Building professional capital in elementary science teaching through a district-wide networked improvement community model

该项目将重点关注专业学习的网络改进社区（NIC）模型，该模型将K-5科学教学从传统方法转变为下一代科学标准中概述的三维设计。做出这种转变的需要源于学区决定解决科学方面的不平等问题，因为一些学校在小学阶段只提供很少甚至不提供科学教学。NIC模式将借鉴学校人员和大学合作伙伴的专业知识，以确保学生在早期年级每天都能获得并受益于真实的基于模型的探究。这种模式通过针对专业学习的设计和实质及其在区域内的组织，平衡与现有系统基础设施的整合，并根据理论驱动的实践转变系统，来迎接规模和可持续性的挑战。为了让教师为这一重大变化做好准备，专业发展将从：(1)使用基于工具包的课程材料的培训转变为基于ngss的实践和工具的专业学习；(2)以独立实践者的身份进行合作研究教学；(3)集中力量进行分布式知识建设和领导；(4)将科学作为脱离语境的事实来学习，以深入接触现实世界的现象；(5)按照课程规定进行教学，注重响应式教学，建立学生的知识基础。NIC模型将通过一个多层次的、知识构建的、解决问题的系统，为整合和实施这些转变提供一条途径。这一体系将超越对提高学生对科学内容的理解的单一关注，纳入教学实践，提高学生对书面和口头科学语言的了解，以及对解释和论证的使用。通过NIC模式，该地区所有K-5小学生都将受益于严格和公平的科学学习方法。该项目将采用多层次的模式，包括大学教育工作者、研究人员和学区从业人员，共同定义对双方都有价值的实践问题。混合方法研究设计将检查NIC模型如何通过多次迭代的实现变化来发展专业资本。这些变化将通过短期和长期工具来捕捉。就短期而言，对变化敏感的实际措施，并直接与可管理的短期目标联系在一起，将为日常实时问题提供快速响应。这些措施将有助于评估具体的改进目标使用语言相关和有意义的研究人员和从业者。为了实现长期目标，深入的案例研究、访谈、观察、前后测试、调查和问卷调查将收集几个变量的数据，这些变量对于记录教师和学生水平的改进至关重要。这两组数据将产生关于雄心勃勃和公平的科学教学实践的知识，重点是学生的文化和语言资源和经验。通过这些途径，教师和学生作为积极的建设者和合作者，将在发展改进的学习和经验方面产生知识。结果将确定支持进步和可持续性的关键方面，阐明地区内的变化，以更好地了解什么有效，为谁有效，在什么条件下有效。研究结果还将用于为小学科学教学决策提供信息，并进一步完善基于公平的实践、资源和工具，以建立学生的知识基金，这对支持、维持和扩大该地区及其他地区所有学生的教育成果至关重要。探索研究K-12项目（DRK-12）旨在通过研究和开发创新资源、模型和工具，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。该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，为拟议的项目提供理论和实证证明。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 will focus on a networked improvement community (NIC) model of professional learning that shifts K-5 science instruction from traditional approaches to a three-dimensional design as outlined in the Next Generation Science Standards. The need to make this shift stems from the school district's decision to address inequities in science as some schools offer minimal to no science instruction during the elementary years. The NIC model will draw on expertise from school personnel and university partners to ensure that students will have access to and benefit from authentic model-based inquiry daily in the early grades. This model embraces the challenges of scale and sustainability by targeting the design and substance of professional learning and its organization within the district, balancing integration with existing system infrastructure, and shifting the system based on theory-driven practices. To prepare teachers for this major change, professional development will shift from: (1) training on the use of kit-based curricular materials to professional learning grounded in NGSS-inspired sets of practices and tools; (2) working as individual practitioners to teaching as collaborative investigations; (3) using centralized efforts to distributed knowledge-building and leadership; (4) learning science as decontextualized facts to deep engagement with real-world phenomena; and (5) teaching lessons as prescribed by curriculum to a focus on responsive teaching and building on students' funds of knowledge. The NIC model will provide a pathway for integrating and implementing these shifts via a multilevel, knowledge-building, problem-solving system. This system will go beyond a single focus on improving students' understanding of science content to incorporating teaching practices that advances knowledge about student's written and spoken scientific language and use of explanations and arguments. Through the NIC model all K-5 elementary students in the district will benefit from a rigorous and equitable approach to science learning. This project will feature a multi-level model involving university educators and researchers and school district practitioners in an effort to co-defined problems of practice valuable to both parties. A mixed methods research design will examine how the NIC model develops professional capital through changes in implementation over multiple iterations. These changes will be captured through short and long-term instruments. Regarding the shorter term, practical measures sensitive to change and directly tied to small manageable, short-term goals will provide quick responses to everyday real-time questions. These measures will help assess specific improvement goals using language relevant and meaningful to researchers and practitioners. For longer term goals, in-depth case studies, interviews, observations, pre-posttests, surveys, and questionnaires will collect data on several variables critical to documenting improvements at the teacher and student levels. Both sets of data will generate knowledge about ambitious and equitable science teaching practices with a focus on students' cultural and linguistic resources and experiences. Through such pathways, knowledge will be generated on teachers' and students' growth as active builders and collaborators in the development of improved learning and experiences. The outcomes will identify critical facets that support advances and sustainability that illuminate variations within the district to better understand what works, for whom, and under what conditions. the research findings will also be used to inform decision making about teaching science at the elementary grades and to further refine equity-based practices, resources, and tools for building on students' funds of knowledge vital to supporting, sustaining, and scaling educational outcomes for all students in the district and beyond. 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. Projects in this program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justifications for proposed projects.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.