AI and Education Initiative 2024 Faculty Grant Award Recipients

PI: Leslie Dietiker, Ph.D., Associate Dean for Research and Associate Professor in Mathematics Education, Boston University Wheelock College of Education and Human Development
Co-PI: Meghan Riling, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of the Practice in Mathematics Education, Vanderbilt University Peabody College
Co-PI: Matthew Melville, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Mathematics Education, Purdue University Fort Wayne 

Project Summary: The project will explore the ways in which ChatGPT can support teachers planning, while addressing our concerns about the lack of inquiry and student-centered features of ChatGPT-generated mathematics lesson plans. The reserachers aim to build an investigative team to explore the potential of ChatGPT for supporting the design of high school mathematics lessons. As we collectively design and refine lessons using ChatGPT utilizing GPT-4 via https://chat.openai.com, we will examine:

1. How can high school mathematics teachers use ChatGPT to plan inquiry lessons?
2. What kinds of interactions (e.g., prompt engineering, feeding the AI new information) enable high school mathematics teachers to shift lesson designs toward inquiry?
3. What support do high school mathematics teachers need when planning with ChatGPT?

PI Bio: Leslie Dietiker, Ph.D., is the associate dean for research at Wheelock College of Education and Human Development and an associate professor of mathematics education. Her research focuses attention on the curricular perspectives of mathematics teachers and their use of mathematics curriculum materials. Dietiker is the recipient of the Boston University Metcalf Award for Excellence in Teaching. Dietiker is lead author and editor of multiple mathematics textbooks for middle and high school through CPM Educational Program. She is also a fellow of the International Society for the Design and Development of Education (ISDDE). Previously, Dr. Dietiker was a mathematics teacher in San Francisco’s Phillip and Sala Burton Academic High School for 17 years.

PI: Kathy MinHye Kim, Ph.D., Clinical Assistant Professor of TESOL & Applied Linguistics and Director of the Second Language Acquisition Lab, Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development
Co-PI: Dan Richard Isbell, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Second Language Studies, University of Hawaii at Manoa
Co-PI: Dan Nickolai, Ph.D., Associate Professor of French and Director of the Language Resource Center, Saint Louis University

Project Summary: The project aims to examine theoretical questions about first language (L1) and second language (L2) proficiency and native-speaker convergence by developing a platform called Multilingual, Autoscored Elicited Imitation Test (MultiAutoEIT). This is an open-access, online tool for measuring oral language proficiency across multiple languages. By enabling automated speech recognition (ASR) and autoscoring of the responses, MultiAutoEIT offers essential tools for researchers and educators to produce controlled stimuli for diverse linguistic research and educational contexts. Additionally, it can establish benchmarks for bilingual proficiency and explore bilingual development. The project also includes training for minor language speakers, emphasizing the inclusion of underrepresented groups in scientific fields.

PI Bio: Dr. Kathy MinHye Kim is a clinical assistant professor and director of the Language Education program at Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development. Dr. Kim’s work specializes in understanding how adult learners encode and retain second language (L2) knowledge. She examines how L2 learners develop implicit and explicit knowledge and factors that mediate their development; these factors include situational features (e.g., input modality), sleep conditions, and individual differences in cognitive (e.g., intelligence, working memory capacity) and biographical (e.g., education level and reading experiences) variables.

PI: TJ McKenna, Ph.D., Director of the Center for STEM Professional Learning at Scale and Lecturer in Science education, Boston University Wheelock College of Education and Human Development
Co-PI: William Tomlinson, Ph.D., Director, Software & Application Innovation Lab (SAIL), Boston University Hariri Institute for Computing
Co-PI: Arezoo Sadeghi, Senior Software Engineer, Software & Application Innovation Lab (SAIL), Boston University Hariri Institute for Computing

Project Summary: The project aims to empower under-resourced and marginalized communities who lack necessary resources for high-quality STEM curricula. The researchers will develop a STEM EquityCoach, a chatbot specifically trained to assist classroom teachers in customizing their STEM curricula. By leveraging the capabilities of OpenAI, this innovative tool will streamline the process of creating personalized STEM lessons. The solution is designed to address the pressing need for culturally relevant and inclusive STEM education, ensuring that every student, regardless of their background, has equal access to high-quality learning experiences.

PI Bio: Thomas “TJ” McKenna, Ph.D., is a lecturer in science education at BU Wheelock College of Education & Human Development. He has spent the past 20 years as a scientist, educator (formal and informal), on-air science communicator, and faculty member focused on uncovering what works well in STEM education and how we can improve in scaling research and practice-based efforts. McKenna works at the nexus of policy, practice, and research in ways that deepen the understanding of how to make progress on the ecological problem of supporting teachers (preservice & in-service) in their efforts to offer high-quality science learning to all our students. He is also the founder and creator of Phenomena for NGSS, an educational website designed to support teachers in learning more about phenomena-based instruction.

PI:  Zachary (Zach) Rossetti, Ph.D.,Associate Professor of Special Education, Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development 
Co-PI: Manuel (Manny) Ramirez, Ph.D. student in Educational Studies with a specialization in special education, Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development 

Project Summary: This study will develop and pilot a protocol for using and teaching generative artificial intelligence (AI) to engage in comprehensible and culturally responsive translation work to address persistent problems of language access for culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) families navigating the special education system. The project will employ a community-based participatory research (CBPR) design (Minkler & Wallerstein, 2011) to center the expertise of multilingual, multicultural families in developing a protocol for using and teaching AI to conduct comprehensible and culturally responsive translation and information dissemination in special education. The researchers will a) develop the protocol with an Advisory Group of five Spanish-speaking caregivers of children with disabilities, and b) pilot the protocol with a second Advisory Group of five Vietnamese caregivers of children with disabilities.

PI Bio: Zachary Rossetti, Ph.D., is an associate professor of special education at BU Wheelock College of Education & Human Development. Dr. Rossetti’s research focuses on the experiences of families with children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) by centering on participation and language access in IEP meetings, family-professional partnerships of culturally and linguistically diverse families, family advocacy, community participation, and sibling roles and relationships. His research also examines social inclusion and belonging of individuals with IDD, specifically the contexts and dynamics of friendships and how educators and families can facilitate friendship opportunities between students with and without IDD. Central to all of his research is the context of inclusive education for students with IDD.