Research Infrastructure for the Development, Implementation, and Assessment of Mathematics Interventions at Scale: An Incubator Project

数学是STEM中许多主题的基础，通常被视为高级STEM追求的看门人。为了提高美国在STEM领域的全球竞争力，支持数学学习至关重要。尽管研究人员在数学学习方面有很有前途的创新，但对于研究人员来说，特别是那些资历较浅或来自较不特权机构的研究人员来说，测试和改进他们的创新并使有效的创新广泛地为教育工作者和学生所接受是一项挑战。需要基础设施来通过低成本、低障碍的工具将研究人员和教育工作者联系起来。这个中型研究基础设施孵化器项目的活动包括设计和规划一个“即插即用”的研究基础设施，使更多的研究人员能够开发、测试、扩展和分享具有支持数学学习潜力的创新。随着越来越多的研究人员能够在没有大量开销的情况下以以前不可能的方式进行研究，基础设施的能力将对数学教育研究领域产生革命性的影响。孵化器将支持以技术为重点的非营利组织Gooru、来自学习科学、数学教育、计算机科学、心理科学的研究人员以及一个由管理人员、教育工作者和教师代表组成的指导委员会之间的会议规划。该团队将制定保护学生隐私、审查研究人员申请、审查研究设计和材料、招募研究人员和学校参与者以及构建研究基础设施的技术和人力资源方面的协议草案。在这个项目中开发的材料将与更广泛的研究人员、教育工作者、教育领导者和研究生共享，以获得反馈。这些协议将用于向NSF提交一份中等规模的研究基础设施拨款，该拨款将全面开发工具和仪表板，为研究人员提供机会，配置他们的创新，使其在goooru Navigator中运行，识别并获得使用Navigator用户匿名数据的同意，以有效地验证他们的研究，并要求将他们的验证创新集成到goooru Navigator的开放平台中。作为该孵化器的一部分创建的材料将有助于研究人员对数据管理，隐私和研究实践伙伴关系等主题的理解，使其他人能够在进一步推进数学教育的基础上建立这项工作。最终目标是让参与研究的研究人员充分开发和测试的创新被教师应用，以改善数学教学和学习。该项目得到了比尔和梅林达·盖茨基金会、施密特期货和沃尔顿家族基金会的合作支持。该奖项部分由探索研究preK-12项目（DRK-12）共同资助，该项目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。

Mathematics is foundational to many topics in STEM and is often seen as a gatekeeper to advanced STEM pursuits. In order to increase the U.S.’s global competitiveness in STEM, it is crucial to support mathematics learning. Although there are promising innovations from researchers around mathematics learning, it is challenging for researchers, especially those who are junior or from less privileged institutions, to test and refine their innovations and make effective innovations broadly accessible to educators and students. Infrastructure is needed to connect researchers and educators through low-cost, low-barrier tools. The activities of this Mid-scale Research Infrastructure Incubator project include designing and planning a “plug and play” research infrastructure that allows greater numbers of researchers to develop, test, scale, and share innovations with potential to support mathematics learning. The infrastructure’s capabilities will be transformative for the field of mathematics education research, as more and more diverse researchers will be able to conduct studies in ways that were not previously possible without substantial overhead. The Incubator will support planning meetings among the technology-focused non-profit Gooru, researchers from the learning sciences, mathematics education, computer science, psychological science, and a panel of administrator, educator, and teacher representatives as a steering committee. This team will develop draft protocols for protecting student privacy, vetting researcher applications, vetting study designs and materials, recruiting researchers and school participants, and structuring both the technical and human resources side of the research infrastructure. The materials developed in this project will be shared with broader cohorts of researchers, educators, education leaders, and graduate students for feedback. These protocols will be used in submitting a Mid-Scale Research Infrastructure grant to NSF that would fully develop tools and dashboards to provide researchers with the opportunity to configure their innovations to operate in Gooru Navigator, identify and obtain consent for the use of anonymized data from Navigator users to efficiently validate their research, and request that their validated innovations be integrated into Gooru Navigator’s open platform. The materials created as part of this incubator will contribute to researchers' understanding of topics, such as data management, privacy, and research-practice partnerships, allowing others to build upon this work in further advancement of mathematics education. The ultimate goal is that the fully developed and tested innovations from the participating researchers be applied by teachers to improve mathematics instruction and learning.This project is supported through a partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Schmidt Futures, and the Walton Family Foundation. The award co-funded in part by the Discovery Research preK-12 program (DRK-12) which 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.