Over the project's five-year span, the collaboration will work directly with more than 4,000 students. The first year of the project is devoted to developing the intervention. Pilot testing and modifications will take place during the second and third year. A randomized control trial will be conducted in the fourth year. Analysis, further improvement of the intervention, and ultimate dissemination is scheduled for the fifth year.
Warschauer is excited about the potential to advance student engagement in computer science. “It is our intention to transform the teaching of computer science in Santa Ana and beyond. As a result of this grant, every fourth grade teacher in Santa Ana will have received training in teaching computational thinking, with a focus on the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse learners. We expect that our work on this grant will eventually lead to expansion of computational curriculum for grades five and beyond, with national impact.” Warschauer’s optimism is based in part on feedback he received from teachers and parents in response to an earlier grant from the National Science Foundation titled CONECTAR: Collaborative Network of Educators for Computational Thinking for All Research. “We’re getting tremendous feedback from teachers, and, through the teachers, from parents. They recognize that students might not have access to afterschool and summer programs that expose children to environments with the latest technology and STEM professionals. Changing the teaching of computational thinking in school can address these existing inequities.” Co-PIs and site leaders include:
For background on Warschauer’s research in the UCI School of Education, see information on the Digital Learning Lab. Comments are closed.
|
|
