A Professional Development Model for High School Teachers to Adapt Curricula toward Students' Knowledges and Resources

该项目将教育研究人员、高中科学教师、研究科学家和以社区为基础的组织聚集在一起，共同设计团队，以修改科学课程材料，使之面向正义和社区。在伊利诺伊州两个区的教育研究人员和11名科学教师之间现有伙伴关系的基础上，项目小组将在3年的过程中进行课程分析和适应的周期。这些专业学习周期将发展与教学相关的内容专门知识，例如加深对当地相关科学现象的理解，以及社区参与的科学教学的基础设施。这种科学教学通过为学生提供机会来满足他们所在社区的需求，从而提供了进入科学的相关切入点，潜在地鼓励学生追求科学事业。每年，2250名学生将体验至少一个适应的单元，导致在项目的整个生命周期中，有超过6500个人与这样一个科学方向的人接触。此外，通过与科学部门合作3年来支持他们已经使用的材料的改编，教师将发展分析和改编课程的技能，超越项目的生命周期，影响到更多的学生。该项目将开发和传播框架、工具和样本调整单位，以支持全美类似的合作伙伴关系。这项研究将考察两个伊利诺伊州地区作为比较案例，战略性地选择，因为每个地点教师专业学习的杠杆和切入点的背景差异。这种意向结构能够收集关于教师和学生学习的专业学习共同设计方案的核心要素的有效性的经验支持。衡量的学习结果包括：(A)教师使用符合NGSS标准的科学教学方法的频率；(B)教师批判意识的发展；(C)教师在支持科学教学文化方面的自我效能；以及(D)学生对科学和批判科学机构的认识论。这项研究将阐明专业学习模型的变量和不变元素，提供理论上的概括性，告知该模型如何在其他背景下进行扩展。最后，这项研究将考察研究团队如何在内部和合作设计团队之间建立能力，以制定专业学习计划目标。这些分析将为在其他情况下建立和维持这种联合设计团队提供原则和建议。探索研究PREK-12计划(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-K-12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，为拟议的项目提供了理论和经验上的证明。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。

This project brings together education researchers, high school science teachers, research scientists, and community-based organizations as co-design teams to modify science curriculum materials to be justice- and community-oriented. Building on existing partnerships between education researchers and 11 science teachers in two districts in Illinois, project teams will engage in cycles of curriculum analysis and adaptation over the course of 3 years. These professional learning cycles will develop pedagogically relevant content expertise, such as deepened understanding of locally relevant science phenomena, as well as infrastructure for community-engaged science instruction. This kind of science instruction provides relevant entry points into science by providing opportunities for students to address their communities' needs, potentially encouraging students to pursue careers in science. Each year, 2,250 students will experience at least one adapted unit, resulting in over 6,500 individual encounters with such an orientation to science over the lifespan of the project. Moreover, by working with science departments for 3 years to support adaptations of the materials they already use, teachers will develop skills for analyzing and adapting curricula beyond the lifespan of the project, impacting additional cohorts of students. The project will develop and disseminate frameworks, tools, and sample adapted units to support similar partnerships across the US.This study will examine two Illinois districts as comparative cases, strategically selected because of the contextual variation in the levers and entry points for teacher professional learning at each site. This intentional structure enables collection of empirical support for the effectiveness of core elements of the professional learning co-design program on teacher and student learning. Measured learning outcomes include: (a) teachers' frequency of use of NGSS-aligned science pedagogies; (b) development of teachers' critical consciousness; (c) teachers' self-efficacy for culturally sustaining pedagogies in science; and (d) students' epistemologies for science and critical science agency. The research will illuminate variant and invariant elements of the professional learning model, providing theoretical generalizability informing how the model could scale in additional contexts. Finally, the study will examine how the research team builds capacity, both internally and amongst co-design teams, for enacting the professional learning program objectives. These analyses will provide principles and recommendations for establishing and sustaining such co-design teams in other contexts. The Discovery Research preK-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 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.