Federal Grant Award Summary

The University of Wisconsin-Madison received a $1.0 million Project Grant from the National Science Foundation's Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings under the STEM Education program (CFDA 47.076), awarded October 1, 2025, with completion targeted for September 30, 2028. The grant funds the Quantitative Ethnography (QE) Institute, which will build research capacity among STEM education researchers by providing training and support in QE methodologies—a set of statistical, computational, and artificial intelligence-powered techniques that integrate qualitative and quantitative approaches to analyze learning process data. The institute addresses the critical need for educators and researchers to make sense of large amounts of data generated in technologically rich learning environments, including classroom interactions, collaborative problem-solving sessions, and interactions with AI pedagogical agents.

The institute will deliver intensive, year-long professional development experiences to three cohorts of 30 participants each, with the majority being early-career researchers. Services include support in developing pilot QE analyses, a week-long intensive training institute in QE theory and methods, and individual research consultations throughout the remainder of each participant's engagement year. This comprehensive capacity-building initiative is designed to enable participants to independently apply QE methods and subsequently train other researchers, thereby extending the impact of quantitative ethnography approaches across the STEM education research community.