New EDC Study on Closing STEM Education Opportunity Gaps for Spanish-Speaking Adult Learners

EDC has received a grant from the National Science Foundation to lead a collaborative research project focused on promoting successful STEM learning for Spanish-speaking adult learners.

Heather Lavigne (principal investigator) and Katrina Bledsoe (co-principal investigator) are collaborating with Complexly, the makers of the Crash Course series, to produce and study a STEM video miniseries for emergent multilingual learners.

Across the United States, there are significant STEM education opportunity gaps for emergent multilingual learners who have varying levels of English proficiency. This new collaborative research project is designed to identify strategies to address these gaps.

The EDC and Complexly team will conduct the following activities:

• Study new strategies to support the development of culturally responsive STEM video content
• Conduct research to investigate the promise of a new STEM video miniseries
• Share findings to advance knowledge of how to promote STEM proficiency and self-efficacy for emergent multilingual learners

“We are thrilled to collaborate with Complexly,” Lavigne said. “It’s exciting to embark on a study that will shed light on how adult learners engage with STEM videos. And I’m even more excited that we’ll be investigating new strategies to make sure that self-directed learning resources are appealing, educational, and meaningful for emergent multilingual learners.”