Improving STEM program quality in out-of-school-time: Tool development and validation

被引:25
|
作者
Shah, Ashima Mathur [1 ,2 ]
Wylie, Caroline [3 ]
Gitomer, Drew [4 ]
Noam, Gil [1 ,2 ]
机构
[1] Harvard Med Sch, PEAR Inst Partnerships Educ & Resilience, 1075 Pleasant St, Belmont, MA 02478 USA
[2] McLean Hosp, 1075 Pleasant St, Belmont, MA 02478 USA
[3] Educ Testing Serv, Princeton, NJ 08541 USA
[4] Rutgers State Univ, Grad Sch Educ, New Brunswick, NJ USA
基金
美国国家科学基金会;
关键词
afterschool; informal science; observation tool; out-of-school time; quality assessment; STEM; validity and reliability study; TEACHERS; KNOWLEDGE;
D O I
10.1002/sce.21327
中图分类号
G40 [教育学];
学科分类号
040101 ; 120403 ;
摘要
In and out-of-school time (OST) experiences are viewed as complementary in contributing to students' interest, engagement, and performance in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). While tools exist to measure quality in general afterschool settings and others to measure structured science classroom experiences, there is a need for reliable measures of STEM program quality in OST settings such as afterschool programs, summer camps, and museum or science center programming. In this paper we present the development of the Dimensions of Success (DoS) tool, which defines twelve key components of informal, exploratory STEM programming that goes beyond the school day. Additionally, we present a validity argument that includes reliability evidence for the DoS tool based on two studies: Study 1 (n=284 observations) and Study 2 (n=56 observations). Our findings suggest that the coherence of the constructs and validity evidence, as well as the training and certification procedures in place for DoS, make it an important tool to understand the quality of STEM experiences for youth beyond the school day. A tool like DoS has several implications, including the ability to make national comparisons across programs, create aggregate databases, improve program quality and professional development, as well as to link program quality to student-level outcomes.
引用
收藏
页码:238 / 259
页数:22
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