Developing STEM Achievement and Motivation: The Role of Spatial Skills and Parent-Child Interactions

培养 STEM 成就和动机：空间技能和亲子互动的作用

• 批准号: 1760144
• 负责人: Elizabeth Gunderson
• 金额: $ 243.49万
• 依托单位: Temple University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-04-01 至 2025-03-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1760144&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Developing; STEM; Achievement; Motivation; Role

STEM learning is crucial for a well-prepared workforce, yet many students do not reach their potential in STEM. The roots of these individual differences can be traced back to school entry. Spatial skills - mentally representing and manipulating spatial information - strongly predict STEM achievement, course-taking, and careers. By 1st grade, children vary widely in spatial skills, pointing to the home environment's crucial role. The proposed research, led by a team of researchers at Temple University, will investigate the impact of parent-child interactions on spatial skills among 1st and 2nd graders. Importantly, not only skill but motivation- perceived competence, enjoyment of challenges, and low anxiety - impacts children's STEM trajectories. Unfortunately research on parents' support for children's STEM skills and motivation has proceeded in parallel, despite evidence that they reinforce one another. Prior research is also limited by short-term outcomes, parent self-report measures, or non-causal designs. The proposed studies will use longitudinal and experimental methods to 1carry out the following. 1) Identify specific aspects of parent-child interactions that predict children's spatial skills and STEM learning and motivation. 2) Establish causal relations between parents' cognitive support and children's spatial skills and motivation. 3) Establish causal relations between parents' motivational support and children's spatial skills and motivation. The project is funded by the EHR Core Research (ECR) program, which supports work that advances the fundamental research literature on STEM learning. This project will empirically test an integrated model of parents' cognitive and motivational support for children's spatial skills and STEM achievement. Study 1 will use video data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development to test whether directly-observed parenting behaviors (cognitive and motivational support) during spatial activities in 1st grade predict children's STEM achievement and motivation through age 18. Studies 2a and 2b will test causal effects of parents' cognitive support on children's spatial and math skills and motivation via experimental parent-led spatial book-reading and spatial activity interventions. Study 3 will test the impact of increasing parents' motivational support on children's spatial and math skills and motivation. Investigating these factors in a single conceptual framework is crucial to understand whether they have additive, or possibly multiplicative, effects on children's development. For example, a parent who provides high motivational support may be more attuned to their child's level of skill, and therefore provide higher-quality cognitive support. Further, receiving both cognitive and motivational support may be especially impactful. Together, these studies will not only directly test the integrated theory of parents' cognitive and motivational support, but will have the added benefit of setting the foundation for larger parent-directed interventions aimed at improving all children's spatial skills and STEM achievement and motivation.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.

STEM 学习对于做好充分准备的劳动力来说至关重要，但许多学生并未发挥 STEM 的潜力。这些个体差异的根源可以追溯到入学时。空间技能——在心理上表达和操纵空间信息——强烈预测 STEM 成就、课程学习和职业。到一年级时，孩子们的空间技能差异很大，这表明家庭环境起着至关重要的作用。这项拟议的研究由天普大学的一组研究人员领导，将调查亲子互动对一年级和二年级学生空间技能的影响。重要的是，影响儿童 STEM 轨迹的不仅是技能，还有动机——感知能力、享受挑战和低焦虑。不幸的是，关于父母对孩子 STEM 技能和动机的支持的研究是同时进行的，尽管有证据表明它们是相互促进的。先前的研究还受到短期结果、家长自我报告措施或非因果设计的限制。拟议的研究将使用纵向和实验方法1进行以下工作。 1) 确定亲子互动的具体方面，以预测儿童的空间技能以及 STEM 学习和动机。 2）建立父母的认知支持与孩子的空间技能和动机之间的因果关系。 3）建立父母的动机支持与儿童的空间技能和动机之间的因果关系。该项目由 EHR 核心研究 (ECR) 计划资助，该计划支持推进 STEM 学习基础研究文献的工作。该项目将实证测试父母对儿童空间技能和 STEM 成就的认知和动机支持的综合模型。研究 1 将使用 NICHD 早期儿童保育和青少年发展研究的视频数据来测试一年级空间活动期间直接观察到的养育行为（认知和动机支持）是否可以预测儿童到 18 岁时的 STEM 成绩和动机。研究 2a 和2b 将通过家长主导的空间书籍阅读和空间活动干预实验来测试家长的认知支持对儿童的空间和数学技能和动机的因果影响。研究 3 将测试增加父母的动机支持对儿童的空间和数学技能和动机的影响。在单一概念框架中研究这些因素对于了解它们是否对儿童的发展具有加性或可能的乘性影响至关重要。例如，提供高动机支持的父母可能更适合孩子的技能水平，因此提供更高质量的认知支持。此外，接受认知和动机支持可能特别有影响力。总之，这些研究不仅将直接测试父母认知和动机支持的综合理论，而且还将具有为更大规模的家长主导干预措施奠定基础的额外好处，这些干预措施旨在提高所有儿童的空间技能以及 STEM 成就和动机。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。

项目成果

Verbal labels influence children's processing of decimal magnitudes

口头标签影响儿童对小数位数的处理

• DOI: 10.1016/j.appdev.2023.101537
• 发表时间: 2023-05
• 期刊: Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology
• 影响因子: 3
• 作者: Tian, Jing;Ren, Kexin;Gunderson, Elizabeth A.
• 通讯作者: Gunderson, Elizabeth A.

Fathers’ and mothers’ praise and spatial language during play with first graders: Patterns of interaction and relations to math achievement.

父亲和母亲在与一年级学生玩耍时的赞美和空间语言：互动模式以及与数学成绩的关系。

• DOI: 10.1037/dev0001410
• 发表时间: 2022-10
• 期刊: Developmental Psychology
• 影响因子: 4
• 作者: Ren, Kexin;Wang, Yiqiao;Weinraub, Marsha;Newcombe, Nora S.;Gunderson, Elizabeth A.
• 通讯作者: Gunderson, Elizabeth A.

Learning Improper Fractions with the Number Line and the Area Model

用数轴和面积模型学习假分数

• DOI: 10.1080/15248372.2021.1890603
• 发表时间: 2021-03
• 期刊: Journal of Cognition and Development
• 影响因子: 2.1
• 作者: Tian, Jing;Bartek, Victoria;Rahman, Maya Z.;Gunderson, Elizabeth A.
• 通讯作者: Gunderson, Elizabeth A.

“This is hard!” Children’s and parents’ talk about difficulty during dyadic interactions

“这很难！”孩子和父母谈论二元互动中的困难

• DOI: 10.1037/dev0001555
• 发表时间: 2023-07
• 期刊: Developmental Psychology
• 影响因子: 4
• 作者: Bennett;Weinraub, Marsha;Newcombe, Nora S.;Gunderson, Elizabeth A.
• 通讯作者: Gunderson, Elizabeth A.

Tracing the origins of the STEM gender gap: The contribution of childhood spatial skills

追踪 STEM 性别差距的根源：童年空间技能的贡献

• DOI: 10.1111/desc.13302
• 发表时间: 2023-03
• 期刊: Developmental Science
• 影响因子: 3.7
• 作者: Tian, Jing;Ren, Kexin;Newcombe, Nora S.;Weinraub, Marsha;Vandell, Deborah Lowe;Gunderson, Elizabeth A.
• 通讯作者: Gunderson, Elizabeth A.