Collaborative Research: SBP: Increasing Social Equality in STEM through Children's Structural Reasoning

合作研究：SBP：通过儿童的结构推理提高 STEM 中的社会平等

• 批准号: 2317713
• 负责人: Lin Bian
• 金额: $ 32.17万
• 依托单位: University of Chicago
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-01 至 2026-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2317713&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; SBP; Increasing; Social; Collaborative; Research; SBP; Increasing; Social

There are major gender and racial inequalities in who pursues Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) careers, and these disparities take root in early childhood. STEM inequalities are largely caused by structural factors, which are systemic societal barriers such as negative societal stereotypes and unequal educational opportunities. The present research addresses STEM inequalities by encouraging children to recognize structural constraints as a primary cause. A structural understanding may help children from disadvantaged groups realize that current inequalities do not reflect any deficiencies inherent about their groups and thus empower them to pursue STEM. Moreover, structural thinking may encourage children to include their marginalized peers in STEM activities. The proposed project thus tackles issues of STEM disparities by addressing three interrelated questions: (1) How to increase children’s structural reasoning about STEM inequalities? (2) Does structural reasoning increase children’s motivation to persist in STEM and to include marginalized children in STEM activities? (3) How can parents promote children’s structural reasoning and STEM motivation? Findings from this research will provide new insights on how to promote structural reasoning to increase STEM equality from early on, and will help to develop educational materials for educators and parents. The project also directly addresses STEM inequalities by including research training opportunities for students from underrepresented backgrounds in STEM. Using cognitive and behavioral experimental methods with 5- to 8-year-old children, the present research is a systematic investigation of structural reasoning in childhood and its behavioral consequences. Specifically, the research tests two approaches to promoting structural reasoning: (1) between-group comparisons that emphasize differential structural barriers between advantaged and disadvantaged groups, and (2) within-group comparisons that show that how the removal of structural barriers make a difference for the disadvantaged group. In addition, the research examines how increasing structural reasoning can have downstream consequences for children’s STEM motivation and inclusion of marginalized children. The project also informs the socialization of structural reasoning by examining the role of parents in transmitting structural information to children. The proposed research advances the field by applying theoretically-novel approaches to increase children’s structural reasoning about real-world inequalities. Additionally, by studying the effects of structural reasoning on STEM pursuits and inclusion, this research informs how structural reasoning can diversify STEM participation in childhood. Ultimately, this project can transform our understanding of the early-developing barriers underlying systemic inequalities in STEM.This project is also supported by the Racial Equity in STEM Education activity in the Directorate for STEM Education (EDU Racial Equity). This activity supports projects that advance racial equity in STEM education and workforce development through research and practice.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.

在追求科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）职业的主要性别和种族不平等现象，这些差异扎根于幼儿。 STEM不平等主要是由结构性因素引起的，这些因素是系统性的社会障碍，例如负面的社会刻板印象和不平等的教育机会。本研究通过鼓励儿童认识到结构性约束是主要原因，从而解决了茎不平等。结构上的理解可能会帮助受到干扰群体的儿童意识到目前的不平等并不能反映出他们群体固有的任何缺陷，从而赋予他们追求STEM的能力。此外，结构性思维可能会鼓励儿童将其边缘化的同龄人包括在STEM活动中。因此，拟议的项目通过解决三个相互关联的问题来解决茎差异问题：（1）如何增加儿童对STEM不平等现象的结构性推理？ （2）结构性推理是否会增加儿童在STEM中持续存在并在STEM活动中包括边缘化儿童的动机？ （3）父母如何促进孩子的结构推理和STEM动机？这项研究的结果将提供有关如何促进结构性推理以提高早期茎平等的新见解，并将有助于为教育工作者和父母开发教育材料。该项目还通过为STEM中代表性不足背景的学生提供研究培训机会，直接解决了STEM不平等现象。本研究使用5至8岁儿童的认知和行为实验方法，是对儿童期结构推理及其行为后果的系统研究。具体而言，该研究测试了促进结构推理的两种方法：（1）组间比较强调优势和弱势群体之间的差异结构障碍，以及（2）组内比较，这些比较表明，消除结构性障碍的去除是如何使灾难组的差异。此外，研究考试还增加了结构性推理如何对儿童的STEM动机和边缘化儿童纳入下游后果。该项目还通过检查父母在向孩子传输结构信息中的作用来告知结构推理的社会化。拟议的研究通过采用理论新颖方法来提高儿童对现实世界不平等的结构性推理，从而推进了该领域。此外，通过研究结构推理对茎追求和包容的影响，该研究信息如何使茎在儿童期的参与度多样化。最终，该项目可以改变我们对STEM中系统性不平等潜在障碍的早期发展障碍的理解。该项目还得到了STEM教育活动中STEM教育局（EDU种族资产）的STEM教育活动中种族平等的支持。这项活动支持通过研究和实践来提高STEM教育和劳动力发展种族平衡的项目。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优点和更广泛的影响评估标准来通过评估来支持的。