An AI-Augmented Phenomenographic Approach to Conceptualizing Undergraduate Students Experiences of Intercultural Team Cognition in STEM

随着社会日益全球化，越来越多的STEM毕业生需要与来自不同文化和背景的人一起工作。因此，组织和政府期望STEM毕业生作为跨文化团队的生产性成员和领导者做出贡献。本项目旨在对团队认知进行基础研究，这是团队训练的重要组成部分。团队认知是指团队有效运作所必需的知识、互动和过程。该项目旨在研究跨文化团队认知，特别是在计算密集型领域，并在此过程中进一步发展首席研究员的STEM教育研究专业知识。该项目由美国国家科学基金会EHR STEM教育研究核心研究能力建设项目（ECR: BCSER）支持，该项目旨在培养研究人员开展高质量STEM教育研究的能力。这个混合方法的项目将基于通过学生反思、团队合作录像、一系列有效的调查项目和来自参加计算密集型课程的学生的半结构化访谈收集的数据，这些课程需要长达一个学期的团队项目。三个具体目标指导这个项目。首先是发展首席研究员的STEM教育研究技能和与人工智能分析方法相关的专业知识。二是开展一项基础STEM教育研究项目，研究本科生在解决计算挑战的背景下体验跨文化团队认知的方式。第三，也是最后，是从事现象学研究，采用传统的编码方法和人工智能增强技术来分析定性数据。该项目将能够比较研究结果，并有可能提供方法学上的见解。PI将与她所在机构的导师和顾问委员会合作，他们在机器学习、自然语言处理、深度学习算法以及建立可信赖的系统以促进可解释性、公平性和问责制方面拥有广泛的专业知识。外部顾问委员会还将包括在智能设计导师以及个人和团队认知方面具有专业知识的个人。研究、相关的演讲以及与顾问委员会的互动旨在为教育背景下的团队认知提供基础知识。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。

As society becomes increasingly globalized, STEM graduates are increasingly called upon to work with individuals from different cultures and backgrounds. Thus, organizations and governments expect STEM graduates to contribute as productive members and leaders of intercultural teams. This project is designed to conduct fundamental research on team cognition, an important component of teamwork training. Team cognition refers to the knowledge, interactions, and processes essential to effective team functioning. This project aims to examine intercultural team cognition specifically within computationally-intensive fields and, in the process, further develop the principal investigator’s STEM education research expertise. The project is supported by NSF's EHR Core Research Building Capacity in STEM Education Research (ECR: BCSER) program, which is designed to build investigators’ capacity to carry out high-quality STEM education research.The mixed-method project will be based on data gathered through student reflections, video recordings of teamwork, a series of validated survey items, and semi-structured interviews from students enrolled in computationally-intensive courses that entail semester-long team projects. Three specific objectives guide this project. First is to develop the principal investigator’s STEM education research skills and expertise relating to artificial intelligence enabled methods of analysis. Second is to carry out a fundamental STEM education research project that will examine the ways undergraduate students experience intercultural team cognition in the context of solving computational challenges. Third, and finally, is to engage in phenomenographic research that employs both traditional coding methods and artificial intelligence-augmented techniques to analyze qualitative data. The project will enable comparisons of findings and has the potential to provide methodological insights. The PI will work with a mentor and advisory board from her institution that have extensive expertise in machine learning, natural language processing, deep learning algorithms, and building trustworthy systems that facilitate explainability, fairness, and accountability. An external advisory board will also include individuals with expertise in intelligent design tutors as well as individual and team cognition. The research, associated presentations, and interaction with the advisory boards aim to contribute to the fundamental knowledge about team cognition in an educational context.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.