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

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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.