| NSF Org: |
DRL Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings (DRL) |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | August 12, 2015 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | May 26, 2020 |
| Award Number: | 1535460 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Mark Leddy
DRL Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings (DRL) EDU Directorate for STEM Education |
| Start Date: | September 1, 2015 |
| End Date: | August 31, 2021 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $499,830.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $499,830.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
1 LOMB MEMORIAL DR ROCHESTER NY US 14623-5603 (585)475-7987 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
NY US 14623-5604 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | Disabilities Research in STEM |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.076 |
ABSTRACT
This award is supported by the EHR Core Research (ECR) program, specifically the ECR Research in Disabilities Education (RDE) area of special interest. ECR emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that generates foundational knowledge in the field. Investments are made in critical areas that are essential, broad and enduring: STEM learning and STEM learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development. This research in disabilities education project will contribute to foundational knowledge about how deaf and hard-of-hearing undergraduate students, and their hearing peers, work together within science teams to solve problems. This research will contribute to the need to determine how to better educate students studying science in our country and about how they use their knowledge about statistics to solve problems. There are approximately 80,000 school-age children with hearing impairments in our nation's schools. There is a pressing need to ensure that when these students pursue college education, and advance in STEM careers, they have equal access to team work in science and mathematics education. Gaining a better understanding of how undergraduate students who are deaf and hard-of-hearing learn in team settings, and when they apply statistical knowledge to the science learning activities, has the potential to lead to further basic and applied research which may ultimately improve how these students learn science and how college faculty can improve their instructional practices to help students better learn science content, apply statistical knowledge to learning, and work together in STEM teams.
Project leaders at Rochester Institute of Technology's National Institute for the Deaf will investigate the effects of collaboration situation parameters (information, knowledge uncertainty, team member characteristics and technology) and schema enriched communication (training about communication and use of information boards for knowledge products) on the knowledge building processes (knowledge transfer, objects and interoperability, and cognitive congruence) evident in small groups of undergraduate students who apply statistics concepts to science problem solving. At the completion of the exploratory study, it is anticipated that results will inform future basic and applied educational research about how undergraduate teams, with deaf and hard-of-hearing members, solve science problems when they apply statistical knowledge. The results of this work are expected to be shared with education researchers and the public in professional publications.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
This study examined the effects of (a) schema-enriched communication and (b) computer-based messaging on the sharing of knowledge and problem solving in teams with deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) and typical hearing (TH) postsecondary students. The intervention and the measures of team knowledge sharing and problem solving used in this study were based on a theory called team knowledge building developed by organizational psychologists. Knowledge building is the process of teams engaging in the cognitive processes of effectively sharing teammates' expertise, integrating this knowledge, and achieving conceptual congruence that results in achieving an optimal solution to a complex problem. Knowledge building theory is highly pertinent to identifying key team cognitive processes.
In order to investigate the effects of schema-enriched communication (training in communication strategies and use of visual tools) and messaging on knowledge sharing and problem solving in three types of teams (All DHH; Mixed hearing status; and all TH), each of these types of teams underwent each of three treatments: (a) control; (b) enriched communication alone; or (c) enriched communication with messaging. Thus, there were nine combinations of type of team and treatment (e.g., DHH team that received enriched communication with messaging). The study tested seven teams for each of these combinations so that there were 63 teams total, with 21 teams with each type of hearing status (e.g., all DHH). Each of these teams had four participants, so there were 252 participants total. The accompanying photo shows teammates using a whiteboard, which was part of enriched communication, to share information during one of the experimental sessions.
Measures consisted of (a) shared written information, (b) creation of a matrix with information for solving the problem, (c) recognition of information shared by team members, and (d) quality of the team?s problem solution.
Enriched communication and messaging increased performance in teams. Enriched communication increased teams' sharing of written information, creation of a matrix, recognition of information shared by teammates, and quality of the problem solution in teams. Teams in the schema-enriched communication alone treatment were predicted to perform better on measures of knowledge building and problem solving than teams in the control treatment. Consistent with this prediction, TH, Mixed, and DHH teams that received enriched communication created more knowledge objects and retained more knowledge transferred from teammates and own role knowledge compared to control teams. TH and DHH teams in the enriched communication alone treatment also shared more written knowledge than those in the control treatment. Mixed teams in the enriched communication treatment alone did not increase use of writing compared to control teams because these teams used considerable writing in the control treatment. DHH teams, but not TH or Mixed teams, increased problem solving in the enriched communication alone compared to the control treatment. Messaging was also beneficial, particularly for the Mixed teams.
It is desirable to develop interventions to facilitate knowledge sharing and problem solving in teams with diverse characteristics, including teams with DHH and TH members in mainstream classrooms. The findings that schema-enriched communication and messaging increased teams' sharing of knowledge and problem-solving point to the potential application of these approaches for improving problem solving, participation, and learning in educational settings where teams with DHH and TH students, and possibly teams with teammates with other diverse characteristics, solve problems together. The interventions might also be useful in nonacademic settings, such where a team of DHH and TH employees work together.
In this study, the more effective approach was the simplest to implement: teach simple team communication rules and encourage use of tools, such as a whiteboard, that are universally available in classrooms. Messaging also has potential, but it needs further improvement for use in problem solving situations such as the one in this study. Messaging did not consistently improve the performance of teams with DHH teammates, relative to use of communication strategies and simple writing tools. This finding suggests limitations of current messaging technology, and the need for further improvements in the technology to facilitate communication in small group problem solving. Although messaging may make it easier for signing DHH and speaking TH teammates to quickly exchange knowledge with each other, and enable all teammates to view this knowledge that teammates are sharing, teammates were not able to designate information as important for future reference or place this important knowledge in a repository that teammates could quickly access during problem solving. Technology with features such as these, in addition to provision of messaging, might be more effective in problem solving situations such as the one used in this study.
Last Modified: 10/11/2021
Modified by: Michael S Stinson
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