Collaborative Research: Extending and Investigating the Impact of the High School Model-Based Educational Resource

这个项目建立在开发和研究基于模型的教育资源(MBER)的工作线上，这是一个为期一年的高中生物学课程。在使用Mber的课堂上，建模是一种锚定练习，使探究与理解世界的目标联系在一起，帮助教师让学生参与一系列认知和社会活动，从而深入理解科学思想。这个项目将产生关于这种生物教学方法如何支持学生学习的严格的因果证据，以及关于如何支持高中教师改进他们的教学的基本信息。这笔资金还将提供资源，通过将地球科学标准纳入为期一年的序列，扩大和更新MBER，以反映不断变化的高中科学图景。本研究将解决一个一般性的研究问题：基于模式的教育资源(MBER)对高中生科学成就的影响是什么？影响这种影响的因素是什么？除了产生重要的研究成果外，该项目中修订和研究的材料将是开源的，教师和学校可以免费获得。探索研究K-12计划(DRK-12)旨在通过研究和开发教学创新，显著提高K-12学前班学生和教师在科学、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。这项研究解决了下一代课程材料研究中的一个重大空白。虽然人们开始认同教材在支持教师有效地让学生参与科学实践方面的重要性，但很少有经验证据支持这种说法。该项目的目标是通过整群随机试验研究MBER计划的影响，并扩大先前工作中建立的有效性和可行性的承诺。本研究将使用32名高中教师作为自己对照的实验设计，并在分析中使用多水平模型，从而提出因果关系主张。这项研究将通过项目级评估和国家科学测试来促进该领域对创新材料对学生学习的影响的了解。探索性研究问题将考察a)使用MBER计划如何发展教师对下一代科学标准的愿景，b)学生学习是如何通过材料实施的保真度来调节的，c)教师如何与专为他们的课堂环境而设计的材料进行互动，以及d)MBER材料在多大程度上提供了公平的学习机会并缩小了成绩差距。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project builds on a line of work that has developed and studied the Model Based Educational Resource (MBER), a year-long curriculum for high school biology. In classrooms using MBER, modeling serves as an anchoring practice that keeps the inquiry tied to the goal of making sense of the world, helping teachers to engage their students in a range of cognitive and social activities that lead to deep understanding of scientific ideas. This project will generate rigorous causal evidence on how this approach to biology teaching and learning can support student learning, and foundational information on how to support high school teachers in improving their teaching. This funding will also provide resources to expand and update MBER to reflect the changing high school science landscape by integrating Earth Science standards into the year long sequence. The study will address the general research question: What is the impact of the Model Based Educational Resource (MBER) on high school students' science achievement, and what factors influence that impact? In addition to generating important research findings, the materials revised and studied in this project will be open-source and freely available to teachers and schools. 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 instructional innovations. 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 study addresses a significant gap in the research on next generation curriculum materials. While there is emerging agreement about the importance of instructional materials in supporting teachers in effectively engaging students in the practices of science, there is very little empirical evidence to support such claims. The goal of this project is to study the impact of the MBER program through a cluster randomized trial and expand the promise of efficacy and feasibility established in previous work. This study will be able to make causal claims by using an experimental design in which 32 high school teachers serve as their own controls, and by using multi-level modeling in the analysis. This study will advance the field's knowledge about the impact of innovative materials on student learning, measured by both project-level assessments and the state science test. Exploratory research questions will examine a) how using the MBER program develops teachers' vision of the Next Generation Science Standards, b) how student learning is mediated by the fidelity of implementation of the materials, c) how teachers interact with materials designed to be modified for their classroom context, and d) to what extent the MBER materials provide equitable opportunities to learn and close achievement gaps.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.