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

本研究的目标是产生一个“存在证明”的教育性学习进展设计的高中生物教师和他们的学生可以用来改善教学，并因此，提高学生的成绩。一个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”的课程和评估开发提供指导。这项研究的重点是学生理解自然选择的学习进展，旨在教育;也就是说，提高教师对自然选择的理解，加深他们对学生学习困难的原因的理解。 学习进展作为一个脚手架，教师在探究为基础的设置，帮助他们不仅预测学生的想法，但也建议教学策略，为这些想法量身定制。PI将与科罗拉多大区不同学校的两所高中的约12名生物教师合作，开展这项为期五年的教育学习进展研究项目。本研究将以三个研究问题为指导：-参与学习进程如何影响教师设计教学经验的能力，以及识别和回应学生的思维？通过反复使用教育性学习进展，教师的做法如何随着时间的推移而改变？教师对学习进程的参与如何影响学生的学习？该项目的重点是两所学校的12名生物教师，包括五年内约35个生物班，每班约25名学生，共约900名学生。该项目为教师在一年级的教学实践建立了基线数据，并通过对每位教师所教的每个班级的学生对自然选择的理解进行事前事后评估来衡量学生的学习情况。在接下来的几年里，这项研究将跟踪和测量教师在教授自然选择时课堂实践的变化，使用多种方法。其目的是为了了解教师教学实践的变化是否与学生学习进化论的变化有关。 该研究使用HLM来模拟学生每年的成长，并使用教师内容和教学策略代码来预测学生的成绩。一个强有力的咨询委员会指导这项研究的评估。这项研究是重要的，因为越来越多的兴趣在发展的学习进展作为指导发展的标准，评估，课程和教学。然而，到目前为止，还没有深入的研究如何学习进展可以作为指导教学或如何持续的专业发展为中心的学习进展可以提高课堂实践和学生的学习成果。这项研究可以告诉该领域的学生如何学习自然选择，以及教师如何更有效地教授它。通过这些贡献，它也将提供新的课程材料的设计和指导的重点，复杂和有效的专业发展的影响。

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.