CAREER: Designing Linguistically Responsive Environments for STEM Learning

该奖项全部或部分根据2021年美国救援计划法案（公法117-2）资助。在美国高等教育中，来自非主导语言背景（NDLB）的学生人数正在增加。来自美国NDLB的大多数学生都是在讲西班牙语的家庭中长大的，但也有越来越多的学生说其他语言，如阿拉伯语，索马里语，斯瓦希里语和尼泊尔语。虽然NDLB的学生为学术成功带来了有用的资源，但他们在英语主导的学习环境中学习STEM内容时也会遇到挑战。对K-12科学教育的研究表明，当学习环境提供在两种或多种语言之间灵活移动的机会时，NDLB学生的学习和参与程度更好。通过这些实践，学生可以利用以其母语开发的语言和知识资源，并验证他们的多语种身份。尽管有证据支持这种灵活的语言使用STEM和英语学习，但它很少在大学一级作为提高大学生STEM学习的一种方式进行研究。该项目旨在通过以下方式填补这一空白：首先，研究NDLB的大学生如何在STEM学习的背景下使用多种语言;其次，设计一个STEM学习环境，鼓励和支持NDLB学生灵活使用语言。该项目将促进对STEM学习和语言使用之间的相互关系的理解，并调查更好地促进STEM学习的教学环境和实践。鉴于来自NDLB的学生在美国教育系统中的人口不断增长，研究结果可能会对中学后STEM教育的学生和教育工作者产生广泛的影响。在两种或多种语言之间动态移动并结合两种或多种语言的元素以理解多语言环境的做法被称为跨语言。项目组将开展三项研究：研究一旨在通过任务型配对访谈，对来自NDLB的大学生的跨语言实践进行研究;研究二旨在通过半结构化访谈，考察来自NDLB的大学生在STEM学习环境中的语言体验;研究3旨在设计和测试一个学习环境，通过鼓励适合大学STEM学习和参与的跨语言实践，支持NDLB学生的学习。项目团队将在两个不同的机构环境中管理研究1和2，一个城市R1大学（伊利诺伊大学芝加哥分校）和西班牙语双语社区学院（圣奥古斯丁学院）。这两个机构之间的异同将提供关键的洞察条件下，从NDLB学生可以开发各种translanguaging策略，并充分利用他们的语言资源。研究3将在芝加哥伊利诺伊大学的一年级普通化学课程中实施。项目组将采用设计性研究的方法，根据研究1-2的研究结果和相关文献，设计学习环境，分析干预过程中收集的数据（录像，访谈和调查），以修改第二次迭代的学习环境设计，并生成关于在大学STEM教育中创建语言响应学习环境的强大循证理论。该职业奖由NSF的IUSE：EHR计划支持，该计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生的STEM教育的有效性。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力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). The number of students from non-dominant linguistic backgrounds (NDLBs) is increasing in U.S. higher education. Most students from NDLBs in the United States have grown up in Spanish-speaking households, yet there are increasing numbers of students who speak other languages such as Arabic, Somali, Swahili, and Nepali. While students from NDLBs bring useful resources for academic success, they also experience challenges when learning STEM content within English-dominant learning environments. Research in K-12 science education has shown that students from NDLBs learn and participate better when their learning environments offer opportunities to move flexibly between two or more languages. Through such practices, the students can build on linguistic and knowledge resources developed in their primary languages, and their multilingual identities can be validated. Despite evidence that supports this flexible language use for STEM and English learning, it has been rarely studied at the college level as a way to enhance college students’ STEM learning. This project seeks to fill this gap by, first, examining how college students from NDLBs use multiple languages in the context of STEM learning, and, second, by designing a STEM learning environment that encourages and supports flexible use of languages for students from NDLBs. This project will advance understanding about the interrelationship between STEM learning and language use and to investigate pedagogical environments and practices that better facilitate STEM learning. Given that students from NDLBs are a growing population in the U.S. education system, findings can have broad impacts on students and educators in post-secondary STEM education.The practice of moving dynamically between, and combining elements of, two or more languages to make sense of multilingual contexts is known as translanguaging. The project team will conduct three studies: Study 1 seeks to identify the translanguaging practices of college students from NDLBs through task-based paired interviews that engage two speakers of a common language; Study 2 aims to use semi-structured interviews to examine linguistic experiences in STEM learning environment of college students from NDLBs; and Study 3 intends to design and test a learning environment that supports the learning of students from NDLBs by encouraging translanguaging practices appropriate for college STEM learning and participation. The project team will administer Studies 1 and 2 in two different institutional contexts, an urban R1 university (University of Illinois at Chicago) and Spanish-bilingual community college (Saint Augustine College). Similarities and differences between the two institutions will provide critical insights into the conditions under which students from NDLBs may develop various translanguaging strategies and fully leverage their linguistic resources. Study 3 will be implemented in a freshman general chemistry course at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Taking the approach of design-based research, the project team will design the learning environment by building on the findings of Studies 1-2 and relevant literature, analyze the data collected through the intervention (videorecordings, interviews, and surveys) to revise the learning environment design for the second iteration, and generate robust evidence-based theories about the creating linguistically responsive learning environment in college STEM education. This CAREER award is supported by NSF's IUSE: EHR Program which supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students.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.