)开发和完善设计指南；(2)开发教学方法、工具和策略，以提高学生使用科学思维工具的能力。该项目旨在通过创建更有效和公平的基础科学课程来扩大STEM的参与，这可以增加对STEM职业的参与，同时也可以培养参与的小学科学教师的能力。本研究将集中在三个研究问题上：(1)五年级学生的认识论思维有哪些知识基础？(2)哪些教学方法、工具和策略可以促进支持学生新兴认知思维的生产性元认知体验？(3)教师需要什么支持来促进五年级课堂上的生产性元认知体验？该研究将在基于设计的研究框架内使用协同设计作为专业发展。该项目将参与(a) 3所城乡小学，(b) 7名五年级科学教师，(c) 340名学生，为期2学年，包括来自不同文化背景的教师和学生。数据收集策略将包括课堂互动的视频和项目共同设计团队对这些事件的讨论。数据分析策略将包括交互分析，以确定三个设计元素（即建模支架、元认知话语和知识基金）对生产性元认知体验和学生认知思维发展的支持程度。案例研究将用于创建逻辑模型，解释设计元素如何促进元认知体验和发展认识论思维。通过共同设计，该项目将调整现有的课程，从先前的nsf资助的工作中，为夏威夷的五年级学生创建以公平为中心的、基于地点的科学教材，并发展集体教学设计能力。这项工作的成果将为如何在科学教学和学习的公平认知框架内使用横切概念建立一个理论框架和模型，并将填补与在三维科学教学中使用横切概念和包括认知异质性在内的更公平科学教学方法相关的知识空白。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 award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2), and by the EHR Core Research program. The project will investigate the use of science curriculum features to develop culturally diverse fifth-grade students’ abilities to use scientific thinking tools. Thinking tools will include crosscutting concepts such as systems and system models, patterns, and cause and effect, as well as cultural concepts, such as reciprocity, human-nature relations, and responsibility. Instructional design elements that the project will investigate include students’ use of thinking tools, model scaffolds, classroom discussions, and the use of cultural knowledge. Fifth-grade science instruction that increases all students' access to science thinking tools is responsive to the mandate for equitable science instruction for all students, including Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders. The curriculum materials created in this project will be co-designed by teachers and researchers to develop students’ abilities to direct their own scientific thinking. The goals of the project are (1) to develop and refine design guidelines and (2) to develop instructional methods, tools, and strategies for increasing students' abilities to use scientific thinking tools. The project aims to broaden participation in STEM by creating elementary science curriculum that is more effective and equitable, which can increase participation in STEM careers, while also building capacity of participating elementary science teachers.The study will focus on three research questions: (1) What funds of knowledge do fifth-grade students have for epistemic thinking?; (2) What instructional methods, tools, and strategies can facilitate productive metacognitive experiences that support students' emerging epistemic thinking?; and (3) What supports do teachers need to facilitate productive metacognitive experiences in fifth-grade classrooms? The study will use co-design as professional development within a design-based research framework. The project will engage with (a) 3 urban and rural elementary schools, (b) 7 fifth-grade science teachers, and (c) 340 students over the course of 2 school years and will include teachers and students from culturally diverse backgrounds. Data gathering strategies will include video of classroom interactions and discussions of these events by the project co-design team. Data analysis strategies will include interaction analysis to identify the extent to which three design elements (i.e., modeling scaffolds, meta-epistemic discourse, and funds of knowledge) support productive metacognitive experiences and the development of students' epistemic thinking. Case studies will be used to create logic models that explain how the design elements facilitate metacognitive experiences and develop epistemic thinking. Through co-design the project will adapt existing curriculum from prior NSF-funded work to create equity-focused, place-based science teaching materials for Hawai‘i's fifth-grade students and develop collective pedagogical design capacity. The outcomes of this work will establish a theoretical framework and models for how to use the crosscutting concepts within an equitable epistemic framework in science teaching and learning and will fill knowledge gaps related to the use of the crosscutting concepts in three-dimensional science teaching learning and approaches for more equitable science instruction that include epistemic heterogeneity.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.