A Team-Based Model for Co-Adapting Existing Middle-School Science Curricula for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Learners

今天的学校正在经历日益增长的文化和语言多样性，并面临着在学校科学和学生校外生活体验之间建立有意义的联系的挑战。中学是提供基础知识和鼓励学生对STEM职业感兴趣的关键时期。为了在这一关键时期对学习者产生最好的影响，科学教师需要改进的模式，以支持相关课程材料的开发和交付，以便更好地为课堂上的所有学生服务。由研究人员、教师以及学校和地区科学专家组成的高度支持的设计团队将共同调整现有的地区产生的科学单位，以整合与社会和文化相关的科学实践，并利用学生不同的文化和语言实践作为优势。这一系列研究将评估学生的影响，以及科学课程联合设计经验是否以及如何影响学校内部的教学和生产性合作。这个项目将为教师和研究员合作设计模式的发展提供基础知识。这项研究将集中在中学年级，并在德克萨斯州一个高度多样化的城市学区进行，那里44%的学生人口是新兴的双语者。在这个为期四年的项目中，合作设计团队将遵循基于设计的研究(DBR)模型，反复开发、实施、改进和测试旨在适应现有基于标准的6-8年级科学区课程单元的模型。该项目将支持两批6-8年级的教师使用级联方法共同适应多个科学单元。在第一年，12名第一组教师(每个年级四名)将共同设计、实施和完善每个年级的一个单元。在第二年，第一年的单元将作为样板，帮助12名额外教师中的2名(每个年级4名)共同设计第二套单元。在第三年，这两个组将修改以前设计的单元并调整更多的单元。在第四年，第一组教师将跟进脚手架的战略性减少，第二组教师将继续另一个共同设计周期。将收集多个定量和定性的数据来源，为共同设计周期的迭代发展提供信息，探索如何在课程设计和实施中利用学生的文化和语言实践，以及评估教师在课程调整过程中遇到的机会和限制。还将评估教师成果(对多样性教学科学的信念、课程开发能力和教学实践)和学生成果(科学学习和科学语言的使用)。由此产生的以理论为基础和经过实地测试的共同设计模式以及修订和测试的单元/课程计划、工具和战略将与有兴趣使这些资源适应其背景的学区和研究人员共享。该项目由美国国家科学基金会的探索研究预科-12(DRK-12)计划资助。DRK-12项目旨在通过研究和开发科学、技术、工程、数学和计算机科学(STEM)教育创新和方法的研究和开发，显著提高K-12年级学生和教师的科学、技术、工程、数学和计算机科学(STEM)的学习和教学。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。

Today’s schools are experiencing increasing cultural and linguistic diversity and facing the challenge of creating meaningful connections between school science and student lived experiences outside of school. Middle school is a critical time to provide fundamental knowledge and encourage interest in STEM careers. In order to best impact learners during this critical period, science teachers need improved models to support the development and delivery of relevant curriculum materials to better serve all students in their classrooms. Highly supported design teams consisting of researchers, teachers, and both school and district science specialists will co-adapt existing district-generated science units to integrate socially and culturally relevant science practices and draw on students' diverse cultural and language practices as strengths. This series of studies will evaluate student impact as well as if and how science curricular co-design experiences impact teaching and productive collaboration within the schools. This project will provide foundational knowledge for the development of a teacher-researcher co-design model.This study will focus on middle school grades and take place in a highly diverse urban school district in Texas in which 44% of the student population are emergent bilinguals. In this four-year project, the co-design teams will follow design-based research (DBR) models to iteratively develop, implement, refine, and test a model that aims to adapt existing standards-based, grades 6-8 science district curricular units. The project will support two cohorts of grades 6-8 teachers to co-adapt multiple science units using a cascade approach. In year 1, 12 cohort 1 teachers (four in each grade) will co-design, implement, and refine a unit per grade level. In year 2, the units from year 1 will be used as a model to help cohort 2 of 12 additional teachers (four in each grade) to co-design a second set of units. In year 3, both cohorts will revise the previously designed units and adapt additional units. In year 4, cohort 1 teachers will be followed up with the strategic decreasing of scaffolding, and cohort 2 teachers will continue another co-design cycle. Multiple quantitative and qualitative data sources will be collected to inform the iterative development of co-design cycles and explore ways to leverage students’ cultural and language practices in lesson design and implementation, as well as to assess opportunities and constraints teachers encounter during curriculum adaptation. Teacher outcomes (beliefs about teaching science for diversity, curriculum development capacity, and instructional practices) and student outcomes (science learning and use of science language) will also be assessed. The resulting theory-based and field-tested co-design model along with the revised and tested unit/lesson plans, tools and strategies will be shared with school districts and researchers interested in adapting these resources to their contexts. This project is funded by NSF’s Discovery Research PreK-12 (DRK-12) program. The DRK-12 program seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering, mathematics and computer science (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of STEM education innovations and approaches.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.