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

该项目建立在开发和研究基于模型的教育资源（MBER）的一系列工作的基础上，这是一项为期一年的高中生物学课程。在使用MBER的课堂中，建模作为一种锚定实践，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。该项目将提供严格的因果证据，证明这种生物教学方法如何支持学生学习，以及如何支持高中教师改进教学的基础信息。这笔资金还将为扩展和更新MBER提供资源，通过将地球科学标准整合到一年的序列中来反映不断变化的高中科学景观。本研究将探讨一个一般性的研究问题：基于模型的教育资源（MBER）对高中生科学成绩的影响是什么，影响这种影响的因素是什么？除了产生重要的研究成果外，本项目修订和研究的材料将是开源的，并免费提供给教师和学校。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pre -12学生和教师对科学、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，为拟议的项目提供了理论和实证依据。本研究填补了下一代课程教材研究的一个重大空白。尽管越来越多的人认同教学材料在帮助教师有效地吸引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。本项目的目标是通过随机分组试验研究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。本研究采用以32名高中教师为对照的实验设计，并在分析中采用多层次模型，将能够得出因果关系的主张。这项研究将通过项目级评估和国家科学测试来衡量创新材料对学生学习的影响，从而推进该领域的知识。探索性研究问题将检查a)如何使用MBER计划发展教师对下一代科学标准的愿景，b)如何通过材料实施的忠实度来调节学生的学习，c)教师如何与为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就差距。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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.