CAREER: Educative Learning Progressions as Tools for Teacher Development (ELEvATE)

这项研究的目的是提供一个“存在的证据”，证明为高中生物教师和他们的学生设计的教育性学习进度如何可以用来改善教学，从而提高学生的成绩。学习过程由一系列日益复杂的想法组成，这些想法旨在为特定科学主题或“大想法”的课程和评估发展提供指导。这项研究的重点是让学生了解自然选择的学习进程，旨在具有教育性；即提高教师对自然选择的理解，加深他们对为什么学生学习困难的理解。在基于探究的环境中，学习进度为教师提供了一个脚手架，帮助他们不仅预测学生的想法，还建议根据这些想法量身定做的教学策略。PI将与科罗拉多州一个大区不同学校的两所高中的大约12名生物教师合作，开展这一为期五年的研究项目，研究这种教育性的学习进程。这项研究将由三个研究问题指导：-学习进度参与如何影响教师设计教学体验的能力，以及识别和回应学生思维的能力？-教师的实践如何通过反复使用教育性学习进度来改变？-教师对学习进度的参与如何影响学生的学习？本项目关注两所学校的12名生物教师，在五年的时间里包括大约35节生物课，每节课约25名学生，总共约900名学生。该项目为教师在第一年的教学实践建立了基线数据，并通过对每位教师教授的每一节课学生的自然选择理解的事后评估来衡量学生的学习。在接下来的几年里，这项研究将使用多种方法跟踪和衡量教师在教授自然选择时课堂实践的变化。目的是观察教师教学实践的变化是否与学生学习进化论的变化有关。这项研究使用HLM来模拟每一年的学生成长，并使用教师内容和教学策略代码来预测学生的结果，为每位教师的成长建模。一个强大的咨询委员会指导这项研究的评估。这项研究之所以重要，是因为人们越来越关注学习进展的发展，以此作为制定标准、评估、课程和教学的指南。然而，到目前为止，还没有关于学习进步如何作为教学指南的密切研究，也没有关于以学习进步为中心的持续专业发展如何改善课堂实践和学生学习结果的密切研究。这项研究可以让该领域了解学生如何学习自然选择，以及教师如何来更有效地教授它。通过这些贡献，它还将为新课程材料的设计提供启示，并为重点、复杂和有效的专业发展提供指导。

The goal of this study is to produce an "existence proof" of how an educative learning progression designed for high school biology teachers and their students can be used to improve instruction, and as a consequence, improve student outcomes. A learning progression consists of sequences of increasingly sophisticated ideas intended as guides for curriculum and assessment development for a particular science topic or "big idea". The study focuses on a learning progression for student understanding of natural selection designed to be educative; that is, to improve teachers' understanding of natural selection and deepen their understanding of why it is difficult for students to learn. The learning progression serves as a scaffold for teachers in inquiry-based settings by helping them to anticipate not only the ideas that students have, but also suggest instructional strategies tailored to these ideas. The PI would partner with about 12 biology teachers in two high schools in diverse schools in a large Colorado district to conduct this five-year research project on this educative learning progression. This study will be guided by three research questions:-How does engagement with the learning progression impact teachers' ability to design instructional experiences, as well as recognize and respond to student thinking?-How do teachers' practices change over time through repeated use of the educative learning progression?-How does teachers' engagement with the learning progression impact student learning?This project focuses on 12 biology teachers at two schools, and includes about 35 biology classes over five years with about 25 students per class, for a total of about 900 students. The project establishes baseline data for teachers' instructional practice in Year 1, and measures student learning with a pre-post assessment of students' natural selection understanding for each class taught by each teacher. In the following years, the study would track and measure changes in teachers' classroom practices when teaching natural selection, using a multiple methods approach. The goal is to see whether changes in teachers' instructional practices are associated with changes in student learning about evolution. The study uses HLM to model student growth for each year, and models growth for each teacher using teacher content and instructional strategies codes to predict student outcomes. A strong advisory board guides the evaluation of this research.This study is important because of increasing interest in the development of learning progressions as guides for the development of standards, assessments, and curriculum and instruction. However, to date, there have been no close studies of how a learning progression can serve as a guide for instruction or how sustained professional development centered on a learning progression can improve classroom practice and student learning outcomes. This study can inform the field about how students learn natural selection, and how teachers may come to teach it more effectively. Through these contributions, it will also provide implications for the design of new curriculum materials and guidance for focused, sophisticated, and effective professional development.