Determining Teachers baseline practice and alignment prior to a systemic curriculum change

本研究的目的是在巴尔的摩市公立学校系统整合下一代科学标准（NGSS）之前记录当前的教学实践。在这项研究中，UMBC将与巴尔的摩市公立学校（城市学校）合作，在实施扩展的专业发展模型之前收集和记录教师的课堂实践，该模型以与下一代科学标准相关的教学技能为目标。该项目的总体目标是描述将受控实践教学作为教师专业发展的关键组成部分的优势和局限性，以将NGSS与中学科学课堂相结合。成功与否将以教师态度的改变、教师教学技巧的提高和学生的学习成果来衡量。巴尔的摩市的60名教师和4500多名学生将直接受到专业发展和课程制定工作的影响。作为该项目的全面合作伙伴，城市学校的领导也将了解在代表他们不同地区的学校中，什么是有效的，为谁有效，以及在什么条件下有效。所吸取的经验教训有可能为城市学校内外其他新改革举措的实施提供信息。本研究的结果有可能促进我们对创新专业发展策略及其对课堂实践和学生学习的影响的理解。该项目关注的是国家对高质量专业发展模式的需求，这些模式将具体策略与课堂教学变革和学生学习成果直接联系起来。课堂实践中的一个特殊转变是课堂实施NGSS的基础，那就是科学话语和论证。一种特殊的策略已经显示出支持教师使用支持论证的策略的希望，即使用受控实践教学。本研究明确尝试采用准实验设计来确定控制性实践教学的影响。研究计划包括将中等科学教师分配到两种实验条件之一（PD包括或不包括受控的实践教学成分），然后调查两种治疗和控制条件之间的潜在差异，这些差异与对NGSS的态度变化、课堂实践和对学生学习的影响有关。研究人员假设，与不包括控制实践成分的持续专业发展相比，包含在持续专业发展计划中的控制实践教学将更有效地促进与NGSS一致的教师教学技能的发展。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。

The goal of this research is to document current teaching practices prior to the systemic integration of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in Baltimore City Public schools. In this study, UMBC will collaborate with Baltimore City Public Schools (City Schools) to collect and document teacher classroom practices prior to the implementation of an extended professional development model that targets pedagogical skills associated with the Next Generation Science Standards. The broad objective of the project is to characterize the benefits and limitations of utilizing controlled practice-teaching as a key component of teacher professional development for integrating NGSS aligned practices in middle school science classrooms. Success will be measured by changes in teacher attitudes, enhancement of teacher pedagogical skills and student learning gains. Sixty teachers, and over 4,500 students in Baltimore City will be directly impacted through the professional development and curriculum enactment efforts proposed. As a full partner in the project, the City Schools' leadership will also learn what works, for whom, and under what conditions in schools that are representative of their diverse district. Lessons learned have the potential to inform the implementation of other new reform initiatives within City Schools and beyond. Findings from the proposed research have the potential to advance our understanding of innovative professional development strategies and their impact on classroom practices and student learning.This project focuses on a national need of models for high quality professional development that directly tie specific strategies to classroom-based instructional changes and student learning outcomes. One particular shift in classroom practice that is fundamental for the classroom implementation of NGSS is scientific discourse and argumentation. One particular strategy that has shown promise for supporting teachers' use of strategies supporting argumentation is the use of controlled practice teaching. The proposed study explicitly attempts to determine the impact of the controlled practice-teaching using a quasi-experimental design. The research plan involves middle science teachers being assigned to one of two experimental conditions (PD including or excluding a controlled practice-teaching component) and then to investigate potential differences among the two treatments and control conditions related to changes in attitudes toward NGSS, classroom practices and impact on student learning. The researcher hypothesizes that the inclusion of control-practice teaching that is imbedded in a sustained professional development program will promote the development of teacher pedagogical skills aligned with NGSS more effectively than sustained professional development that does not include a control-practice component.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.