Multilingual Elementary School Students' Computer Science and STEM Learning through Robotics

摘要

As one of the fastest growing populations in the K-12 public school system, multilingual learners (MLs), particularly those from Hispanic and/or Latinx backgrounds, represent the future workforce of the nation [1, 2, 10, 12]. Yet, they are drastically underrepresented in STEM, including computer science (CS) fields and little is known about effective ways to teach computational skills to MLs at the elementary school level [1, 3, 5, 9]. This three-year collaborative project, funded by the National Science Foundation, aims to develop linguistically inclusive integrated computer science (CS) curricula using educational robotics for elementary students in grades 3-5. More specifically, in this project, we integrate CS with mathematics, science, and English language arts to extend all elementary students’ exposure to meaningful and relevant CS experiences [4, 8, 11]. The integrated units incorporate a range of linguistically inclusive pedagogical strategies and language scaffolds to engage MLs in language-rich CS experiences, provide them with equitable learning opportunities, and support their development of computational thinking skills. The units are designed using Predict-Run-Investigate-Modify-Make (PRIMM) and TIPP pedagogical frameworks [6, 7] to scaffold students’ learning of CT concepts and promote CS learning. The project will utilize a design-based research framework gathering classroom-based data, assessment data, and interviews with teachers and students. The central research questions explore how participation in the project influences elementary teachers’ CS teaching efficacy beliefs and identity positionings as teachers of CS and MLs. The research questions related to students include how the participation in the integrated units impacts students’ CS skills, views of computer scientists, and computer scientist identity. We are in the process of providing professional development programs for teachers. At the beginning and end of the PD program, we will gather data from participant teachers. In the following academic semester, the participant teachers will be expected to implement the curricular materials in their own classrooms. Prior and subsequent to the class implementations, the data will be collected from students to examine the effect of curricular units.