BioGraph 2.0 - Online Professional Development for High School Biology Teachers for Teaching and Learning About Complex Systems

探索研究K-12计划(DRK-12)旨在通过研究和开发创新资源、模型和工具(RMT)，显著提高K-12学龄前学生和教师在科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)方面的学习和教学。DRK-12计划中的项目建立在STEM教育的基础研究和先前的研究和开发努力的基础上，这些研究和开发工作为拟议的项目提供了理论和经验证明。这项名为Bioggraph 2.0--高中生物教师关于复杂系统的教与学的在线专业发展的提案将为高中生物教师开发和测试一个开放访问的在线专业发展系统，以建立关于复杂系统教学的教学能力，并支持这些能力在高中生物课堂上的应用。在线教师专业发展(PD)将通过edX开放获取平台交付。本研究项目将包括专业发展经验的设计和开发两个周期。它将包括混合方法和由专业发展促进的教师和学生学习的纵向考试。第一阶段的研究将是定性的，并将产生一系列案例研究，突出影响教师学习的互动的不同方面。在这一定性阶段之后，通过采用多元协方差分析和分层线性模型分析技术的实地研究，将设计和开发阶段的有效性与类似于项目专业发展但不包括协作设计的替代专业发展经验进行比较。广泛的目标是开发和测试一个开放访问的在线专业发展系统(PD)，其中包括针对教师在线PD中已知挑战的解决方案。该项目建立在之前由NSF资助的探索性项目的基础上。该项目将采用随机对照试验来评估PD在改善教师教学知识和技能、课堂实践和教学的变化、学生的课程参与度和学生成绩结果方面的有效性，最终目标是更好地了解是什么促进了在线PD，并创建了一个低成本、可扩展的、由NSF资助的原始Bioggraph的在线版本。这项研究将产生洞察力和指导方针，可以立即纳入在线专业发展的新兴领域，以及整个在线教育领域。内容目标是培养教授复杂系统的教学能力，并支持这些能力在高中生物课堂上的应用。

The Discovery Research K-12 program (DRK-12) seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of innovative resources, models and tools (RMTs). Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects. This proposal, BioGraph 2.0 - Online Professional Development for High School Biology Teachers for Teaching and Learning About Complex Systems, will develop and test an open-access, online system of professional development for high school biology teachers in order to build pedagogical competencies for teaching about complex systems and to support the application of those competencies in high school biology classrooms. The online teacher professional development (PD) will be delivered through the edX open access platform.This research project will include two cycles of design and development of the professional development experience. It will include mixed methods and a longitudinal examination of teacher and student learning fostered by professional development. The research for the first phase will be qualitative in nature and will result in a series of case studies that highlight different facets of the interactions that influence teachers' learning. Following this qualitative phase, through a field study that employs multivariate analysis of covariance and hierarchical linear models analytical techniques, the effectiveness of the design and development stages will be compared to an alternative professional development experience that is similar to the project's professional development but does not include collaborative design. The broad aim is to develop and test an open-access, online system of professional development (PD) that includes solutions for known challenges in teacher online PD. The project builds on a prior NSF-funded exploratory project. The project will employ a randomized control trial to assess the effectiveness of PD on improving teacher content knowledge and skills, changes in classroom practices and instruction, curriculum engagement by students and student achievement outcomes with an end goal to understand better what facilitates online PD and to create a low cost scalable and online version of the original NSF-funded BioGraph. This research will produce insights and guidelines that can immediately be incorporated into the emerging field of online professional development, and online education in general. The content goals are to build pedagogical competencies for teaching about complex systems and to support the application of those competencies in high school biology classrooms.