Early development of specific skills can help students succeed in fields like Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Different education standards consider “Collaboration” as a required and necessary skill that can help students excel in these fields.
Nonye M. Alozie
SRI Author
Elementary Teacher Adaptations to Engineering Curricula to Leverage Student and Community Resources
This paper addresses an important consideration for promoting equitable engineering instruction: understanding how teachers contextualize curricular materials to draw upon student and community resources.
Automated student group collaboration assessment and recommendation system using individual role and behavioral cue
Early development of specific skills can help students succeed in fields like Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Different education standards consider “Collaboration” as a required and necessary skill that can help students excel in these fields.
Towards Explainable Student Group Collaboration Assessment Models Using Temporal Representations of Individual Student Role and Behavioral Cues
Abstract Collaboration is identified as a required and necessary skill for students to be successful in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). However, due to growing student population and limited teaching staff it is difficult for teachers to provide constructive feedback and instill collaborative skills using instructional methods. Development of simple and […]
Designing for Diversity Part 3. Implementation of the Equity and Inclusion Curriculum
In Designing for Diversity Part 1: Where is Equity and Inclusion in Curriculum Design?, we addressed the lack of equity and inclusivity in many curriculum materials and questioned whether established approaches to designing and implementing STEM+CS curricula were suitable to the diverse needs of students. In Designing for Diversity Part 2: The Equity and Inclusion Framework for Curriculum Design, we described The Equity and Inclusion Framework for Curriculum Design (EI-CD) approach for designing and modifying STEM+CS curriculum materials. We introduced two tools—the Equity and Inclusion Design Principles (EI Design Principles) and Equity and Inclusion Planning Guide (EI Planning Guide). They support the implementation of the EI-CD approach, a curriculum design and modification cycle that integrates equity and inclusion into curriculum design. The EI-CD approach encourages state and local education leaders, community stakeholders, student advocates, and other contributors to STEM+CS education to collaborate in building the cultural context into the design or modification of curriculum materials. In this paper, we provide suggestions for how state and local leaders can move towards transformation and change in curriculum use in schools and communities that serve students with diverse needs, strengths, and contributions to society.
Designing for Diversity Part 2. The Equity and Inclusion Framework for Curriculum Design
In Designing for Diversity Part 1, Where is Equity and Inclusion in Curriculum Design? we noted the lack of equity and inclusivity in the creation of widely disseminated curriculum materials. We asked the question: Are the established approaches to designing and implementing science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and computer science (STEM+CS) curricula suitable to the diverse needs of students? In this paper, we introduce The Equity and Inclusion Framework for Curriculum Design (EI-CD) approach and Equity and Inclusion Design Principles (EI Design Principles). The framework is guided by evidence-centered design (ECD) methods originally developed for formative assessment (Alozie et al., 2018) and the design of instructional materials (Fujii et al., 2020).
This paper describes how the EI-CD approach can be used to review and modify existing curriculum and instructional materials to meet equity and inclusivity goals. It is intended to help districts and schools work toward equity and inclusion within the constraints of their current curriculum. At its core, the EI-CD approach creates feedback loops that are grounded in EI Design Principles and aimed at continuously learning about and addressing the unique needs of students. The EI-CD approach makes equity and inclusion central tenets of the curriculum development and/or modification process.
Designing for Diversity Part 1. Where is Equity and Inclusion in Curriculum Design?
High-quality STEM+CS curricula should not only incorporate our most current standards; they should also be equitable and inclusive. Curricula do not exist in a vacuum; teachers interpret curricula based on their own frameworks, and students experience curricula through their own lenses. This human interaction with curricula means that issues of equity and inclusion must be addressed; without doing so, some people will have greater access than others. But how well suited are established approaches to informing, designing, and implementing STEM+CS curricula to the diverse needs of diverse students? This whitepaper series proposes a novel approach to designing and/or modifying instructional materials that address diversity by purposefully and systemically integrating equity and inclusion principles at the onset of curriculum design.
This paper, the first in a series of three, describes why current approaches to designing STEM+CS curricula are inadequate; defines diversity, equity, and inclusion in the context of curriculum design; and introduces The Equity and Inclusion Framework for Curriculum Design (EI-CD) approach for designing and adapting STEM+CS curriculum materials to meet the needs of diverse students. A second paper describes the EI-CD approach in detail, showing how the structure, coherence, and rigor of evidence-centered design is leveraged. The third and final paper explores how state and local education leaders can work with the EI-CD approach to make STEM+CS instruction more equitable and inclusive.
Promoting equity and inclusion in STEM curriculum design
We describe a principled approach to designing STEM curricular activities that puts equity and inclusion (EI) at the forefront of the design process from its instantiation to its development. We illustrate this process using insights from designing a curriculum unit aligned with the US Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and an EI framework focused on supporting student engagement and use of language. The process identifies helpful ways to articulate design guidance for instructional designers.
Automated collaboration assessment using behavioral analytics
The 21st century skills and STEM learning standards include collaboration as a necessary learning skill in K-12 science education. To support the development of collaboration skills among students, it is important to assess and support students’ proficiency in collaboration. We present the process of developing a tool that assesses collaboration quality based on behavioral communication at individual and group levels. The assessment tool uses behavior analytics comprised of multistage machine learning models built on an intricate collaboration conceptual model and coding scheme. Our collaboration conceptual model shows how layers of behavioral cues contribute to collaboration and serves as the foundation of an automated assessment tool for collaboration. We present initial findings that show reliability between our assessment of behavioral interactions with and without speech. An automated collaboration assessment tool will give teachers information about student collaboration and help inform instruction that will guide and support students’ collaboration skill development.
