Early Emergence of Socioeconomic Disparities in Mathematical Understanding

数学理解中社会经济差异的早期出现

• 批准号: 1920545
• 负责人: Elizabeth Votruba-Drzal
• 金额: $ 210.83万
• 依托单位: University of Pittsburgh
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-09-01 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1920545&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Early; Emergence; Socioeconomic; Disparities; Mathematical

The math skills of children from high income families have grown faster than those of children from middle- or low-income families resulting in a significant and persistent gap. These disparities emerge in preschool and are larger by the start of kindergarten. As children progress through school, the gap in math skills persists or even widens. Importantly, SES-related disparities in math skills have implications for long-term academic achievement and educational attainment, as well as access to STEM education and professions in adulthood. As such, there is an urgent need to identify the factors shaping early math development before children start formal schooling. This investigation will provide foundational knowledge about the activities and interactions in the home environment that drive the early emergence of math skills disparities related to SES. In the long term, findings from this work could inform home visitation programs and early care and education curricula aimed at strengthening the early math skills of children living in low resourced communities. The knowledge generated by this study has the potential to enhance equity in access to STEM education and professions for all children. Using a longitudinal sequential study of two cohorts of socioeconomically diverse 30-month-olds (N = 320) and their parents, the proposed study will strengthen knowledge of the etiology of SES disparities in math skills by addressing three aims. First, it will examine associations between the home learning environment (HLE) and early math skills. Second, it will describe SES disparities in HLE and their implications for math learning. Third, it will test family stress and family culture as pathways through which SES shapes HLE and early math skills. Children will complete assessments of early math skills and other general cognitive abilities at age 30 months and again around 42-47 months. In addition to the child assessments at 30 months, in-home structured observations with a parent, parent surveys, and time diaries will measure the quantity and quality of children's opportunities for math learning at home. To measure family stress, parents will complete questionnaires assessing general stress as well as stress specifically related to performing and teaching math. To measure family culture, parents will complete questionnaires assessing their general and math-specific parenting beliefs and observations of family interactions will be conducted. This study will test whether domain-general and math-specific family stress and culture mediate the relation between HLE and SES. In sum, this study will make contributions to understanding the early emergence of economic disparities in early math skills. Theoretically, it will delineate whether domain-general or math-specific differences in HLE explain disparities in early math skills related to socioeconomic status. It will advance research by concurrently considering the roles of stress and culture in shaping disparities in children's opportunity to learn math in their early home environments. This project is funded by the EHR Core Research program, which emphasizes STEM education research that will generate foundational knowledge in the field.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.

来自高收入家庭的儿童的数学技能比中等或低收入家庭的儿童的数学技能更快，导致了很大的持续差距。这些差异在学前班出现，并且在幼儿园开始时就更大。随着孩子们在学校的进步，数学技能的差距持续甚至扩大。重要的是，与SES相关的数学技能差异对长期的学术成就和教育成就具有影响，以及在成年期获得STEM教育和专业的机会。因此，迫切需要在儿童开始正规教育之前确定塑造早期数学发展的因素。这项调查将为家庭环境中的活动和互动提供基本知识，以推动与SES相关的数学技能差异的早期出现。从长远来看，这项工作的发现可以为家庭探视计划以及早期的护理和教育课程提供信息，旨在增强居住在低资源社区中的儿童的早期数学技能。这项研究产生的知识有可能提高所有儿童获得STEM教育和专业的权益。 使用纵向顺序研究，对两种社会经济多样化的30个月大（n = 320）和他们的父母进行了纵向研究，拟议的研究将通过解决三个目标来增强数学技能中SES差异的病因。首先，它将研究家庭学习环境（HLE）和早期数学技能之间的关联。其次，它将描述HLE的SES差异及其对数学学习的影响。第三，它将测试家庭压力和家庭文化作为SES塑造HLE和早期数学技能的途径。儿童将在30个月中完成对早期数学技能和其他一般认知能力的评估，并在42-47个月左右再次评估。除了在30个月的儿童评估外，对父母，父母调查和时间日记的家庭结构化观察还将衡量儿童在家中数学学习机会的数量和质量。为了衡量家庭压力，父母将完成评估一般压力的问卷以及与表演和教学数学特别相关的压力。为了衡量家庭文化，父母将完成评估其一般和数学特定的育儿信念以及对家庭互动的观察的问卷。这项研究将测试领域将军和特定于数学的家庭压力和培养是否介导HLE和SES之间的关系。总而言之，这项研究将为了解早期数学技能中经济差异的早期出现做出贡献。从理论上讲，它将描述HLE的领域将军或特定于数学的差异解释与社会经济状况有关的早期数学技能差异。它将通过同时考虑压力和文化在塑造儿童在早期家庭环境中学习数学的机会中的作用来提高研究。该项目由EHR核心研究计划资助，该计划强调STEM教育研究将在该领域中产生基础知识。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子和更广泛影响的评估审查标准通过评估来获得支持的。