Teacher Professional Learning to Support Student Motivational Competencies During Science Instruction

科学教师认为培养学生的学习动机是一个迫切的需要，但教师专业学习计划很少花时间来帮助教师理解和应用动机原则在他们的教学。该项目将汇集一个由研究人员和科学教师组成的多学科团队，以确定一套科学教师可以随时纳入其计划和教学的做法。 该项目将设计、开发和测试一种基于研究的专业学习方法，以帮助中学科学教师在科学教学过程中有效地支持和维持学生的动机能力。 该方法将包括使用材料解决学生的动机过程，以及如何支持他们，评估工具来衡量学生的动机能力，课程规划工具，教师自我评价的工具。转化为实践将包括承认学生的多样性，并考虑如何促进特定背景下的学科和动机知识在实践中的整合。该项目将侧重于中学科学课堂，因为这一时期是小学和中学科学学习之间的重要激励桥梁。该项目将加强对教师教学内容知识（PCK）的理解，因为它将有关支持科学动机能力的知识框定为PCK，而不是一般的教学知识。该项目由发现研究preK-12计划（DRK-12）资助，旨在通过研究和开发创新资源，模型和工具，显着提高preK-12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。 这个早期设计和开发项目将迭代开发和研究教师专业学习模型，帮助中学科学教师创建、修改和实施将对学生动机能力的支持与科学实践、交叉概念和学科核心理念整合在一起的教学。在科学课程标准中指定的想法。 一个设计为基础的研究方法将被用来开发和测试四个资源教师将使用明确包括注意学生的动机能力，在他们的课程规划工作。 这些资源将包括：1）关于学生动机过程的教育材料，以及如何支持他们的具体例子; 2）易于实施的学生评估工具，供教师衡量学生的动机能力; 3）将动机实践纳入科学课程计划的规划工具;以及4）教师自我评估工具。一个由教育研究人员组成的协作小组将与来自多个学区的科学教师合作，共同开发专业学习方法和资源。这个项目将有助于系统的变化，从一个隐性的教育学生的动机过程，一个明确的和有意的策略教师可以制定。 研究问题将集中在教师如何应对新开发的专业学习模式，以及学生如何应对通过实施该模式开发的教学。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

Science teachers identify fostering student motivation to learn as a pressing need, yet teacher professional learning programs rarely devote time to helping teachers understand and apply motivational principles in their instruction. This project will bring together a multi-disciplinary team of researchers and science teachers to identify a set of practices that science teachers can readily incorporate into their planning and instruction. The project will design, develop, and test a research-based professional learning approach to help middle school science teachers effectively support and sustain student motivational competencies during science instruction. The approach will include use of materials addressing student motivational processes and how to support them, evaluation tools to measure student motivational competencies, lesson planning tools, and instruments for teacher self-evaluation. The translation to practice will include recognition of student diversity and consider ways to facilitate context-specific integration of disciplinary and motivational knowledge in practice. The project will focus on middle school science classrooms because this period is an important motivational bridge between elementary and secondary science learning. This project will enhance understanding of teacher pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) in that it frames knowledge about supporting motivational competencies in science as PCK rather than general pedagogical knowledge. This project is funded by the Discovery Research preK-12 program (DRK-12) that 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 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 early stage design and development project will iteratively develop and study a model of teacher professional learning that will help middle school science teachers create, modify, and implement instruction that integrates support for students' motivational competencies with the science practices, crosscutting concepts, and disciplinary core ideas specified in science curriculum standards. A design-based research approach will be used to develop and test four resources teachers will use to explicitly include attention to student motivational competencies in their lesson planning efforts. The resources will include: 1) educational materials about students' motivational processes with concrete examples of how to support them; 2) easy-to-implement student evaluation tools for teachers to gauge students' motivational competencies; 3) planning tools to incorporate motivational practices into science lesson planning; and 4) instruments for teacher self-evaluation. A collaborative group of educational researchers will partner with science teachers from multiple school districts having diverse student populations to jointly develop the professional learning approach and resources. This project will contribute to systemic change by moving motivational processes from an implicit element of educating students, to an explicit and intentional set of strategies teachers can enact. Research questions will focus on how teachers respond to the newly developed professional learning model, and how students respond to instruction developed through implementing the model.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.