Comparing the Efficacy of Collaborative Professional Development Formats for Improving Student Outcomes of a Student-Teacher-Scientist Partnership Program

如今，美国的科学课堂越来越多地希望学生参与科学实践，以帮助他们更深入地理解学科核心思想和科学实践。要做到这一点，学生们应该学习科学家如何工作和沟通。它还呼吁改变教师教授科学的方式，这反过来又创造了对高质量专业发展的需求，以便他们能够在课堂上更有效地发挥作用。专业科学家也可以从培训中受益，让他们准备好支持教师，激励学生，并为学生示范科学家的思考和工作方式。通过协作专业发展培养教师和科学家，有助于最大限度地发挥他们对学生成绩的影响。为了产生最广泛的影响，这种专业发展应该具有成本效益，并向农村或服务不足地区的教师提供。本项目以高中生命科学(生物学)教师及其学生为研究对象。它将利用一个在线指导平台，这是一个于2005年建立的学生-教师-科学家合作计划。这项研究发现，与高质量、面对面协作的教师/科学家专业发展相结合的实施，对学生的成绩和态度产生了积极的、在统计上显著的影响，而不是以通常的方法教授相同的科学内容。该项目包括两个主要组成部分：1)重复研究，以确定先前成功研究的结果是否成立；以及2)增加一个向教师和科学家提供协作专业发展的在线形式，使人们能够比较在线专业发展和面对面专业发展交付模式在改善学生结果方面的有效性。本项目的目标是研究在线课程、学生的科学家指导以及教师和科学家导师的专业发展如何能够改善学生的结果。在这个项目中，教师和科学家导师将合作参与一个专业发展模块，该模块侧重于光合作用和细胞呼吸，是学生-教师-科学家伙伴关系的一个例子。教师将利用他们的培训向学生教授课程，学生通过在线平台接受科学家的指导。评估将考察这门课程、专业发展和科学家的指导是否会改善学生在科学内容和对科学家的态度上的成就。该项目将使用混合方法来探索面对面和在线职业发展之间疗效差异的潜在因素。该项目的一个重要组成部分是将面对面的专业发展与在线提供的专业发展进行比较，这可以更具成本效益，更容易为教师，特别是农村和服务不足地区的教师所接受。探索研究K-12计划(DRK-12)旨在通过研究和开发创新资源、模式和工具，显著提高K-12学龄前学生和教师在科学、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工作的基础上，这些研究和开发工作为提议的项目提供了理论和经验证明。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。

Science classrooms in the U.S. today increasingly expect students to engage in the practices of science in a way that help them form a deeper understanding of disciplinary core ideas and the practices by which science is done. To do this, students should learn how scientists work and communicate. It also calls for changes in how teachers teach science, which in turn creates a need for high-quality professional development so they can be more effective in the classroom. Professional scientists can also benefit from training preparing them to support teachers, motivate students, and model for students how scientists think and work. Preparing teachers and scientists through collaborative professional development can help maximize the impact they can have on student outcomes. To have the broadest impact, such professional development should be cost-effective and available to teachers in rural or underserved areas. This project focuses on high school life science (biology) teachers and their students. It will make use of an online mentoring platform, a student-teacher-scientist partnership program established in 2005. That study found that implementing in combination with high-quality, in-person collaborative teacher/scientist professional development resulted in positive and statistically significant effects on student achievement and attitudes versus business-as-usual methods of teaching the same science content. This project has two main components: 1) a replication study to determine if findings of the previous successful study hold true; and 2) adding an online format for delivering collaborative professional development to teachers and scientists enabling one to compare the effectiveness of online professional development and in-person professional development delivery formats for improving student outcomes.The goal of this project is to study how the integration of an online curriculum, scientist mentoring of students, and professional development for both teachers and scientist mentors can improve student outcomes. In this project, teachers and scientist mentors will engage collaboratively in a professional development module which focuses on photosynthesis and cellular respiration and is an example of a student-teacher-scientist partnership. Teachers will use their training to teach the curriculum to their students with students receiving mentoring from the scientists through an online platform. Evaluation will examine whether this curriculum, professional development, and mentoring by scientists will improve student achievement on science content and attitudes toward scientists. The project will use mixed-methods approaches to explore potential factors underlying efficacy differences between in-person and online professional development. An important component of this project is comparing in-person professional development to an online delivery of professional development, which can be more cost-effective and accessible by teachers, especially those in rural and underserved areas. 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 the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposedThis 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.