Supporting Large Scale Change in Science Education: Understanding Professional Development and Adoption Variation Related to the Revised Advanced Placement Curriculum (PD-RAP)

本提案利用目前正在进行的大学先修课程（AP）课程的重新设计，在大规模的自然实验中研究教师专业发展对学生成绩的影响。来自马萨诸塞大学波士顿分校、哈佛大学、密歇根大学和教育发展中心的研究人员正在进行一项准实验研究，以考察AP生物、化学和物理教师的专业发展经历，以确定1)教师与学校特征之间的关系以及教师选择的专业发展模式；2)各类教师选择的专业发展模式与学生成果的关系；3)在这种规模上提供各种形式的专业发展所遇到的挑战。除了支持大学理事会对AP教师专业发展的改进外，研究结果还有助于更好地理解专业发展与学生成绩之间的关系。本研究使用AP课程审核的现有背景，通过该背景，所有AP课程教师提交教学大纲、实验室调查描述、联系时间和教师背景信息，包括所访问的专业发展计划。提交审计报告的教师将使用“关注阶段问卷”和其他项目进行调查，以确定他们对AP科学重新设计的看法。在研究过程中，研究人员对2万多名教师的经历进行了调查。参加大学理事会和活跃AP在线教师社区（APoTC）进行的AP专业发展的教师将被调查他们的专业发展经验。40个案例研究使用访谈、详细的调查项目和他们教学中的人工制品提供了关于教师实施AP课程质量的信息。所有学生的AP考试分数将与教师联系起来，这些分数与教师专业发展经验之间的关系将使用多层次回归分析。本研究的发现对那些为科学教师提供专业发展的个人具有相当重要的意义。结果将告知大学理事会和其他直接为AP科学教师提供专业发展的机构，如何改变这种支持，以便更有效地支持教师。改善AP教师获得的支持有可能改善参加这些课程的学生的学习体验。此外，本研究将提供有关问题和挑战的信息，以提供大规模的专业发展的更广泛的受众专业发展提供者。随着下一代科学标准上线，这些信息将对政策制定者和从业者有用。

This proposal leverages the re-design of the Advanced Placement (AP) curricula currently under way to study the impact of teacher professional development on student achievement in a natural experiment at scale. Researchers from the University of Massachusetts Boston, Harvard University, the University of Michigan, and the Education Development Center, Inc are conducting a quasi-experimental research study to examine the professional development experienced by AP Biology, Chemistry and Physics teachers to determines 1) the relationship between teacher and school characteristics and the professional development patterns that teachers choose; 2) the relationship between the professional development patterns that various types of teachers choose and their students' outcomes; and 3) the challenges encountered in delivering various forms of professional development at this level of scale. In addition to supporting the improvment of professional development of AP teachers by the College Board, the findings contribute to a better understanding of the relationship between professional development and student achievement more generally.This study uses the existing context of the AP Course Audit by which all teachers of AP courses submit a syllabus, descriptions of laboratory investigations, and information regarding contact hours and the background of teachers, including the professional development programs accessed. The teachers who submit audits will be surveyed using the Stages of Concern Questionnaire together with other items to determine their perceptions of the AP Science redesign. The experiences of over 20,000 teachers are examined over the course of the study. Teachers who participate in AP professional development conducted by the College Board and the Active AP online Teacher Community (APoTC) will be surveyed about their professional development experiences. Case studies of 40 using interview, elaborated survey items, and artifacts from their teaching provide information about the quality of the teacher implementation of the AP course. Scores on the AP exams of all of the students will be linked to the teachers and the relationships among those scores and teacher professional development experiences analyzed using multi-level regression analyses.The findings from this study have considerable importance for those individuals who provide professional development for science teachers. The results will inform the College Board and others who provide professional development directly to AP science teachers about how that support needs to change in order to more effectively support teachers. Improving the support that AP teachers receive has the potential to improve the learning experiences of the students who participate in those classes. In addition, this study will provide information about issues and challenges to providing professional development at scale to a wider audience of professional development providers. As the Next Generation Science Standards come online, this information will be useful to policy makers and practitioners.