IERI/REC: Planning an Infrastructure to Support Ambitious Science for Urban School Children

这项规划拨款提案将审查最有可能帮助城市环境中的儿童成为更成功的“雄心勃勃”科学学习者的职业发展经验。为此，PIs将创建一个数据系统，详细说明教师的成长机会如何转化为儿童的学习结果。这项工作的模型从实际的课堂实践开始，然后检查学生的成长(由成绩测试分数定义)和导致学生成功学习的各种发展经验。具体地说，计划拨款包括改善和发展学生学习的新措施；制定专业发展经验的编码计划；改进和编纂个人投资促进计划现有的课堂实践分析计划；以及使用测试案例探索方法的可行性。小组总结：小组对研究的重要性和范围充满热情，并对提案中关于立法和改变概念的想法持特别有利的态度。小组提出的关切包括：鉴于18个月的时间框架，该项目非常雄心勃勃；该提案在方法和理论上都缺乏细节。然而，小组成员了解到，在规划授权中，一些概念化必然会有些含糊。另一个关注事项包括私人投资促进机构在其他研究项目中的承诺。分析：小组成员认为，这是一项规划拨款，有可能就教师专业发展和学生学习之间的联系产生重要的新措施和理解。私家侦探非常合格。尽管对该项目的雄心壮志和基本理论和方法的某些方面的模糊性表示担忧，但项目官员同意专家小组的观点，即这项规划拨款在提供对学校和那些对科学改革感兴趣的人有帮助的信息方面具有很大的前景。计划总监建议：根据小组审查中收到的评级、书面审查中的评论、小组讨论和上述分析，我建议将这项建议作为一项标准拨款，资助18个月，金额为278,504美元。

This planning grant proposal will examine the professional development experiences that are most likely to help children in urban settings to be more successful learners of "ambitious" science. To do so, the PIs will create a data system that allows for detailed articulation of the ways that teachers' opportunities for growth translate into learning outcomes for children. The model for the work begins with actual classroom practices, then examines student growth (defined by achievement test scores) and the kinds of development experiences that result in successful student learning. Specifically, the planning grant with refine and develop new measures of student learning; develop a coding scheme for professional development experiences; refine and codify the PIs existing scheme for analyzing classroom practice; and use test cases to explore the feasibility of the methodology.Panel Summary: The panel was enthusiastic about the importance and scope of the study and viewed the ideas about enactment and the conceptualization of change in the proposal particularly favorably. The concerns raised by the panel included: the project is very ambitious given the eighteen-month timeframe; and the proposal is short on detail in both methodology and theory. However, panelists understood that some of the conceptualizations would necessarily be somewhat vague in a planning grant.An additional concern included the commitment of the PIs in other research projects. Analysis: The panelists felt that this was a planning grant with potential to yield important new measures and understandings regarding links between teacher professional development and student learning. The PIs are highly qualified. In spite of concerns about the ambition of the project and the vagueness of some aspects of the underlying theory and methodology, the Program Officer agrees with the panel that this planning grant holds great promise for producing information that will be helpful to schools and those interested in science reform. However, the PIs should take care to address the concerns raised in the review in the submission of a full proposal.Program Director Recommendation: Based on the ratings received in the panel review, the comments contained in the written reviews, the panel discussion, and the analysis described above, I recommend that this proposal be funded for 18 months as a standard grant at the level of $278,504.