Investigating how combining intensive professional development and modest support affects rural, elementary teachers’ science and engineering practice

调查集约型专业发展和适度支持相结合如何影响农村小学教师的科学和工程实践

• 批准号: 2201249
• 负责人: Ryan Summers
• 金额: $ 295.54万
• 依托单位: University of North Dakota Main Campus
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-08-01 至 2026-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2201249&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Investigating; how; combining; intensive; professional

This study will investigate factors influencing teacher change after professional learning (PL) experiences and will examine the extent to which modest supports for science and engineering teaching in grades 3-5 sustain PL outcomes over the long term. One hundred eighty elementary teachers situated in small, rural school districts will be recruited for the study, bringing together 45 teachers from four states: North Dakota, California, Montana, and Wyoming. The teachers will participate in intensive online PL over the span of 5 days. After completing the initial PL, teachers will engage in modest electronic supports including a half-day refresher session the year after the initial PL, virtual meetings, social media connections among participating teachers, and access to archived Webinars on a range of topics related to teaching elementary school science. Modest support for replacement of consumable supplies needed for hands-on classroom engineering tasks will also be provided. The project will examine the extent to which these modest supports individually and collectively foster the sustainability of PL outcomes in terms of increases in instructional time devoted to science, teacher self-efficacy in science, and teacher use of reform-oriented instructional strategies aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards. The effects of contextual factors on sustainability of PL outcomes will also be investigated.This longitudinal study will address four research objectives: (1) assessing the extent to which an intense 5-day science and engineering PL event impacts teachers’ knowledge and self-efficacy in science; (2) observing the effectiveness of modest supports on teachers’ self-efficacy in science and engineering, on teachers’ use of inquiry-based instructional strategies, and on the sustainability of PL outcomes, including instructional time in science and engineering; (3) documenting the effectiveness of intense PL, followed by modest supports, on teachers’ capacities to deliver engineering instruction, and specifically their integration of engineering practices; and (4) capturing the outcomes of science and engineering instruction delivered by teachers after intense PL and modest supports, as shown by student achievement. The three-year mixed-methods research design will collect quantitative and qualitative data from multiple sources, including teacher surveys, teacher interviews, and classroom observations, plus measures of student learning. Quantitative data will be analyzed using hierarchical modeling to examine growth rates after the initial PL and the change in growth after the provision of modest supports. Qualitative data including instructional logs will be analyzed independently and together with the quantitative survey data for triangulation purposes. These data will be analyzed by individual teacher, by grade level, by school, by district, and by state. Together, these data will enable the project team to address the project's research objectives, which focus on the persistence of PL outcomes in science and engineering, the extent to which teachers make use of various supports and which supports are critical for attaining meaningful outcomes. 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 (RMTs). 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 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.

本研究将探讨教师专业学习（PL）的经验后变化的影响因素，并将研究在何种程度上适度支持科学和工程教学在3-5年级长期维持PL的成果。180名位于小的农村学区的小学教师将被招募参加这项研究，来自四个州的45名教师聚集在一起：北达科他州，加州，蒙大拿州和怀俄明州。教师将在5天的时间内参加密集的在线PL。完成初始PL后，教师将参与适度的电子支持，包括初始PL后一年的半天复习会议，虚拟会议，参与教师之间的社交媒体联系，以及访问与小学科学教学相关的一系列主题的存档网络研讨会。还将提供少量支持，以更换实际课堂工程任务所需的消耗品。该项目将研究在何种程度上这些适度的支持单独和集体促进PL成果的可持续性方面的教学时间专门用于科学，教师在科学的自我效能，教师使用改革为导向的教学策略与下一代科学标准。本纵向研究的目的有四个：（1）评估为期五天的理工科专业学习活动对教师科学知识和自我效能感的影响程度;（2）适度支持对理工科教师自我效能感、探究式教学策略的使用、（3）记录密集的PL的有效性，其次是适度的支持，对教师提供工程教学的能力，特别是他们的工程实践的整合;（4）通过学生的学习成绩来反映教师在强化的学习支持和适度的支持下所提供的科学和工程教学的成果。为期三年的混合方法研究设计将从多个来源收集定量和定性数据，包括教师调查，教师访谈和课堂观察，以及学生学习的措施。将使用分层模型分析定量数据，以检查初始PL后的增长率和提供适度支持后的增长变化。包括教学日志在内的定性数据将独立分析，并与定量调查数据一起进行三角测量。这些数据将按教师个人、年级、学校、地区和州进行分析。总之，这些数据将使项目团队能够解决该项目的研究目标，重点是PL成果在科学和工程中的持久性，教师在多大程度上利用各种支持，以及哪些支持对实现有意义的成果至关重要。探索研究K-12计划（DRK-12）旨在通过研究和开发创新资源，模型和工具（RMT），显着提高学前班学生和教师的科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）的学习和教学。DRK-12项目中的项目建立在STEM教育的基础研究以及为拟议项目提供理论和经验依据的先前研究和开发工作的基础上。该奖项反映了NSF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。