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），显着提高学前班学生和教师的科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）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工作的基础上，这些研究和开发工作为拟议项目提供了理论和经验依据。该提案，生物图谱2.0 -高中生物教师关于复杂系统的教学和学习的在线专业发展，将开发和测试高中生物教师的开放式在线专业发展系统，以建立关于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。在线教师专业发展（PD）将通过edX开放访问平台提供。本研究项目将包括两个周期的专业发展经验的设计和开发。它将包括混合的方法和纵向检查教师和学生的学习促进专业发展。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，通过采用协方差多变量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替代专业发展经验进行比较，该经验与项目的专业发展类似，但不包括协作设计。其主要目标是开发和测试一个开放的在线专业发展系统（PD），其中包括教师在线PD中已知挑战的解决方案。该项目建立在先前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，以评估PD在提高教师内容知识和技能，课堂实践和教学变化，学生课程参与和学生成绩方面的有效性，最终目标是更好地了解促进在线PD的因素，并创建低成本可扩展的在线版本原始NSF资助的BioGraph。这项研究将产生见解和指导方针，可以立即纳入在线专业发展和在线教育的新兴领域。内容的目标是建立教学能力的复杂系统的教学，并支持这些能力在高中生物课堂的应用。

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.